Leveraging Innovation and Optimizing Nurturing in STEM: The LION STEM Scholars Program

该项目将通过支持宾夕法尼亚州立大学（PSU） Berks校区表现出经济需求的高成就低收入学生的保留和毕业，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。PSU Berks是一所四年制住宿本科大学，隶属于宾夕法尼亚州立大学赠地大学系统，约有2300名学生。在为期6年的时间里，该项目将为18名攻读STEM学士学位的全日制高成就低收入学生提供奖学金，重点是工科学生。一年级本科生将获得最多四年的可续期奖学金。学者们将成为多模式、课程和联合课程、支持计划和队列体验的一部分。课程内容将包括数学密集的夏季桥梁课程，一年级研讨会和stem持久性研讨会。课外活动侧重于专业沟通技巧、金融知识、职业和劳动力准备、本科研究、教师指导和社区参与。项目调查人员将传播与项目挑战和成功相关的成果和发现，特别是向其他小型公共机构和其他PSU区域校区努力支持低收入工程学生和其他STEM学生。为了提高有经济需求的低收入、优秀本科生的STEM学位完成率，该项目将实现几个目标。首先是适应、实施和分析基于证据的课程和课外活动，以支持、保留和毕业项目的各种工程学者。第二是通过研究和项目评估策略来实施、测试和研究，系统地支持学生在STEM领域的学术和职业道路，包括STEM身份的发展。三是通过对该项目的四年制多模式课程的调查，为其他学院成功实施类似课程提供知识基础。第四是向其他致力于支持低收入STEM学生的机构传播与促进学生成功的支持和干预相关的成果和发现。使用角色认同的动态系统模型[Garner and Kaplan， 2017 &amp； 2019]作为理论框架，定性和定量研究和评估方法的见解和结果将产生新的知识，强调项目支持干预措施或干预措施组合的哪些方面对学生的保留、参与、学习成绩、STEM身份的发展和整体成功最有效。调查方向将解决文献中的空白，并为其他寻求通过课程和课外干预相结合来支持学生的高等教育专业人员提供信息，特别是来自城市地区的学生，这些学生在STEM领域的代表性不足。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 the Pennsylvania State University (PSU) Berks Campus. PSU Berks is a four-year residential undergraduate university within the larger Penn State land-grant university system and serves approximately 2,300 students. Over its 6-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 18 full-time high-achieving low-income students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in STEM, with a focus on engineering students. First-year undergraduate students will receive renewable scholarships for up to 4 years. Scholars will be part of a multi-modal, curricular and co-curricular, support program and cohort experience. Curricular components will include a math-intensive summer bridge program, a first-year seminar, and a STEM-Persistence Seminar. Co-curricular activities focus on professional communication skills, financial literacy, career and workforce readiness, undergraduate research, faculty mentoring, and community engagement. Project investigators will disseminate outcomes and findings related to project challenges and successes, especially to other small public institutions and other PSU regional campuses striving to support low-income engineering students and other STEM students.To increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need, the project will pursue several goals. First is to adapt, implement, and analyze evidence-based curricular and co-curricular activities to support, retain, and graduate a diverse set of the project's engineering scholars. Second is to implement, test, and study through research and project evaluation strategies for systematically supporting student academic and career pathways in STEM, including development of STEM identity. Third is to contribute to the knowledge base through investigation of the project's four-year multi-modal program so that other colleges may successfully implement similar programs. And fourth is to disseminate outcomes and findings related to the supports and interventions that promote student success to other institutions working to support low-income STEM students. Using the Dynamic Systems Model of Role Identity [Garner and Kaplan, 2017 & 2019] as a theoretical framework, insights and outcomes from qualitative and quantitative research and evaluation methods will generate new knowledge emphasizing which aspects of the project's support interventions, or combination of interventions, are most effective for retention, engagement, academic performance, development of STEM identity, and overall success of students. The directions of investigation will address gaps in the literature and inform other higher-education professionals seeking to support students with a combination of curricular and co-curricular interventions, especially from urban regions containing a significant population of students who are underrepresented in STEM. 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.