Preparing STEM Scholars for Transfer and the Workforce

该项目将通过支持西北康涅狄格社区学院(NCCC)有经济需求的高成就、低收入学生的留校和毕业，来促进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。该项目为期六年，将为35名正在攻读STEM专业副学士学位的全日制和非全日制学生提供奖学金。特别是，该方案将在项目的六年期间招收五批四名全日制学生和三批五名半日制学生，以通过奖学金解决未得到满足的经济需求，并提供一套学生支助服务系统。支持将包括学者队列、一名指定的STEM顾问、积极主动的建议、加强辅导、有指导的研究和实习、真实的STEM体验以及职业发展活动。此外，还将利用转移探索和访问机会，确保学生发展他们将需要的知识和技能，以及时完成副学士学位，并成功转移到学士学位课程或在STEM领域就业。一个创新的招生功能是为地区高中生免费申请联邦学生援助(FAFSA)研讨会的计划。该项目的进展和成果将传播给外部受众，包括高影响技术交流、美国大学和大学协会(AACU)STEM会议和全国生物教师协会年会。为了提高低收入、高成就、有经济需求的本科生的STEM学位毕业率，该项目将实现三个目标。首先是向STEM学生提供奖学金，以减少他们未得到满足的经济需求，从而使他们能够减少工作，把更多的时间花在学习上。第二，用丰富的经验和其他循证实践来支持这些学生，以促进学习和提高对学位的坚持性。第三是加强学生对转学和职业选择的了解，以提高转学到STEM课程的转化率和STEM职业安置率。来自严格的混合方法评估和教育研究计划的见解和结果将通过研究职业和转移探索的影响以及学生与他们的同龄人、顾问、教师研究和实习导师之间的互动，以及这些互动的影响，产生关于适应高影响力实践的新知识。这些调查路线将填补文献中的空白，并向其他寻求为传统和非传统学生提供全面支持服务的高等教育专业人员提供信息，特别是在社区大学。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 Northwestern Connecticut Community College (NCCC). Over its six-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to thirty-five (35) unique full-time and part-time students who are pursuing associate's degrees in STEM disciplines. In particular, the program will recruit five cohorts of four full-time students and three cohorts of five half-time students over the six-year duration of the project to address unmet financial need with scholarships as well as to provide a system of student-support services. Support will include scholar cohorts, a designated STEM counselor, proactive advising, enhanced tutoring, mentored research and internship real-world STEM experiences, and career development activities. In addition, transfer exploration and visitation opportunities will be used to ensure that students develop the knowledge and skills they will need to complete an associate's degree in a timely fashion and successfully transfer into a bachelor’s degree program or employment in a STEM field. An innovative recruiting feature is the plan for Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) workshops for area high school students. The progress and outcomes of this project will be disseminated to external audiences including the High-Impact Technology Exchange, the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACU) STEM Conference, and the National Association of Biology Teachers annual conferences.To increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need, the project will pursue three goals. First is to provide STEM students with scholarships to reduce their unmet financial need, thereby allowing them to work less and spend more time on their studies. Second is to support these students with enrichment experiences and other evidence-based practices shown to promote learning and increased persistence to degree attainment. Third is to enhance student knowledge of transfer and career options to generate an increase in transfer rate to STEM programs and an increase in the STEM career placement rate. Insights and outcomes from rigorous mixed-methods evaluation and an educational research program will generate new knowledge on adaptations of high-impact practices by studying the effects of career and transfer explorations as well as interactions between students and their cohorts, advisors, faculty research and internship mentors, and the impact of these interactions. These lines of investigation will address gaps in the literature and inform other higher-education professionals seeking to support traditional and non-traditional students with holistic support services, especially at community colleges. 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.