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The positive benefits of fostering a Growth Mindset in students have been widely reported. Developing the skill of persisting through and learning from failure is key to developing a growth mindset and the entrepreneurial mindset – KEEN (Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network). This work-in-progress paper will examine how an MBL model could be a valuable tool for developing our students’ Failure Mindset. The MBL framework we employ is centered on learning through practice and coaching – making mistakes and learning from those mistakes, frequent low-stakes assessments, analyzing the results for further practice, and coaching on that skill or before moving forward to the next skill. A positive Failure Mindset looks at failure as a positive outcome that enhances one’s opportunities for learning. In this study, we will explore preliminary data by examining three groups of students: • entering first-year students, including those enrolled in an MBL course and those not enrolled in this course, • third-year students enrolled in an MBL course – 90% of these students have previously taken at least one MBL course, • and students enrolled in a one-semester off-campus alternative MBL-assessed project-based learning curriculum. We will use an established tool for assessing Failure Mindset and test the following hypotheses. • H1 – At initial assessment, students in 3rd-year students will exhibit a higher propensity toward a positive Failure Mindset than the entering first-year students. • H2 – The measure of Failure Mindset will increase over the course of the semester for all 3 groups of students. • H3 – the 1st year students in the MBL course will exhibit a more positive failure mindset at the end of the semester than those not enrolled in an MBL course. 

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.