HSI Implementation and Evaluation Project: Integrated Networking, Scholarship, and Peer Mentoring of Freshmen Engineers for Increased Academic Success and Graduation Rates

在改善本科STEM教育的支持下：西班牙裔服务机构（HSI计划），这个轨道2项目旨在为UCSB工程学院（CoE）新生提供更好的学术和社会支持，其中包括一个或多个“机会效应者”（例如第一代大学生，低收入，代表性不足的少数民族），以提高他们的学术成功和归属感。这反过来又有望提高这些学生的保留率和成功毕业率。一般来说，工程和计算机科学的学科，特别是UCSB的卓越中心，不成比例地努力留住来自这些社区的学生。新生工程师的综合网络，奖学金和同行指导，以提高学术成功和毕业率（INSPIRE）项目将创建新的基础设施和制度变革，从根本上改变学生如何与一个或多个“机会效应器”体验工程的第一年。INSPIRE将包括一个为期一年的，基于校园的课程，从整体上交织学术和社会课程和同伴指导。通过提高目标学生的成功保留率和毕业率，INSPIRE将教育和培养新一代多样化的工程和计算机科学毕业生。这些人将有机会攻读研究生学位和/或加入劳动力队伍，在那里他们可以成为帮助雇用和培训未来工程和计算机科学人才的榜样。（如果有的话）学生围绕成功和失败的内部叙述，坚持纪律的内在动机，以及社会支持网络的使用。本研究将通过分析INSPIRE对保留和社会认同，社会资本和社会学习的不同影响，为同伴指导和第一年保留提供新的知识。一个关键的成果是有一个系统的方法来确定的需求，包括教师，本科生，研究生，并保留行政支持，带来制度变革的持有人。HSI计划旨在加强本科STEM教育，并建立HSI的能力。HSI计划支持的项目也将产生关于如何实现这些目标的新知识。该奖项反映了NSF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。

With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI Program), this Track 2 project aims to provide better academic and social support to UCSB College of Engineering (CoE) freshmen with one or more “effectors of opportunity’’ (e.g. first generation college student, low income, under-represented minority) to increase their academic success and sense of belonging in the major. This, in turn, is expected to increase the retention and successful graduation rates of these students. The disciplines of engineering and computer science in general, and the UCSB CoE specifically, disproportionately struggle to retain students from these communities. The Integrated Networking, Scholarship, and Peer Mentoring of Freshmen Engineers for Increased Academic Success and Graduation Rates (INSPIRE) project will create new infrastructure and institutional change to fundamentally transform how students with one or more "effectors of opportunity" experience the first year of engineering. INSPIRE will consist of a year-long, seminar-based curriculum that holistically inter-weaves academic and social curriculum and peer mentoring. By increasing the successful retention and graduation rates of targeted students, INSPIRE will educate and develop a new generation of diverse engineering and computer science graduates. These individuals will have the opportunity to pursue graduate degrees and/or join the workforce, where they can be role models who help hire and train future engineering and computer science talent.This project will focus its educational research on assessing how the proposed holistic approach changes (if at all) students’ internal narrative around success and failure, intrinsic motivation to persist in their discipline, and use of social support networks. This research will contribute new knowledge in peer mentoring and first-year retention by analyzing the differential effects of INSPIRE on retention and social identification, social capital, and social learning. A key outcome is to have a systematic approach to identifying the needs of stake-holders including faculty, undergraduate students, graduate students, and administrative support for retention to bring about institutional change. The HSI Program aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education and build capacity at HSIs. Projects supported by the HSI Program will also generate new knowledge on how to achieve these aims.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.