STEM Scholars: Boosting Persistence and Achievement in STEM for Community College Transfer Students

该项目将通过支持桑福德大学经证实有经济需求的高成就、低收入学生的留校和毕业，为该地区对科学家、数学家、工程师和技术人员的需求做出贡献。在为期五年的时间里，该项目将为27名不同的全日制转学学生提供奖学金，这些学生正在攻读生物、生物化学、化学、环境科学、海洋科学、数学和计算机科学的学士学位。这些学生每年将参加三个分组，每个奖学金获得者将获得两到三年的资助。该项目旨在通过将奖学金与有效的支持活动、学生服务、学术和职业指导以及暑期研究和实习准备联系起来，提高学生在STEM领域的坚持性。转到四年制院校的社区大学学生在第一学期的平均成绩往往会下降，并面临在没有完成学位的情况下离开的风险。这个项目将应用关于如何帮助学生认识和发展他们的学习优势的研究。此外，它还将评估增强这种自我意识是否有助于学术成功，以及是否通常是提高学位完成率的成功方法。从社区大学转学的学生中，有很大一部分来自低收入人群和其他在数学和科学方面代表性不足的人群。因此，该项目具有扩大STEM领域参与的巨大潜力，并了解更多关于指导、制定职业目标和培养学生对自身学习的意识如何提高转学学生对毕业的坚持性的更多信息。该项目的总体目标是提高低收入、高成就、经证实有经济需求的本科生的STEM学位完成率。它有五个具体目标：1)在桑福德大学和当地社区学院之间建立一个共享的STEM社区，并促进招收转学学生，包括从STEM中代表性不足的群体招生；2)利用桑福德大学现有的学生支持计划和服务，最大限度地留住学生并使其毕业；3)通过学习自律培训促进学生的学业成功；4)提高转学学生在桑福德第一学期的GPA，使其与社区学院的GPA更接近；以及5)利用现有的STEM基础课程，最大限度地增加进入STEM职业生涯或研究生教育的学生数量。许多转学学生，包括那些进入桑福德大学的学生，都在为转学后GPA的下降而苦苦挣扎，有时被称为“转学冲击”。为了缓解这一下降，该项目采用了三个阶段的“增强序列”经验，包括暑期元认知/职业发展研讨会、定向和迁移成功研讨会，以及第一学期的STEM课程，以加强编程或化学方面的准备。Boost序列旨在支持学习成绩和元认知技能的发展。Boost序列的影响将通过比较Scholars的迁移后GPA和元认知技能与可比的非Scholar同龄人进行评估。预计帮助学生掌握控制自己学习的技能将提高他们的学业成就(以GPA衡量)，并支持对毕业的坚持。项目成果将通过网站、出版物以及纪律和教育会议进行传播。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 regional need for scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with verified financial need at Samford University. Over its five-year duration, the project will fund scholarships to 27 different full-time transfer students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in biology, biochemistry, chemistry, environmental science, marine science, math, and computer science. The students will enter in three annual cohorts and each Scholar will receive two to three years of funding. The project aims to increase student persistence in STEM fields by linking scholarships with effective support activities, student services, academic and career mentoring, and preparation for summer research and internships. Community college students who transfer to four-year institutions often have a first-semester drop in average grades and are at risk for leaving for leaving without completing a degree. This project will apply research about how to help students recognize and develop their learning strengths. In addition, it will evaluate whether increasing such self-awareness can contribute to academic success and be a generally successful approach for increasing degree completion. A large percent of students who transfer from community colleges are from low income and other populations that are underrepresented in math and science. As a result, this project has significant potential to broaden participation in STEM fields and to learn more about how mentoring, framing career goals, and fostering student awareness of their own learning can increase transfer student persistence to graduation.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with verified financial need. There are five specific aims: 1) build on existing relationships to form a shared STEM community between Samford University and local community colleges, and to promote recruitment of transfer students, including from groups underrepresented in STEM; 2) leverage existing student support programs and services at Samford University to maximize student retention and graduation; 3) promote student academic success through training in self-regulation of learning; 4) increase transfer students’ first-semester GPA at Samford to be more similar to their community college GPA; and 5) employ an existing STEM foundations course on career building to maximize the number of students entering STEM careers or graduate education. Many transfer students, including those entering Samford University, struggle with a post-transfer decrease in GPA sometimes called “transfer shock.” To mitigate this decrease, the project features a three-stage “Boost Sequence” of experiences, including a summer metacognition/career development workshop, orientation, and transfer success seminar, and a first semester STEM course to strengthen preparation in programming or chemistry. The Boost Sequence is intended to support both academic performance and metacognitive skill development. The impact of the Boost Sequence will be evaluated by comparing post-transfer GPA and metacognitive skills of Scholars with comparable non-Scholar peers. It is expected that helping students gain skills to control their own learning will increase their academic success as measured by GPA and support persistence to graduation. Project results will be disseminated by website, in publications, and at disciplinary and educational conferences. 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.