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Los desastres naturales recientes, incluida la pandemia del Covid-19, los huracanes y los terremotos, han presentado importantes retos para el aprendizaje de los estudiantes en todo el mundo. Para fomentar oportunidades para los estudiantes, profesores de nuestra universidad han presentado dos iniciativas financiadas por la Fundación Nacional de Ciencias (NSF, por sus siglas en inglés) de Estados Unidos. Este artículo se enfoca en presentar estas iniciativas educativas: el Ecosistema de Apoyo Académico y Socioemocional para Estudiantes Talentosos de Bajos Ingresos (ASSETS, por sus siglas en inglés) y el Programa de Educación Subgraduada en Infraestructura Resiliente y Sostenibilidad (RISE-UP, por sus siglas en inglés). Ambas iniciativas comparten el objetivo común de brindar oportunidades a estudiantes académicamente talentosos que cursan carreras en STEM (Ciencia, Tecnología, Ingeniería y Matemáticas). Este artículo describe las metas y el trabajo realizado hasta la fecha en los proyectos educativos RISE-UP y ASSETS. Se espera que estas intervenciones puedan llevar a mayores niveles de participación, retención y tasas de graduación entre los estudiantes participantes, en comparación con sus contrapartes no participantes, y que estén mejor preparados para tener éxito en sus carreras profesionales. Sin embargo, debemos esperar hasta el final del estudio para confirmar estos resultados. 

This research to practice paper describes two NSF-funded projects: The “Program for Engineering Access, Retention, and LIATS Success” (PEARLS) and the “Academic and Socioemotional Support Ecosystem for Talented low-income STEM Students” (ASSETS). These initiatives aim to support low-income, academically talented students pursuing STEM degrees, offering academic, socio-emotional, and financial assistance. Both projects provide mentoring, workshops, mental health services, and scholarships. Outcomes have shown increased engagement, retention, and graduation rates among participants compared to non-participants. Retention and persistence rates among PEARLS participants reached 97% and 96.3% respectively, showcasing the model effectiveness in keeping students focused on their studies. Graduation rates saw remarkable improvements, with on-time graduation rates soaring to 4.17 times that of non-participating students. The paper presents a robust framework for an integrated support ecosystem, emphasizing scalability and replicability across diverse institutions. By addressing the challenges faced by underprivileged students during environmental crises, this framework aims to foster equity and inclusion in higher education, ensuring all students have the support they need to succeed. 

After a decade-long economic crisis and a series of major natural disasters, rural com-munities in Puerto Rico are grappling with significant gaps in vital services such as shelter, energy, water, and mobility. This particularly affects low-income elderly resi-dents who rely on these services for an improved quality of life. A prime example of this situation is Corcovada, a rural community in the countryside of Puerto Rico which faces isolation and has a sizeable aging population. Its residents rely on themselves, their relatives, and other community members to provide transportation, as well as basic services like electricity for sustenance and medication maintenance. A site as-sessment was conducted, including solar irradiation, soil conditions, weather, and seismicity. This research presents an interdisciplinary design solution for modular emergency shelters for families in Corcovada, incorporating structural, solar energy, water use, and wind simulations. The emergency shelter module was designed with specific objectives and requirements: short-term accommodation for a family of four, expandability and collapsibility as needed, off-grid operation for water and energy dur-ing emergencies, and sustainability, resilience, affordability, and ease of assembly. Fu-ture endeavors involve the development of a mobility hub to reduce residents' reliance on private transportation.