Paving a Transfer Pathway for Low-Income STEM Students

该项目将通过支持维多利亚学院和休斯顿-维多利亚大学招收、保留和毕业有经济需要的优秀低收入学生，从而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。维多利亚学院（VC）是一所公立、开放招生的社区学院，其使命是为学生和社区提供教育机会和服务。VC是指定的西班牙裔服务机构。休斯顿-维多利亚大学（UHV）也是一所西班牙裔服务机构，建于20世纪70年代，是一所专为高年级学生和研究生服务的大学，比如维多利亚学院的学生，他们想继续他们的教育，现在提供完整的四年学术课程。该合作规划项目为期一年，旨在加强UHV和VC在计算程序连接方面的联系；调查校际学生支持机制；并为UHV和VC之间的机构间联盟准备未来的国家科学基金会S-STEM资助提案。通过收集数据，该项目将促进对最佳实践的理解，以帮助低收入和代表性不足的计算机专业VC学生成功转入特高压，完成学士学位，并从事计算机职业或研究生学习。这个项目为高等教育创造了一条顺利的入学途径，它的意义也将导致一个重要的未来nsf资助项目提案，为这些攻读计算机科学学科学士和研究生学位的学生提供奖学金。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。具体而言，这项拟议的协作规划补助金将有助于促进以下方面的知识：如何设计和建立有效的校际协作研究和教学活动，以支持经济需求未得到满足的计算机专业学生；如何确定攻读计算机专业的转学生的其他未满足需求，特别是那些来自传统上代表性不足的群体的学生，以及学校如何为他们提供支持；如何为转学生设计和开发一个强大的跨机构劳动力发展计划，以帮助他们在未来的计算机职业生涯中取得成功，同时满足国家的优先需求。特高压大学和风投大学之间的广泛合作将直接影响这两所大学目前和未来的计算机专业学生，包括提高他们的学术成就、增强校园体验、成功转学到公立大学、获得学位，以及未来的计算机职业或研究生学习。与转学生需求相关的研究结果也将有利于其他机构和地区的转学生，以及对提高低收入和代表性不足的转学生的学位获得和职业成功感兴趣的高等教育研究人员和教育工作者。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，该项目旨在增加低收入、有学术天赋、有经济需求的学生在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 recruitment, retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at Victoria College and the University of Houston-Victoria. Victoria College (VC) is a public, open-admission community college whose mission is to provide educational opportunities and services for the students and communities it serves. VC is a designated Hispanic Serving institution. The University of Houston–Victoria (UHV), also a Hispanic-Serving Institution, was developed in the 1970s as a university designed to serve upper-division and graduate students, such as those from Victoria College, who were seeking to continue their education, and now offers a full four-year academic program. Over its one-year duration, this collaborative planning project aims to strengthen ties between UHV and VC in computing program connection; investigate inter-institution student support mechanisms; and prepare a future National Science Foundation S-STEM grant proposal for an inter-institutional consortium between UHV and VC. Through the collection of data, this project will advance the understanding of best practices to help low-income and under-represented computing major VC students successfully transfer to UHV, complete their bachelor’s degrees, and pursue computing careers or graduate study. The significance of this project to create a smooth matriculating pathway to higher education will also lead to an important future NSF-funded grant project proposal to provide scholarships for these students who are pursuing bachelor’s and graduate degrees in the computer science disciplines.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. Specifically, this proposed collaborative planning grant will help advance knowledge regarding: how to design and establish effective collaborative inter-institutional research and teaching activities to support computing major students with demonstrated unmet financial needs; how to identify the other unmet needs for transfer students pursuing computing majors, especially those from traditionally underrepresented groups, and how the institution could support them; how to design and develop a robust inter-institutional workforce development program for transfer students to help them to be successful in a future computing career and, at the same time, meet national priority needs. The broad scope of this strong collaboration between UHV and VC will directly affect current and prospective computing major students in these two institutions, including their improved academic achievement, enhanced campus experience, successful transfer to a public university, degree attainment, and future computing career or graduate study. Findings related to transfer student needs will also benefit transfer students in other institutions and regions, as well as researchers and educators in higher education who are interested in improving the degree attainment and career success of low-income and underrepresented transfer students. 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.