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1. NSF S-STEM EPIC Scholarship Program

   Atwood, Sara A; DeGoede, Kurt (January 2020, ASEE Annual Conference proceedings)

   Results will be presented from a 5-year NSF S-STEM scholarship program for academically talented women in engineering with financial need. Elizabethtown College’s Engineering Practices with Impact Cohort (EPIC) Scholarship program was launched with an NSF S-STEM grant awarded in 2013. The program developed a pathway for academically talented and financially needy women interested in engineering to successfully enter the STEM workforce. The program targeted three critical stages: 1) recruiting talented women into the ABET-accredited engineering program and forming a cohort of scholars,  2) leveraging and expanding existing high impact practices (including an established matriculation program, living-learning community, collaborative learning model, focused mentoring, and undergraduate research) to support women scholars during their college experience, and 3) mentoring scholars as they transitioned to the STEM workforce or graduate programs. The goals of the scholarship program were to increase the number and percent of women entering engineering at our institution and to increase the graduation/employment rate of EPIC scholars beyond that of current engineering students and beyond that of national levels for women engineers.   At the end of this grant, we have roughly doubled the number of women (22.7%) and underrepresented minority students (14%) in the engineering program. This is comparable to the 2016 national average of 20.9% women and 20.6% underrepresented minority bachelor's graduates in engineering. We have also remained at a consistently high level of enrollment and retention of low-income (18.6% Pell-eligible) and first-generation college students (61%). 83% of the scholars have been retained in the engineering program or have graduated with an engineering degree, which is above the institutional and national average. The remaining scholars transferred to another major but have been retained at the institution. All of the scholars participated in a living-learning community, tutoring, focused mentoring, and a women engineers club. Almost all participated in a pre-matriculation program. 17% of the scholars additionally had an undergraduate research experience and 28% studied abroad. 100% of the scholars had engineering workforce jobs or graduate school acceptances at the time of graduation. This program successfully increased the population of underrepresented minority, low-income, and first-generation women entering the engineering workforce.  

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2. BOARD # 287: NSF S-STEM: Advancing STEM Undergraduate Success and Persistence through Scholarship, Mentorship, and Increased Sense of Belonging

   https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--55651  

   Chang, Jen-Mei; Trajkovic, Jelena; Galvez, Gino (June 2025, ASEE Conferences)

   This paper examines the impact of a National Science Foundation Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (NSF S-STEM) Program at a large, Minority-Serving institution in the western U.S. Despite growing efforts to diversify STEM fields, underrepresented minority (URM) students continue to face significant challenges in persistence and success. This scholarship program addresses these challenges by providing financial support, faculty and peer mentorship, and skills development opportunities to academically talented and low-income URM STEM students. This study evaluates how participation in the program enhances key noncognitive skills, such as students' sense of belonging, leadership and collaboration skills, and science identity, which are critical to STEM persistence. Using both survey and university-based data among the 47 participating scholars, results reveal that program participants report strong levels of sense of belonging, high efficacy in leadership and collaboration skills, and strong science/math identities. Additionally, compared to university rates, scholarship students showed above-average retention and graduation rates, with the majority pursuing graduate studies or careers in STEM. These findings highlight the importance of comprehensive support programs that integrate financial aid, mentorship, and professional development to promote persistence and success among URM students in STEM fields. 

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3. CS@Mines Successful S-STEM Scholarship Ecosystem for Low-Income and Underrepresented Students

   Camp, T.; Liebe, C.; Thiry, H. (April 2021, 52nd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE '21))

   null (Ed.)

   The primary purpose of PATHS (Path Ambassadors to High Success), an NSF-funded S-STEM scholarship program, is to create new pathways and strengthen existing pathways for academically talented, low-income Colorado high school and community college students to study computer science (CS) at Colorado School of Mines (Mines). PATHS has achieved the following major project goals: 1) Increase number of academically talented, low-income students studying CS in Colorado; 4) Increase retention of these students; 3) Establish an active on-campus community to support PATHS scholars and similar students; 4) Engage scholars to perform CS recruitment and outreach at area high schools and community colleges; 5) Evaluate PATHS activities through comparative analysis to provide new insights on best practices for attracting and retaining academically talented, low-income CS students; 6) Broaden participation of historically underrepresented groups in CS; and 7) Develop a new flexible degree program combining other STEM fields and CS. PATHS students are diverse (e.g., 40.8% from under- represented groups in computing) and academically successful (e.g., mean GPA is 3.4). Thus far, the program has awarded scholarships to 49 students and retained 93.9% of the students. Of the 49 students, six have graduated and three of the six have also pursued a CS Master’s degree. 

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4. Board 267: Engineering a Transfer Friendly Experience with Alternative Pathways to Excellence

   https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--42719  

   Acton, Katherine; Besser, Deborah; Nepal, Kundan; Holte, Jennifer (June 2023, ASEE Conferences)

   The Alternative Pathways to Excellence (APEX) program at the University of St. Thomas is an NSF funded S-STEM Track 2 project that seeks to strengthen efforts to recruit and retain STEM transfer students by integrating financial, academic, and practical supports. The APEX program provides student support services, formal and informal mentoring, curricular and co-curricular supports, and cohort building activities all formulated to create accessible pathways into engineering careers for a population of academically talented students with low income and high unmet financial need. The goals of this program are to increase recruitment by partnering with five regional community colleges, to award S-STEM scholarships of up to $10,000 annually to cohorts of 4-6 students each year, to increase retention by developing retention-friendly supports, and to graduate APEX scholars who go on to meaningfully contribute to fueling innovation in industry and/or academic post-graduate study. Generation of knowledge is based on studying the APEX program as a model and evaluating qualitative and quantitative data surrounding students’ successful transitions to a four-year institution. Program evaluation is focused on understanding how well APEX recruitment strategies contribute to increasing the number of low income and underrepresented students who transfer into the University of St. Thomas Engineering program and understanding the extent to which retention efforts are most beneficial to retaining students. In this work, we showcase initial program activities, and the initial results based on the first year of study and our first cohort of scholars. 

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5. Improving Engineering Students’ Outcomes via Multiple Forms of Mentorship

   Rodríguez, Y; Varelas, A; Angulo, N; Nieto-Wire, C; DePass, A L (November 2023, The Chronicle of Mentoring & Coaching, Mentoring Institute)

   A group of interdisciplinary faculty at Hostos Community College, an institution that serves a largely first-generation student population that is over 90% minority, 69% women, who often live below the poverty line and lack academic role models, has created the NSF-funded Hostos Engineering Academic Talent (HEAT) Scholarship Program designed to increase the number of low-income academically talented students who persevere and graduate with associate and baccalaureate degrees in engineering. HEAT provides its scholars with financial support, a combined mentoring model where scholars work with STEM faculty and more advanced engineering students throughout the year, and the opportunity to participate in mentored research experiences. Student successes include improved GPAs, rates of retention, graduation from 2- and 4-year institutions, and acceptance to STEM graduate programs or entering the workforce as compared to students not participating in HEAT. Surveys of Scholars indicate that combined mentorship is the most important component of HEAT. Thus, HEAT is a model of intervention that serves to expand the STEM pipeline to create a more inclusive and diverse engineering workforce. 

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