Promoting STEM student success and career entry with an integrated achievement and mentoring model

该项目将通过支持拿骚社区学院（NCC）和霍夫斯特拉大学（HU）表现出经济需求的高成就低收入学生的保留和毕业，为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。NCC是一所公立社区学院，是纽约州立大学的一部分，而HU是一所私立的、非宗派的文理学院。在为期六年的时间里，该项目将为90名攻读生物学、化学、计算机科学、工程学、数学、物理学、心理学、地质学、环境和可持续发展等专业的副学士和学士学位的全日制学生提供奖学金。第一年的HU学者将获得长达四年的奖学金支持。NCC/HU学者，从NCC和HU周围服务不足的社区中选出，将在NCC获得两年的奖学金支持，并在HU获得最多两年的额外支持。该项目的意义在于将奖学金与一种变革模式联系起来，这种模式在成就和指导的背景下整合了现有的机构资源。学生们将参加学术和职业成功研讨会，接受更多高年级同学的指导，并随后指导更多低年级同学，参与研究，并与STEM专业人士建立联系。该项目将进一步促进学院间教师在课程设计和课堂体验方面的合作。由于NCC， HU和周边社区有大量来自STEM中代表性不足的群体的学生，因此该项目具有扩大STEM领域参与的潜力。该项目将提高低收入家庭学生的赚钱能力，支持他们向上流动，并为我们当地社区的成功提供榜样。该项目对学生成绩、机构资源的组织以及该模式在机构背景下的适应性和可转移性的影响将被审查，并将增加目前关于低收入学生的知识库。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。该项目的具体目标是：(1)提高STEM学生和专业人员的身份和信心，(2)确保与学生支持服务的一致参与，以及(3)促进机构间的教学合作。该项目建立在“合法外围参与”的理论框架之上，强调包容性、社区和归属感，直接解决了低收入学生在STEM职业准入方面面临的挑战。基于初始数学课程安排的重要性，早期和持续参与学生支持服务，获得与大学学业成功相关的潜规则和规范，以及指导在学生成功中的作用，项目的活动将被安排来解决每个挑战。该项目将调查个别和集体活动对学生学业和职业成果的影响，探索促进学生成功和职业进入的因素，确定持续的机构间教学合作所需的机构结构，并评估跨机构背景下综合成就和指导模式的适应性、可转移性和制度化。该项目将使用混合方法进行评估，包括焦点小组、访谈、调查、社会网络分析以及学生和教师在参与项目活动时产生的人工制品。该项目的成果将通过国家会议上的讲习班、针对跨学科受众的同行评议论文以及一个载有资源、模块和准则的网站提供，供各机构用于实现类似目标。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 Nassau Community College (NCC) and Hofstra University (HU). NCC is a public community college, part of the State University of New York, and HU is a private, non-sectarian, liberal arts institution. Over its six-year duration, the project will fund scholarships to 90 unique full time students pursuing associate’s and bachelor’s degrees in Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, Physics, Psychology, and Geology, Environment, and Sustainability. First-year HU Scholars will receive up to four years of scholarship support. NCC/HU Scholars, selected from the underserved communities immediately surrounding NCC and HU, will receive two years of scholarship support at NCC and up to two additional years of support at HU. The project’s significance lies in linking scholarships with a transformative model that integrates existing institutional resources within an achievement and mentoring context. Students will engage in academic and career success workshops, be mentored by more senior peers and subsequently mentor more junior peers, engage in research, and network with STEM professionals. The project will further catalyze inter-institutional faculty collaboration around curriculum design and classroom experiences. Because NCC, HU, and the surrounding communities have a high population of students from groups underrepresented in STEM, this project has the potential to broaden participation in STEM fields. The project will increase the earning power of low-income students, supporting their upward mobility and providing role models for success in our local communities. The project’s impact on student outcomes, organization of institutional resources, and the adaptability and transferability of the model across institutional contexts will be examined and will add to the current knowledge base regarding low-income students.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. The specific aims of the project are to: (1) increase identity and confidence as STEM students and professionals, (2) ensure consistent engagement with student support services, and (3) catalyze inter-institutional pedagogical collaborations. Built on the theoretical framework of Legitimate Peripheral Participation with an emphasis on inclusivity, community, and belonging, the project directly addresses challenges to STEM career entry faced by low-income students. Based on the importance of initial math course placement, early and continuous engagement with student support services, access to the unspoken rules and norms associated with collegiate academic success, and the role of mentoring in student success, the project’s activities will be arranged to address each challenge. The project will investigate the effects of activities both individually and collectively on student academic and career outcomes, explore factors contributing to student success and career entry, identify institutional structures required for sustained inter-institution pedagogical collaboration, and assess the adaptability, transferability, and institutionalization of the integrated achievement and mentoring model across institutional contexts. The project will be evaluated using a mixed methods approach using focus groups, interviews, surveys, social network analysis, and artifacts generated by students and faculty as they participate in project activities. Results of this project will be made available via workshops at national meetings, peer-reviewed papers targeting an interdisciplinary audience, and a website with resources, modules, and rubrics for institutions to use to achieve similar goals. 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.