Empowerment of Undergraduate STEM Majors through Scholarships and Strengthening STEM Identity

该项目将有助于对受过良好教育的科学家，数学家，工程师和技术人员的国家需求，通过支持高成就，低收入学生的保留和毕业，证明在勒莫因欧文学院，一个私人的历史上的黑人学院的经济需要。 在为期五年的时间里，该项目将为四个队列中的22名独特学生提供长达四年的奖学金支持。 这些学者将攻读生物学、化学、计算机科学、信息技术和数学的学士学位。 虽然项目的总体目标是增加STEM毕业生的数量，但该项目的目标是增加化学和数学专业的学生数量。 在该项目的头两年，招聘将集中在以STEM为重点的高中的学生。 在第三年和第四年，招聘将集中在社区学院的学生。认识到需要提供更多的财政支持，该项目将为学者提供一套学术和课外活动，以支持他们的成功。 其中许多支持是通过HBCU-UP计划和Louis Stokes少数民族参与联盟计划的NSF支持开发的。该项目的目的是，这些活动将为学者提供一个支持生态系统，促进他们的STEM身份的成长和发展。 项目团队将调查培养STEM身份将增加学生对STEM的兴趣，保留，毕业和职业的假设。 基于以前对STEM身份的研究，该项目的研究部分包括随着学生在STEM专业的进步，对科学身份发展进行深入的纵向定性研究。 身份可以被定义为一个人如何看待自己，以及由于参加某些活动或团体或成为一个社区的成员而被其他人看待。 研究表明，一个强有力的积极STEM身份与成功追求STEM专业或职业相关。 通过跟踪学者们在大学期间的活动，研究结果有可能让我们深入了解STEM身份如何随着时间的推移而变化。该研究的目的是推进有关保留，学生的成功，转让，学术/职业途径，并在历史上的黑人学院和大学的背景下程度的实现相关的因素和/或活动的理解。 项目成果将通过大学网站、会议和STEM教育期刊上的出版物传播。 该项目由NSF的科学，技术，工程和数学奖学金计划资助，该计划旨在增加低收入学术人才的数量，这些学生表现出经济需求，并获得STEM领域的学位。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术成功，保留，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 Le Moyne-Owen College, a private Historically Black College. Over its five-year duration, the project will provide up to four-years of scholarship support to 22 unique students in four cohorts. The Scholars will pursue bachelor’s degrees in biology, chemistry, computer science, information technology, and mathematics. Although the overarching project goal is to increase the number of students who graduate in STEM, the project’s targeted goal is to increase the number of students majoring in chemistry and mathematics. In the project’s first two years, recruitment will focus on students from STEM-focused high schools. In years 3 and 4, recruitment will focus on students from community colleges. Recognizing the need to provide more than financial support, the project will provide the Scholars with a suite of academic and co-curricular activities to support their success. Many of these supports were developed through prior NSF support from the HBCU-UP program and the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation program. The project intends that these activities will provide the Scholars with a support ecosystem that will foster the growth and development of their STEM identities. The project team will investigate the hypothesis that fostering STEM identity will increase student interest, retention, graduation, and careers in STEM. Building on previous research on STEM identity, the research component of the project includes an in-depth longitudinal qualitative study of science identity development as students progress in their STEM major. Identity can be defined as how one views oneself and is viewed by others as a result of participation in certain activities or groups or becoming a member of a community. Research has shown that a strong positive STEM identity correlates with successful pursuit of a STEM major or career. By following the Scholars across their time in college, the research results have the potential to lead to insights about how STEM identity changes over time. The purpose of the research is to advance understanding about the factors and/or activities associated with retention, student success, transfer, academic/career pathways, and degree attainment within a historically black colleges and universities context. Project results will be disseminated through the University website, conferences, and publications in STEM education journals. 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.