Supporting Students’ Academic and Career Success with a Sustainable Energy Focus

该项目将有助于国家需要受过良好教育的科学家，数学家，工程师和技术人员通过支持高成就，低收入学生的保留和毕业，证明在坦普尔大学的经济需要。坦普尔大学是一所位于宾夕法尼亚州费城的城市公立大学，为大约30，000名本科生和10，000名研究生提供服务。在6年的时间里，该项目将为34名攻读电气工程学士学位的全日制学生提供奖学金。一年级学生将获得四年奖学金。可持续寺庙能源和电力学者（STEPS）项目将提供重点同行，教师和行业指导，将支持学者毕业。对拟议项目至关重要的是13个当地行业合作伙伴的参与，他们有兴趣为毕业的合格学者提供就业机会，并在他们的学术生涯中促进专业发展机会。虽然努力主要集中在招收和支持S-STEM学者，但STEPS项目最终将有助于建立一个学院范围的框架，以增加电气和计算机工程（ECE）部门和工程学院的多样性和学生成功超越S-STEM奖。 改变学者家庭和社区对大学和职业可能性的看法的潜力提供了额外的影响。此外，STEPS的本地行业联系可以被附近的其他机构所利用，以改善合格的STEM毕业生进入当地STEM劳动力的管道。该项目的总体目标是增加低收入，高成就的本科生的STEM学位完成证明经济需要。为实现这一总体目标，该项目将努力实现三个目标：（1）通过实施一项全面、有针对性的招聘计划，利用行业伙伴关系，并将现有的欧洲经委会学生作为同龄人的榜样，增加低收入、学术上有才华的学生进入欧洲经委会的人数; ⑵提高低收入者在欧洲经委会的保留率和毕业率，学术上有才华的学生，让他们参与一套以证据为基础的课程和课外活动，并与行业合作，并提供学习支持服务;以及（3）系统地支持学生在STEM领域的职业道路，将实习和行业指导作为基石。STEPS将使用社会认知职业理论（SCCT）作为概念框架，以更好地了解影响学生学业和职业选择以及坚持的因素。研究计划打算主要使用定性分析来实现这一目标，以填补主要基于定量研究的文献中的空白。一个强大的过程和成果评估将被用来监测和记录计划的规划和实施，这应该有助于了解具体的程序元素和预期的程序结果之间的关系（S）为STEPS学者。评估项目的分析框架包括从头到尾的规划-过程-结果分析。项目成果的传播将包括一份执行指南、一次关于在地方和国家会议上提供的经验教训的讲习班、同行审查的会议/期刊文章以及访问其他地方高等教育机构。该项目由NSF的科学，技术，工程和数学奖学金计划资助，该计划旨在增加低收入学术人才的数量，这些学生表现出经济需求，并获得STEM领域的学位。该计划还旨在改善未来STEM工作者的教育，并产生关于低收入学生的学业成功，保留，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 Temple University. Temple is a public university in an urban setting, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, serving approximately 30,000 undergraduate and 10,000 graduate students. Over its 6-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 34 unique full time students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in Electrical Engineering. First year students will receive four-year scholarships. The Sustainable Temple Energy and Power Scholars (STEPS) project will provide focused peer, faculty, and industry mentoring that will support scholars through to graduation. Of critical importance to the proposed project is the participation of 13 local industry partners interested in providing job placements to qualified scholars who graduate and facilitating professional development opportunities during their academic career. While efforts are primarily focused on enrolling and supporting S-STEM scholars, the STEPS project will ultimately contribute to building a college-wide framework to increase diversity and student success in Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) department and the college of engineering beyond the S-STEM award. The potential to change the perception of what is possible regarding college and careers for the scholars' families and community provides added impact. Additionally, STEPS' local industry contacts can be leveraged by other nearby institutions to improve the pipeline of qualified STEM graduates into the local STEM workforce.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. To achieve this overall goal, the project will work to accomplish three objectives: (1) increase enrollment into ECE of low-income, academically talented students by implementing a holistic, targeted recruitment plan that leverages industry partnerships and uses existing ECE students as peer role models; (2) increase retention and graduation rates in ECE of low-income, academically talented students by engaging them in a suite of evidence-based curricular and co-curricular activities infused with industry collaboration, and by providing support services for learning; and (3) systematically support student career pathways in STEM, using internships and industry mentorship as cornerstones. STEPS will use the Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) as a conceptual framework to gain a better understanding of factors that influence students’ academic and career choice and persistence. The research plan intends to use mainly qualitative analysis to accomplish this to fill a gap in the literature that is mainly based on quantitative studies. A robust process and outcomes evaluation will be employed to monitor and document program planning and implementation, which should aid in understanding the relationship(s) between specific program elements and intended program outcomes for the STEPS scholars. The analytic framework for evaluating the project consists of planning-process-outcome analyses from start to finish. Dissemination of the project results will include an implementation guide, a workshop on lessons learned to be delivered locally and at national conferences, peer reviewed conference/journal articles, and visits to other local institutions of higher education. 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. The program 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.