Developing Future STEM Leaders in the Caribbean: Scholarships and Systemic Support for Graduate Students in Marine and Environmental Biology in the Virgin Islands

该项目将通过支持维尔京群岛大学（一所历史悠久的黑人大学）中表现出经济需求的高成就低收入学生的保留和毕业，为全国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。该项目为期五年，将为36名攻读海洋与环境科学硕士学位的全日制研究生提供为期两年的奖学金。入选的学者还将对加勒比地区的自然资源保护表现出兴趣。该项目旨在通过将奖学金与有效的支持活动（包括指导、研究经验、服务学习、外展项目、专业发展和参与学科特定会议）联系起来，提高学生在STEM领域的成功。通过分析招生、课程和课外活动的有效性，该项目将确定对低收入学生影响较大的做法，并加以调整，使其效果最大化。这些学者将进行具有区域意义的研究，与潜在雇主合作，并分享他们的研究成果。广泛传播该项目的研究结果可以使其成为研究生招生和支持服务的典范，为低收入，学术上有天赋的学生在大学和其他机构的其他项目提供服务。该项目的总体目标是提高有经济需求的低收入、高成就本科生的STEM学位完成率。该项目的具体目标是增加维尔京群岛居民在海洋和环境科学硕士项目中的招聘，调查改善学生学习的条件，促进成功的研究生就业，并分享知识以产生更广泛的影响。其他项目目标包括分析和改进招聘策略，以纳入维尔京群岛低收入学生，以及来自STEM领域代表性不足的人群的学生。该项目的范围还包括教师发展研讨会，以解决为低收入学生提供指导和建议的最佳做法，以及为学生提供专业发展培训和专业合作。潜在的结果包括增加招聘和毕业，以及成功的研究生就业学者。由维尔京群岛促进竞争研究计划（VI-EPSCoR）提供的外部评估人员将使用包括项目文件审查和利益相关者调查在内的方法对该项目进行评估。NSF S-STEM项目将通过与VI-EPSCoR项目的整合来加强本科恢复力教育研究，将大一学生与参与海洋和环境科学硕士项目的课外活动、服务学习项目和社区合作伙伴联系起来。该项目由美国国家科学基金会的科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金项目资助，旨在增加有经济需求的低收入学术天才学生在STEM领域获得学位的人数。它还旨在改善未来STEM工作者的教育，并为低收入学生提供有关学业成功、留校、转学、毕业和学术/职业道路的知识。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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 at the University of the Virgin Islands, a Historically Black University. Over its five-year duration, the project will provide two-year scholarships to thirty-six unique full-time graduate students who are pursuing a Master of Science in Marine and Environmental Science degree. The selected Scholars will also have a demonstrated interest in natural resource conservation in the Caribbean. The project aims to increase student success in STEM fields by linking scholarships with effective supporting activities, including mentoring, research experiences, service learning, outreach projects, professional development, and participation in discipline-specific conferences. By analyzing the effectiveness of student recruitment, curriculum, and co-curricular activities, the project will identify practices with high impact for low-income students and adapt them to maximize their effect. The Scholars will conduct research that has regional significance, partner with potential employers, and share their research results. Broad dissemination of the project’s findings can enable it to serve as a model for graduate student recruitment and support services of low income, academically talented students in other programs at the University and at other institutions.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. The specific goals of this project are to increase recruitment of Virgin Islanders in the master of marine and environmental sciences program, investigate conditions under which improved student learning occurs, promote successful post-graduate employment, and share the knowledge for broader impact. Additional project aims include analysis and improvement of recruitment strategies to include low income Virgin Island students, as well as students from populations that are under-represented in this STEM field. The scope of this project also includes faculty development workshops to address best practices for mentoring and advising of low-income students, as well as professional development training and professional partnering for the students. Potential outcomes include increased recruitment and graduation, and successful post-graduate employment of the Scholars. An external evaluator, provided by The Virgin Islands Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (VI-EPSCoR), will assess this project using an approach that includes project document review and stakeholder surveys. NSF S-STEM Program initiatives will be bolstered through integration with the VI-EPSCoR project on undergraduate resilience education research, connecting freshman-level UVI students with co-curricular activities, service-learning projects, and community partners involved in this master of marine and environmental sciences initiative. 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.