NSF Award
2325924
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 Dakota State University (DSU). Over its six-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to twelve unique full-time students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in Artificial Intelligence, Computer Science, Cyber Operations, or Mathematics. DSU is the technology campus in the South Dakota Board of Regents State University system and holds three prestigious designations from the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security relating to the project's focal disciplines. Students will receive scholarships of up to $15,000 per year for up to five years, depending on their financial need. A summer bridge program, study tables, and an undergraduate research seminar are the key planned activities of this project. One out of every five students currently enrolled in the eligible scholarship majors at DSU are Pell Grant eligible, which provides a substantial population of potential scholars and demonstrates the project's potential to broaden participation in STEM fields at DSU and in the wider workforce. <br/><br/>The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. This project will help address the national need for qualified professionals educated in highly technical fields including advanced computing, artificial intelligence, and network security (cyber operations). Each of these areas are in extremely high demand and are critical priorities for national security and other critical sectors of the domestic workforce. This project will collect data to explore what scholars need from support mechanisms and how they want that support delivered. This will allow the creation of a support network that better aligns with students' needs and preferences. It is expected that aligning support mechanisms with scholars needs will result in increased participation, which will in turn improve graduation rates and overall student outcomes. Recruitment efforts include engaging with Native American high school students participating in the Oglala Lakota College Summer IT Institute, veterans with National Cryptographic University credits, and rural South Dakota high school students with credits from the Governor’s Cyber Academy. Project outcomes will be disseminated broadly to institutions and professionals looking to develop effective supports for low-income students in STEM, particularly rural institutions and those that serve significant indigenous populations. 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.<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.
