Recognizing current and future needs for a diverse skilled workforce in mechanical engineering and the rising cost of higher education that acts as a barrier for many talented students with interests in engineering, the NSF funded S-STEM project at a state university focuses resources and research on financial support coupled with curricular and co-curricular activities designed to facilitate student degree attainment, career development, and employability in STEM-related jobs. This program has provided enhanced educational opportunities to more than 90 economically disadvantaged and academically talented undergraduate students in the Mechanical Engineering Department in the past eight years. It is expected that approximately 45 academically talented and financially needy students, including students transferring from community colleges to four-year engineering programs will receive scholarship support in the next 5 years, with an average amount of $6,000 per year for up to four years to earn degrees in mechanical engineering at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC).
Through scholarships and supplemental support services, this program promotes full-time enrollment and will elevate the scholastic achievement of the S-STEM scholars, with a special emphasis on females and/or underrepresented minorities. It will provide a holistic and novel educational experience combining science, engineering, technology and medicine to improve student retention and future career prospects. The project builds on an established partnership between the state university and community colleges to improve and investigate the transfer experience of community college students to four-year programs, student retention at the university, and job placement and pathways to graduate school and employment. A mixed methods quantitative and qualitative research approach will examine the implementation and outcomes of proactive recruitment; selected high impact practices, such as orientation, one-to-one faculty mentoring, peer mentoring, and community building; participation by students in research-focused activities, such as research seminars and undergraduate experiences; and participation by students in career and professional development activities.
In this paper, preliminary data will be presented discussing the attitudes and perceptions of the s-stem scholars and comparing students in scholarly programs and non-programmed situations.
This research was supported by an NSF S-STEM grant (DUE-1742170).
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This content will become publicly available on June 1, 2025
Board 192: A Support System for Low-Income Students to Catalyze Diversity and Success
There is substantial opportunity for engineering graduates to enter the workforce to engage in a fulfilling career and achieve social mobility, but there is a lack of adequate support for low income, academically talented students. The purpose of this poster is to describe the interventions designed to support S-STEM scholarship students at [blinded for review] University in the first year of our S-STEM project. Our S-STEM project objectives are threefold: 1) Provide scholarships to encourage talented students with low incomes and demonstrated financial need to initiate and graduate from engineering majors in the College of Engineering at [blinded] University and subsequently enter the engineering workforce or a graduate program; 2) Develop a support system that integrates multiple elements and services to foster a learning environment that motivates scholarship students to persist in their engineering studies; and 3) Foster an inclusive learning environment by engaging all engineering students in diversity, equity, and inclusion experiences and nurturing an equity mindset in student leaders through participation in training programs. To accomplish these goals, we identified 10 low-income, academically talented students to receive scholarships. We also identified 80 additional engineering students who wished to participate in the Engineering Living/Learning Community (ELC). The scholarships students and other interested students were placed in the ELC starting in Fall 2023, where they are experiencing first year engineering as a cohort. This cohort experience includes required seminars, required attendance of Engineering I and Calculus I in a designated section, and the option of living in a shared dorm to facilitate further collaboration. Seminars that are part of the ELC are focused on adjusting to college life (e.g., time management, course registration, resume design) and diversity, equity, and inclusion subjects, including upstander training and coping with imposter syndrome. Scholarship students are also being encouraged to engage in leadership training offered through the University. This leadership training also focuses on DEI topics, and encourages students to be informed advocates. Finally, this project is assessed by an external evaluator to determine the project’s impact on students’ motivation, sense of belonging, and their equity mindset. Evaluation data involve pre- and post-surveys of all first-year engineering students, and focus groups of project leaders, ELC mentors, scholarship students, and other engineering students.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2221511
- PAR ID:
- 10539203
- Publisher / Repository:
- ASEE Conferences
- Date Published:
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Location:
- Portland, Oregon
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Recognizing current and future needs for a diverse skilled workforce in mechanical engineering and the rising cost of higher education that acts as a barrier for many talented students with interests in engineering, the NSF funded S-STEM project at a state university focuses resources and research on financial support coupled with curricular and co-curricular activities designed to facilitate student degree attainment, career development, and employability in STEM-related jobs. This program has provided enhanced educational opportunities to more than 90 economically disadvantaged and academically talented undergraduate students in the Mechanical Engineering Department in the past eight years. It is expected that approximately 45 academically talented and financially needy students, including students transferring from community colleges to four-year engineering programs will receive scholarship support in the next 5 years, with an average amount of $6,000 per year for up to four years to earn degrees in mechanical engineering at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC). Through scholarships and supplemental support services, this program promotes full-time enrollment and will elevate the scholastic achievement of the S-STEM scholars, with a special emphasis on females and/or underrepresented minorities. It will provide a holistic and novel educational experience combining science, engineering, technology and medicine to improve student retention and future career prospects. The project builds on an established partnership between the state university and community colleges to improve and investigate the transfer experience of community college students to four-year programs, student retention at the university, and job placement and pathways to graduate school and employment. A mixed methods quantitative and qualitative research approach will examine the implementation and outcomes of proactive recruitment; selected high impact practices, such as orientation, one-to-one faculty mentoring, peer mentoring, and community building; participation by students in research-focused activities, such as research seminars and undergraduate experiences; and participation by students in career and professional development activities. In this paper, preliminary data will be presented discussing the attitudes and perceptions of the s-stem scholars and comparing students in scholarly programs and non-programmed situations. This research was supported by an NSF S-STEM grant (DUE-1742170).more » « less
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