Advancing Resilience: A National Collaborative Research Hub Fostering Resiliency for Academically Talented, Low-income Students in Computing and Engineering Majors

This S-STEM Net 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. The Advancing Understanding & Resilience Actions (AURA) Research Hub will investigate how whole-student, holistic project interventions for S-STEM computer science and engineering scholars impact their resilience. The AURA Hub will examine factors that facilitate or impede scholars’ development of resilience. The AURA Hub will also strengthen the broader network of S-STEM project teams through the creation of interdisciplinary Professional Learning Communities and Discipline-Based Education Research Fellowships. The Research Fellows will conduct educational research focused on growth and fixed mindset, self-determination, and professional identity development in the context of S-STEM engineering and computer science projects. The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. The AURA Research Hub aims to generate new knowledge about programmatic interventions and conditions that foster resilience among academically talented, low-income students supported by S-STEM projects. The proposed mixed-methods, multi-institution AURA Hub investigates the interaction of individual, community and environment for college students’ development of resilience in computer science- and engineering-focused S-STEM projects. The AURA Hub examines institutional issues and structures that support or hinder ‘resilience development’ for students, focusing on STEM professional identity formation, persistence in the major, academic success, and STEM workforce entry. S-STEM project designs/interventions and institutional supports are investigated using a combination of mindset theory, self-determination theory and theories of professional identity development in concert with college student developmental theory, yielding a novel AURA Framework for advancing resilience that bridges the environment, the community and the individual through holistic interventions in STEM higher education. Dissemination activities will utilize a research-to-practice approach, accelerating the dissemination of new knowledge and tools as public goods, advancing the understandings of supporting resilience and success for computer science and engineering students and addressing the urgent need for developing a strong national workforce in these domains. 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. NSF Award ID: 2547111 | Program: 1300PYXXDB H-1B FUND, EDU, NSF | Principal Investigator: Kimberly Fluet | Institution: University of Rochester, ROCHESTER, NY | Award Amount: $2,999,766 View on NSF Award Search: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/show-award/?AWD_ID=2547111 View on Research.gov: https://www.research.gov/awardapi-service/v1/awards/2547111.html