NSF Award
2315755
Rice University will develop, implement, and evaluate the Computer Science - Rice Emerging Scholars Program (CS-RESP) to support incoming freshmen from historically excluded communities whose lack of access to economic and educational opportunities has obstructed their preparation for higher education to succeed in their aspirations of becoming computer scientists. By supporting these students to become computer scientists with a strong sense of belonging, the project staff will broaden representation of these communities in the field of computer science and strengthen our own community. Doing so will enable Rice University and the computing community to tackle a wider range of challenges and issues not always amplified due to their limited visibility and devise more innovative solutions. This program will also increase the number of diverse computer scientists and, eventually, role models at all levels of organizations. <br/><br/>This Broadening Participation in Computing Demonstration Project aims to improve the sense of belonging, retention, and academic achievement of the participants. The program supports these students academically, socially, and financially. The program kicks-off with a stipend based six-week intensive summer program and provides academic, navigational, and social support during the students' first two years. This program takes an anti-remedial approach, where, instead of bridging gaps, students are taught some of the most challenging material they will encounter during their first year as CS students. The program also provides "intrusive" advising to prospectively address social issues these students face. The program further includes faculty and staff equity mindedness training to improve the classroom and university climate. CS faculty mentors will partner with these students to build relationships and to ensure their participation in critical local, regional, and national organizations and events. The program will be evaluated by comparing short-term metrics such as sense of belonging, retention and introductory course grades against current "comparison" students who did not participate in the program and against historical participants in the non-CS specific RESP program. This program aims to be a model for XX-Emerging Scholars programs by which other disciplines and / or institutions can follow our examples and processes for building their own domain specific (e.g. Chemistry, Electrical Engineering, etc.) support program.<br/><br/>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.
