The Pee Dee Scholars: Forging STEM Transfer Success in the Pee Dee Region of South Carolina

该项目将通过支持在四年制私立文理学院科克大学（Coker University）和两年制技术学院佛罗伦斯达灵顿技术学院（Florence Darlington Technical College）保留和毕业并证明有经济需要的成绩优异的低收入学生，来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。在为期六年的时间里，该项目计划为48名在科罗拉多大学攻读生物学、计算机科学、数学和化学学士学位或在FDTC攻读普通科学副学士学位的全日制学生提供奖学金。一年级学生将在科罗拉多大学获得最多四年的奖学金支持，副学士和转学生将分别在FDTC和科罗拉多大学获得最多两年的奖学金。项目的前两年将以协作、跨机构和基于证据的活动为特色，包括三层教师/同伴指导模式、侵入式建议、一年级体验课程和STEM研讨会系列。此外，为了提高fdtc学者的科学认同、社区、STEM职业意识、对STEM的坚持、保留和转移学生资本（TSC），项目团队打算创建一个跨机构的生活学习社区。最后两年将进一步发展学者的科学身份和归属感，促进职业和研究经验，并通过行业实习、本科研究机会和学生电子作品集为学者在STEM领域的职业或研究生院做好准备。该项目提出了一种跨机构和可扩展的方法，以提高在STEM中代表性不足的低收入学生的保留率、毕业率和转学率，包括代表性不足的少数民族（urm），以及家庭中第一代上大学的学生。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，该项目将追求几个具体目标。首先是增加CU和FDTC STEM重点专业的国内，低收入，有学术天赋的学生的入学率。第二是适应和实施基于证据的课程和课外活动，以提高皮迪学院学生的保留率、持久性、转学率和毕业率。第三，越来越多来自皮迪地区的低收入、有学术天赋的STEM毕业生进入STEM劳动力市场，或在毕业后寻求更高的STEM学位。尽管有大量的数据显示，低收入社区大学生在寻求转学到四年制大学并获得学士学位时遇到了挑战，但仍然缺乏与跨机构策略相关的信息，以支持低收入学生在转学过程中完成四年制学位。很少有研究试图估计两年制和四年制大学之间的跨机构合作对转校生学士学位完成率的影响。本项目将通过研究低收入社区大学生的现有障碍，促进对影响学生自我效能感和完成四年制STEM学位的主要因素的理解。特别是，项目领导将以一个核心研究问题为指导：“哪些因素有助于低收入的转学生在STEM领域取得成功？”项目研究人员假设，加强财政支持，再加上TSC框架支持的循证实践和丰富的跨机构参与，将增加学生的成功，包括坚持STEM专业和大学的整体留校率。此外，这些做法预计将导致更高的四年制和/或研究生和专业课程的入学率，随后在STEM职业中就业。本项目将采用混合方法进行评估，使用来自机构数据、教师、导师和学生调查和焦点小组、前后测试以及毕业和安置数据的定量和定性数据。该项目的成果将通过“Yes We Must”联盟、南卡罗莱纳先进技术教育中心（SCATE）卓越中心、在国家和地区会议上的演讲以及在同行评审期刊上的预期出版物来公布。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 Coker University (CU), a four-year private liberal arts institution, and Florence Darlington Technical College (FDTC), a two-year technical college. Over a six-year duration, this project plans to fund scholarships to 48 full-time students pursuing Bachelor’s degrees in biology, computer science, mathematics, and chemistry at CU or an associate’s degree in general science at FDTC. First-year students will receive up to four-years of scholarship support at CU and associate’s and transfer students will receive up to two-year scholarships at FDTC and CU, respectively. The first two years of the project will feature collaborative, cross-institutional, and evidence-based activities including a three-tiered faculty/peer mentoring model, intrusive advising, first-year experience course, and a STEM symposia series. In addition, to boost science identity, community, STEM career awareness, persistence in STEM, retention, and transfer student capital (TSC) in FDTC-based scholars, the project team intends to create a cross-institutional living learning community. The final two years will further develop scholars’ scientific identity and belonging, promote career and research experiences, and prepare scholars for careers or graduate school in STEM through internships with industry, undergraduate research opportunities, and student ePortfolios. This project proposes a cross-institutional and scalable approach to improving retention, graduation, and transfer rates of low-income students who are underrepresented in STEM, including underrepresented minorities (URMs), and first generation in their families to attend college. To increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need, the project will pursue several specific aims. First is increased enrollment of domestic, low-income, academically-talented students in both CU and FDTC STEM majors of focus. Second is adaptation and implementation of evidence-based curricular and co-curricular activities to increase retention, persistence, transfer, and graduation rates for Pee Dee scholars. And third is increased numbers of low-income, academically talented STEM graduates from the Pee Dee region who enter the STEM workforce or seek advanced STEM degrees after graduation. Despite the wealth of data showing the challenges encountered by low-income community college students who seek to transfer to four-year colleges and earn bachelor’s degrees, there remains a dearth of information related to the cross-institutional strategies to support low-income students in the transfer process and completion of a four-year degree. Very few studies have sought to estimate the effects of cross-institutional partnerships between a two- and a four-year college on transfer student bachelor completion rates. This project will advance understanding of the main factors that influence students’ self-efficacy and agency to complete a four-year degree in STEM by examining the existing barriers for low-income community college students. In particular, the project leadership will be guided by a central research question: "What factors contribute to success of low-income, transfer students in STEM?" The project investigators hypothesize that the combination of enhanced financial support coupled with evidence-based practices and rich cross-institutional engagement supported by the TSC framework will increase student success including persistence in STEM majors and overall retention in college. Furthermore, these practices are expected to lead to greater rates of matriculation into four-year and/or graduate and professional programs followed by employment in a STEM career. This project will be evaluated using a mixed methods approach using quantitative and qualitative data from institutional data, faculty, mentor, and student surveys and focus groups, pre- and post-tests, and graduation and placement data. Results of this project will be made available utilizing the "Yes We Must" Coalition, the South Carolina Advanced Technological Education Center (SCATE) Center of Excellence, and through presentations at national and regional conferences, and intended publications through 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.