A multi-institutional partnership supporting timely associate and bachelor's degree completion in science and mathematics

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，方法是支持莫里斯县学院、LeHigh Carbon社区学院、卢泽恩县社区学院、北安普顿社区学院和东斯特罗德斯堡大学留住并毕业有经济需求的高成就、低收入学生。该项目是4所地区社区学院和东斯特罗德斯堡大学之间的合作项目，东斯特罗德斯堡大学是宾夕法尼亚州高等教育系统的成员之一。在为期5年的时间里，该项目将为135名正在攻读生物、生物化学、生物技术、化学生物技术、化学、计算机科学、计算机安全、环境科学、海洋科学、数学和物理等11个STEM领域的副学士学位的全日制和兼职学生提供奖学金。奖学金获得者将获得为期两年的奖学金，进入伙伴社区学院就读，并在转学后获得额外两年的奖学金支持，进入东斯特罗德斯堡大学。该项目的中心原则是学者的成功；满足学生的需求是优先事项。该项目提供了一个促进改变和扩大学生成功的示范计划，通过支持包括奖学金、积极的发展倡导整体建议、队列活动、同伴指导和辅导以及导师中介的在线教育来促进与学业成功相关的态度和行为的发展。该团队将确定并了解影响学生留校率和学位完成情况的成功预测因素。该项目的总体目标是增加低收入、高成就、有经济需求的本科生的STEM学位毕业率。通过项目规划和干预，90%以上的项目学者将获得至少2.8 GPA的副学士学位和学士学位。该项目将减少转学赤字(从社区大学转到四年制院校时缺少的必修课程)，缩短毕业时间，从而减少学生债务。该项目还将通过制定以学生需求为重点并支持不同人群的行之有效的方法，增加来自代表性不足人群的学生。该项目将创建经过测试、可共享、可扩展和可持续的产品，这些产品将确保学生在参与机构取得成功，并可应用于其他地方。将在所有合作机构和宾夕法尼亚州联邦之间建立一个教师发展咨询培训计划，并在学术界和全国范围内广泛共享。该项目将确定项目实践如何在奖学金留存率、平均绩点和毕业前的及时性方面带来改善。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 County College of Morris, Lehigh Carbon Community College, Luzerne County Community College, Northampton Community College, and East Stroudsburg University. This project is a partnership between 4 regional community colleges and East Stroudsburg University, a member of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. Over its 5-year duration, the project will fund scholarships to 135 unique full-time and part-time students who are pursuing associate and bachelor’s degrees in 11 STEM fields including biology, biochemistry, biotechnology, chemical biotechnology, chemistry, computer science, computer security, environmental science, marine science, mathematics, and physics. Scholars will receive two-year scholarships to attend a partner community college and, post-transfer, an additional two years of scholarship support to attend East Stroudsburg University. The central tenet of the project is scholar success; addressing student needs is the priority. The project provides a model program to foster change and broaden student success through support including scholarships, proactive developmental advocacy holistic advising, cohort activities, peer mentoring and tutoring, and mentor mediated online education that fosters development of attitudes and behaviors associated with academic success. The team will identify and understand success predictors that affect student retention and degree completion. The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. Through project programing and intervention greater than 90% of project scholars will earn an associate degree and bachelor’s degree with a minimum 2.8 GPA. The project will reduce the transfer deficit (prerequisite courses missing at the time of transfer from community college to a 4-year institution), shortening the time to graduation and thus reducing student debt. The project will also increase students from underrepresented populations by enacting proven methods that focus on the student needs and support diverse populations. The project will create tested, sharable, scalable, and sustainable products that will ensure student success at the participating institutions and can be applied elsewhere. A faculty development advising training program among all partner institutions and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania will be established and widely shared throughout the academic community and the nation. The project will establish how program practices result in improvements in scholar retention, in GPA, and in time to graduation. 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.