Enhancing Recruitment and Retention of Undergraduate Mathematics and Computer Science Scholars

该项目将通过支持有经济需求的高成就、低收入学生的留校和毕业，为国家对受过良好教育的科学家、数学家、工程师和技术人员的需求做出贡献。该项目将由库兹敦大学领导，这是一所位于宾夕法尼亚州农村的中型地区性综合性公立大学。在五年的时间里，该项目将为20名正在攻读数学、计算机科学和信息技术学士学位的独特的全日制学生提供奖学金。奖学金获得者将进入两批一年级学生，并获得最多四年的奖学金支持。该项目旨在通过将奖学金与有效的支持活动联系起来，如生活学习社区、教师和行业导师、本科生研究经验、研究生院和职业准备以及参加特定学科的会议，来提高学生在这些STEM领域的坚持性。该项目将在招收和留住学生方面产生重要的新知识，包括来自这些领域代表性不足群体的学者。这些信息可以促进国家对多样化的STEM专业劳动力的需求。该项目的总体目标是增加低收入、高成就、有经济需求的本科生的STEM学位毕业率。除了奖学金外，该项目还将为学者们提供一套支持服务，这些服务是通过以前的项目发展和完善的。该项目将扩展其先前的工作，解决研究文献中关于如何支持招收和留住数学、计算机科学和信息技术专业的低收入学生的空白，包括STEM中代表性不足的学生。将使用混合方法调查学者和教职员工对数学和计算机科学本科专业招生和留住过程中出现的路径和障碍的看法。知识生成活动还包括调查特定支持服务的不同有效性，包括生活学习社区、教员指导和有针对性的活动，以留住代表不足的学者与他们的同行相比。这一新知识有可能被转让并应用于其他规模相当的机构，这可能会进一步使该国的STEM劳动力多样化和加强。外部评估者将从上下文、投入、流程和产品的角度对项目进行评估。将通过期刊出版物、在区域和地方会议上的发言、大众媒体以及与当地教育机构的伙伴关系来传播项目成果。该项目由NSF的科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金项目资助，该项目旨在增加在STEM领域获得学位的低收入学术天才学生的数量。它还旨在改善未来STEM工作者的教育，并产生关于低收入学生的学业成功、留住、转移、毕业和学术/职业道路的知识。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project will contribute to the national need for well-educated scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need. The project will be led by Kutztown University, a mid-sized, regional, comprehensive public university in rural Pennsylvania. Over its five-year duration, the project will fund scholarships to 20 unique, full-time students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in mathematics, computer science, and information technology. Scholars will enter in two cohorts of first year students and receive up to four years of scholarship support. The project aims to increase student persistence in these STEM fields by linking scholarships with effective supporting activities such as a living-learning community, faculty and industry mentors, undergraduate research experiences, graduate school and career preparation, and participation in discipline-specific conferences. The project will generate important new knowledge on the recruitment and retention of students, including Scholars who are from groups under-represented in these fields. This information can advance the national need for a diverse STEM professional workforce. The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. In addition to scholarships, the project will provide Scholars with a suite of support services that have been developed and refined through previous projects. This project will extend its prior work by addressing gaps in the research literature on ways to support the recruitment and retention of low income students in mathematics, computer science, and information technology programs, including students from populations that are under-represented in STEM. Mixed methods will be used to investigate Scholar and faculty perspectives on the pathways and obstacles that occur in the recruitment and retention of mathematics and computer science undergraduate majors. The knowledge generation activities also include an investigation of the differential effectiveness of specific support services, including a living-learning community, faculty mentoring, and targeted events, on the retention of underrepresented Scholars in comparison to their peers. This new knowledge has the potential to be transferable and applicable at other institutions of comparable size, which could further diversify and strengthen the nation’s STEM workforce. An external evaluator will evaluate the project from the context, input, process, and product perspectives. Project findings will be disseminated through journal publications, presentations at regional and local conferences, mass media, and partnerships with local educational agencies. This project is funded by NSF’s Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics program, which seeks to increase the number of low-income academically talented students with demonstrated financial need who earn degrees in STEM fields. It also aims to improve the education of future STEM workers, and to generate knowledge about academic success, retention, transfer, graduation, and academic/career pathways of low-income students.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.