An Assets-based Model to Improve Science, Technology, and Mathematics Baccalaureate Completion at a Hispanic-Serving Institution

该项目将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，通过支持高成就、低收入、有经济需求的学生在圣母湖大学留校和毕业。圣母湖大学是一所私立的拉美裔服务机构。在五年的时间里，这个项目将为20名正在攻读生物、化学、化学生物学、数学、生物数学和计算机信息系统与安全学士学位的全日制学生提供奖学金。将有两批奖学金获得者。学生将从服务于低收入学生的高中招生，并将从大学一年级开始获得奖学金，在攻读STEM学士学位期间，他们将获得总计长达四年的奖学金。圣母湖大学正在寻求帮助科学、技术和数学专业的学生弥合家庭/社区和学校之间的鸿沟，以奖学金的形式提供财政支持，并尽早和持续地纳入家庭。该项目将研究如何在大学与低收入学生的家庭/社区之间建立联系，以提高学生的留校率和毕业率。该项目旨在通过将奖学金与有效的支持活动联系起来，包括STEM生活社区、队列研讨会课程、多层次指导、同行辅导和职业咨询，提高学生在STEM领域的坚持性。此外，还将应用旨在加强学生家庭/社区力量的文化责任活动，包括虚拟互动、鼓励交流和家庭庆祝活动。由于圣母湖大学的学生在STEM领域的参与度偏低，因此该项目有可能扩大学生在这些领域的参与度，并了解队列建设、辅导、同伴辅导以及旨在让学生与家庭和社区保持联系的活动如何支持这些学生的留住和毕业。该项目的总体目标是提高STEM学位的完成率，并增强低收入、高成就、有经济需求的本科生的职业准备。本项目将有助于了解STEM学生的成功，以考察基于资产的、响应文化的方法对理解Latinx STEM学生文凭成功的影响。在对以学科为基础的教育研究、教学和学习、文化社区财富理论和基于资产的干预措施的文献进行全面回顾之后，本项目旨在回答以下问题：利用社会文化和家庭因素以及学术和学生支持活动如何影响学生毕业于STEM专业的可能性？将使用定量和定性的方法来检查心理社会结构(自我效能感、自我概念、归属感、家庭观念)以及它们在坚持、毕业和毕业后留在STEM的意图中所起的作用。关于学生成功倡议的大部分文献都集中在以白人为主的机构和/或大型公共机构。该项目将通过确定影响小规模群体和低收入大专学生的毅力和毕业率的战略，为STEM教育知识库作出贡献。通过有意在贫困高度集中的高中开展宣传和招聘，该项目将广泛影响在STEM中代表性不足的有学业天赋的低收入学生的充分参与。将对该项目进行评估，评估招收的学生总数、保留率、毕业率以及在STEM领域从事研究生教育或职业生涯的意向。研究结果将公布，并提供给希望采用类似方法的其他机构。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 at Our Lady of the Lake University, a private, Hispanic-serving institution. Over its five-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 20 unique full-time students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in Biology, Chemistry, Chemical Biology, Mathematics, Biomathematics, and Computer Information Systems and Security. There will be two cohorts of scholar recipients. Students will be recruited from high schools serving low-income students and will receive a scholarship starting their first year in college, for up to a total of four years as they pursue their STEM baccalaureate degree. Our Lady of the Lake University is seeking to help students majoring in science, technology and mathematics bridge the divide between home/community and school through financial support in the form of scholarships and early and ongoing inclusion of families. This project will examine how to bridge the connection between college and the home/community of low-income students for the purpose of improving students’ retention and graduation rates. The project aims to increase student persistence in STEM fields by linking scholarships with effective support activities, including a STEM Living Community, cohort seminar courses, multi-tiered mentoring, peer tutoring, and career counseling. Additionally, there will be the application of culturally responsible activities designed to build upon the strength of students' home/communities, including virtual interactions, encouraged communication, and family celebrations. Because Our Lady of Lake University has a high population of students underrepresented in their participation in STEM fields of study, this project has the potential to broaden participation in those fields and to learn how cohort building, mentoring, peer tutoring, and activities designed to keep students connected to their home and community will support retention and graduation of this student population.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion and increase career readiness of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. This project will contribute to the knowledge of STEM student success in examining the impact of an assets-based, culturally responsive approach toward understanding Latinx STEM student baccalaureate success. After a thorough review of the literature on discipline-based education research, teaching and learning, cultural community wealth theory, and assets-based interventions this project aims to answer the following question: How does leveraging socio-cultural and familial factors and academic and student support activities affect the likelihood that students will graduate in a STEM major? Quantitative and qualitative approaches will be used to examine psychosocial constructs (self-efficacy, self-concept, sense of belonging, family perceptions) and the role they play in persistence, graduation, and intent to remain in STEM after graduation. Much of the literature on student success initiatives centers on Predominantly White Institutions and/or large, public institutions. This project will contribute to the STEM education knowledge base by identifying strategies that affect persistence and graduation rates for minoritized groups and low-income post-secondary students. Through intentional outreach and recruitment in high schools with high concentrations of poverty, this project will broadly impact the full participation of academically talented low-income students that are underrepresented in STEM. This project will be evaluated assessing the total number of students enrolled, retention rates, graduation rates, and intent to pursue graduate education or professional careers in STEM fields. The results of the research will be published and made available to other institutions who wish to implement a similar approach. 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.