Increasing the Success of Talented Engineering Students with Unmet Financial Need with Scholarships, Culturally-responsive Curriculum, and Mentoring

通过奖学金、文化响应式课程和辅导，提高经济需求未得到满足的优秀工程学生的成功

• 批准号: 2322770
• 负责人: Nehal Abu-lail
• 金额: $ 250万
• 依托单位: University of Texas at San Antonio
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-04-01 至 2030-03-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2322770&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Increasing; Success; Talented; Engineering; Students

This project will contribute to the national need for well-educated engineers by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). UTSA is a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI). Over its six- year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 36 uniquely talented, full-time students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in Biomedical Engineering and Chemical Engineering (BCE). Based on the composition of enrollment, the majority of funded BCE students will be first generation college students, women, Hispanic, or African American. Scholarships will be provided to cover the unmet financial need (UFN) of students entering their second semester freshmen year and will continue until graduation. The scholarships will be coupled with evidence-based, culturally-responsive and culturally relevant (CR2) curriculum as well as co-curricular activities to enhance workforce readiness, including inclusive mentoring, experiential learning, and workshops for leadership, self-efficacy, engineering identity, career counseling and employment placement. This project is expected to increase the number of students from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds who persist and graduate in engineering, effectively compete in the job market, provide economic security to themselves and their families, and help secure the US’s place as a global leader.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. Financial needs strain students’ bandwidth, leading longer times to graduation relative to other student populations. To decrease this strain and address issues of persistence and sense of belonging, the following four specific aims will be completed: (1) Identify talented BCE students with UFN as scholarship recipients; (2) Increase awareness and preparation of faculty for implementation of CR2 curriculum and inclusive mentoring practices; (3) Support the development of students’ engineering identities through participation in experiential learning opportunities and CR2 academic projects and assignments; and (4) Perform a rigorous assessment of the project, and disseminate knowledge to engineering education communities. Upon completion, this project will increase understanding of the factors that influence low-income students’ persistence, graduation, and success in engineering and will reveal new knowledge related to: (1) positive engineering identity and leadership development, (2) development of CR2 pedagogies and shifts in building a CR2 community, and (3) indicators for advancements towards progress to graduation. The desired project outcomes include: (1) Increasing positive engineering identity, (2) Increasing the number of CR2 pedagogical lesson plans developed and implemented within core curriculum, (3) Enhancing scholars’ workforce and research readiness; (4) Improving first-year retention rates in the targeted courses to 100% for scholarship recipients; and (5) Improving six-year graduation rates for BCE students to 90% in each cohort. The project will be assess the project’s implementation and impact of the project activities on the desired outcomes. The project outcomes will be disseminated by faculty and scholars using mixed strategies to a wide range of audiences. 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.

该项目将通过支持得克萨斯大学圣安东尼奥分校（UTSA）的高分，低收入学生的保留和毕业，这将有助于受过良好教育的工程师的国家需求。 UTSA是西班牙裔服务机构（HSI）。在六年的持续时间内，该项目将为36名独特的专职学生提供奖学金，他们正在攻读生物医学工程和化学工程学士学位（BCE）。根据入学率的组成，大多数资助的BCE学生将是第一代大学生，女性，西班牙裔或非裔美国人。将提供奖学金，以涵盖进入第二学期新生年的学生未满足的财务需求（UFN），并将持续到成绩。这些奖学金将与循证，具有文化响应性和文化相关的（CR2）课程以及课外活动相结合，以增强劳动力准备，包括包容性的心理，专家学习和领导才能，自我效能，自我效能，工程认同，职业辅导，职业辅导，职业咨询和就业安置。预计该项目将增加来自受干扰的社会经济背景的学生人数，这些学生在工程领域的持续和毕业，有效地在就业市场上竞争，为自己及其家人提供经济安全，并帮助确保美国作为全球领导者的位置。该项目的总体目标是提高低收入的STEM学位，高成绩，高成就的财务需求不足。财务需求应变学生的带宽，相对于其他学生人数，较长的时间进行评分。为了减少这种压力并解决持久性和归属感的问题，将完成以下四个特定目标：（1）确定具有UFN的有才华的BCE学生为奖学金获得者； （2）提高对CR2课程和包容性心理实践的教师的认识和准备； （3）通过参与经验学习机会和CR2学术项目和任务来支持学生的工程身份发展； （4）对项目进行严格的评估，并将知识传播给工程教育社区。完成后，该项目将增加对影响低收入学生的持久性，毕业和工程成功的因素的理解，并将揭示与以下方面有关的新知识：（1）积极的工程认同和领导力发展，（2）CR2教学法的发展和建立CR2社区的变化以及（3）迈向毕业前进的指标。所需的项目成果包括：（1）提高积极的工程认同，（2）增加了CR2教学课程计划在核心课程中制定和实施的CR2教学课程数量，（3）增强学者的劳动力和研究就绪； （4）将目标课程的第一年保留率提高到奖学金获得者的100％； （5）将BCE学生的六年研究生率提高到每个队列中的90％。该项目将评估项目活动对预期结果的实施和影响。该项目的成果将由教师和学者使用混合策略传播给广泛的受众。该项目由NSF在科学，技术，工程和数学计划方面的奖学金提供资金，该计划旨在增加具有在STEM领域获得学位的经济需求的低收入学术才华的学生的数量。它还旨在改善未来STEM工人的教育，并为低收入学生的学术成功，保留，转移，毕业以及学术/职业途径提供知识。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并通过使用基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响审查标准来通过评估来诚实地通过评估来诚实地支持。