Excelerate: Inspiring Excellence and Accelerating Achievement Through a STEM Scholars Program

该项目将通过支持密西西比海湾沿岸社区学院（Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College）有经济需要的高成就低收入学生的保留和毕业，为满足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。该计划为期6年，将资助115名修读生物科学、物理科学、数学/统计学、计算机与信息科学、工程及新兴科技领域副学士学位的全日制学生。一年级学生将获得最多两年的奖学金支持。该项目的目标是通过提供奖学金以及有效的支持活动，包括指导、学习社区、咨询、预警系统、电子作品集和夏季桥梁项目，提高学生在STEM领域的坚持度和完成度。该项目将改善STEM教育，并为参与STEM的学生群体提供更多学习STEM课程的机会，这些学生在总人口中的比例低于他们的比例。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。该项目将调查学生如何从课外策略中受益，如同侪指导、暑期桥梁项目、课外支持和早期预警系统等其他策略。该项目有可能促进对这些干预措施如何促进STEM学科中不同群体学生的坚持和完成率的理解。将采用定量和定性措施来确定项目成果及其有效和可复制的程度。期末调查和学生进度报告将构成形成性评估的基础。该项目的成果将通过公共网页、在区域会议上的介绍和在同行评议期刊上的出版物提供。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 Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College. Over its 6-year duration, this project will fund scholarships for 115 full-time students pursuing associate degrees in biological science, physical science, mathematics/statistics, computer and information science, engineering, and emerging technology fields. First-year students will receive up to two years of scholarship support. The project’s goal is to increase student persistence and completion in STEM fields by providing scholarships coupled with effective support activities including mentoring, learning communities, advising, an early alert system, ePortfolios, and a Summer Bridge Program. This project will improve STEM education and offer additional opportunities to pursue STEM courses of study to groups of students whose participation in STEM lags below their proportion in the overall population. The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. This project will investigate how students benefit from co-curricular strategies such as cohorts and faculty mentoring when they are combined with other strategies like peer mentoring, summer bridge programs, co-curricular supports, and early alert systems. This project has the potential to advance the understanding of how these interventions contribute to the persistence and completion rates for a diverse group of students in STEM disciplines. Quantitative and qualitative measures will be used to determine project outcomes and the extent to which they are effective and replicable. End of semester surveys, and student progress reports will form the basis of a formative evaluation effort. Results of this project will be made available through a public webpage, presentations at regional conferences, and publications in peer-reviewed 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.