Development of Excellence in Science through Intervention, Resilience, and Enrichment, Track II

该项目将通过支持在IONA学院留住和毕业有经济需要的高成就低收入学生，促进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。IONA是纽约市大都市区的一所私立学校，招收的学生中有很大一部分是代表不足的少数族裔和通勤学生，他们需要强有力的支持，以发展与STEM专业和学院的联系。在为期六年的时间里，该项目将为24名正在攻读计算机科学、生物、化学(包括生物化学)和数学学士学位的全日制学生提供奖学金。奖学金获得者将作为一年级学生入学，并将获得为期四年的奖学金。该项目的目标是改善学者的招聘、留住和毕业；促进学者与教职员工和同行建立牢固联系的能力；通过研究和实习经验提高他们对STEM专业活动和职业的认识；增进他们对职业和创业活动的理解；并促进他们进入STEM职业或研究生课程。项目倡议包括第一年学习社区、教师指导、同行主导的学术和社交网络支持、本科生研究体验和会议演示、创业教育和四年职业发展计划。该项目通过评估教师的个性化关注、与同行的密切关系以及通过研究和实习以及创业教育对低收入STEM专业学生，特别是IONA少数族裔和主要通勤本科生的留住和成功的第一手经验的有效性，增加了知识库。该项目希望培养来自低收入背景的训练有素的STEM专业人员，从而改善他们的经济前景，满足当地劳动力需求，并扩大对STEM的参与。该项目的总体目标是提高低收入、高成就、有经济需求的本科生的STEM学位完成率。具体地说，该项目旨在降低STEM专业的流失率，这些问题是由于STEM入门课程的调整困难，加上陷入困境的学生缺乏韧性，缺乏联系的感觉和高度的职业不确定性阻碍学生克服最初的学业挑战，以及非住校生在形成学生与教职员工和学生与同龄人的关系和培养对院校社区的归属感方面面临的困难。基于IONA学院以前的S-STEM经验和文献，可以通过教师的个性化关注、与同行的密切关系、对科学与社会的联系的理解以及STEM专业活动的第一手经验来提高留校率和毕业率。该项目将进行一项有效性研究，以产生支持这些战略的证据，特别是教师和同行指导，提高第一年成功的同行辅导，以及结合职业意识和创业思维发展的本科生研究和实习。评估旨在通过以下方式具体确定旨在提高STEM留存率和学位获得的活动的影响：(1)改善学者与其专业和学院的关系和感觉；(2)通过增加对STEM专业、社会影响和职业道路的了解，增强学生坚持下去的动力。通过区域和国家会议和出版物分享的研究结果应告知科技教育机构外部教职员工和管理人员增加个性化关注和广泛研究经验的好处，并可鼓励各机构采取类似做法。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 Iona College. Iona is a private institution in the New York City metropolitan area that enrolls a large proportion of underrepresented minority and commuter students who need strong support to develop connections to their STEM major and the college. Over its six-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 24 unique full-time students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in computer science, biology, chemistry (including biochemistry), and mathematics. Scholars will enter as first-year students and will receive scholarships for four years. The project objectives are to improve recruitment, retention, and graduation of the scholars; facilitate the scholars’ ability to develop strong connections with faculty and peers; increase their awareness of STEM professional activities and professions through research and internship experiences; improve their understanding of careers and entrepreneurial activities; and facilitate their placement in a STEM career or graduate program. The project initiatives include a first-year learning community, faculty mentoring, peer-led academic and social network support, undergraduate research experiences and conference presentations, entrepreneurial education, and a four-year career development plan. The project adds to the knowledge base by evaluating the effectiveness of individualized attention from faculty, strong relationships with peers, and of first-hand experiences of STEM professional activities through research and internships and entrepreneurial education on the retention and success of low-income STEM majors, specifically Iona’s minority and primarily commuter undergraduates. The project hopes to develop highly trained STEM professionals from low-income backgrounds, thus improving their economic prospects, meeting local workforce demand, and broadening participation in STEM.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. Specifically, the project aims to reduce the attrition rate in STEM majors caused by adjustment difficulties in introductory STEM courses coupled with a lack of resilience in struggling students, low feelings of connection and high career uncertainty that discourage students from overcoming initial academic challenges, and the difficulty faced by nonresidential students in forming student-faculty and student-peer relationships and developing a sense of belonging to the institutional community. Based on Iona College’s prior S-STEM experience and the literature, retention and graduation rates can be improved through individualized attention from faculty, strong relationships with peers, understanding of the connections between science and society, and firsthand experiences of STEM professional activities. The project will conduct an effectiveness study to generate evidence in support of these strategies, specifically faculty and peer mentoring, peer tutoring to increase first-year success, and undergraduate research and internships coupled with career awareness and development of an entrepreneurial mindset. The evaluation seeks to specifically determine the impact of activities that aim to increase retention in STEM and degree attainment by (1) improving the scholars’ relationships and feelings of connection to their major and the college and (2) enhancing student motivation to persist through increased knowledge of STEM professions, societal impacts, and career paths. Findings shared through regional and national conferences and publications should inform external STEM faculty and administrators of the merits of increasing individualized attention and extensive research experiences and could encourage institutions to adopt similar practices. 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.