JCCC STEM Scholars Program: Achieving Successful Transfer (Self-Efficacy, Independence, Persistence, and Momentum)

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，通过支持高成就、低收入、有经济需求的学生留校并毕业于堪萨斯州最大的社区学院约翰逊县社区学院。在为期6年的时间里，该项目将为54名本科学生提供奖学金，这些学生正在攻读生物、化学、计算机科学、数学和/或物理方面的副学士学位，并打算转学到大学。一年级学生将获得最多两年的奖学金支持。这个项目开发了一系列的联合课程活动，旨在帮助社区学院的学生在转学到四年制高等教育的过程中有所作为。该项目将为有兴趣攻读STEM领域学士学位的社区大学学生调整、试点和评估转学前活动。该项目将对两个领域产生重大影响：1)增加低收入学生攻读STEM学位的多样性；2)增加社区大学生成功转学和继续攻读STEM专业的人数。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。为了促进STEM专业社区学院学生的招生、留住、毕业/转学的最佳实践方面的知识，该项目将1)招募和留住经济困难和学业有才华的全日制STEM学生，重点是妇女和代表不足的少数民族，进入STEM学位课程；2)提高JCCC STEM奖学金计划招收的学生的毕业率和转校率；3)调整和试点现有计划的队列建设活动、转学导向活动和支持结构，以在STEM奖学金学生中培养一个学习社区；以及4)调整和试点外展/招聘活动，特别是针对STEM的女学生和任职人数不足的高中生，这些活动将持续到赠款期间之后。该项目将研究如何指导学生制定成功的转学计划，以提高STEM专业的招生、留住、毕业率和转校率。研究表明，使学生能够积极主动地制定成功转移计划的政策和做法，会产生推动他们取得成功的那种学术动力。这些活动将对其他两年制院校和向其招生的四年制院校产生巨大价值。该项目的成果将通过会议发言加以传播。该项目由NSF的科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金项目资助，该项目旨在增加获得STEM领域学位的低收入、有学术天赋、有经济需求的学生的数量。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 Johnson County Community College, the largest community college in Kansas. Over its 6-year duration, this project will provide scholarships to 54 undergraduate students who are pursuing associate’s degrees in Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Mathematics, and/or Physics with the intent to transfer to a university. First-year students will receive up to two-years of scholarship support. This project develops a series of co-curricular activities seeking to empower community college students when navigating the transfer process to a 4-year institution of higher education. This project will adapt, pilot, and evaluate pre-transfer activities for community college students interested in pursuing bachelor’s degrees in STEM fields. This project will have significant impact on two areas: 1) increasing diversity of low-income students pursuing and earning STEM degrees and 2) increasing the number of community college students successfully transferring and continuing as STEM majors.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. Seeking to advance knowledge in best practices for recruiting, retaining, graduating/transferring community college students in STEM majors, this project will 1) recruit and retain financially needy and academically talented fulltime STEM students, focusing on women and underrepresented minorities, into STEM degree programs; 2) improve graduation and transfer rates for students recruited into the JCCC STEM Scholarship program compared to general student population; 3) adapt and pilot cohort building activities, transfer-oriented activities, and support structures from existing programs to foster a learning community among STEM scholarship students; and 4) adapt and pilot outreach/recruitment activities, particularly targeting female and underrepresented high school students in STEM, that will be sustained past the grant period. The project will study how guiding students to develop a transfer success plan can increase recruitment, retention, graduation and transfer rates into STEM majors. Research has shown that policies and practices which empower students to be proactive in creating a transfer success plan results in the kind of academic momentum which propels them to achieve success. These activities will have immense value for other 2-year institutions and the 4-year institutions that recruit from them. The results of the project will be disseminated through conference presentations. 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.