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This student-led research will assess a weekly lunch that eight faculty mentors implemented to promote student retention for an S-STEM scholarship cohort of approximately twenty engineering students. The faculty mentors hosted the students by providing simple home-cooked meals, which helped reduce food insecurity among the cohort while providing a venue for professional development. These lunches also provided an informal way for the faculty to connect with the students while fostering peer-to-peer relationships. The weekly lunch was initiated in the winter quarter of the first year of study for the participating students. As students moved into their sophomore year and began to enroll in separate, major-specific courses, the lunches helped to preserve previously formed relationships and group identity. While the weekly lunches focused on social interaction and provided a relaxed environment for catching up, each lunch included professional development “nuggets” strategically timed to increase impact. Example activities included the initial introduction of faculty mentors, talks from Ph.D. students, ambassadors from student organizations, discussions about academic success, interview skills in preparation for upcoming university career fairs, and research opportunities for undergraduates. This paper quantifies the impact of the lunches on professional development, group identity and belonging, connections with faculty mentors, and academic success using a 25-question survey. The survey includes Likert scale questions, yes/no/unsure questions, and open-ended discussion questions. While survey results show that students enjoy the lunches and believe the social and professional support activities are beneficial, the results are mixed on whether or not the lunches play a role in their decision to remain in an engineering major. 

This complete research paper assesses the first-year implementation of an NSF-funded S-STEM effort, the SUCCESS Scholars Program (SSP), established in the Fall of 2022 at Louisiana Tech University. Louisiana Tech University is a Carnegie High Research Activity University that has approximately 20% of its 7500 undergraduates as engineering majors, is geographically distanced from large metropolitan areas but draws its student population both statewide and regionally and operates on the quarter calendar. Louisiana Tech University merged the math, chemistry, and physics programs with the engineering, technology, and computer science programs into a single college in 1995 and created an integrated freshman engineering curriculum in 1998. Louisiana Tech University has a long history of educational innovations in engineering education, with a hands-on project-based approach implemented in 2004 and four other NSF-funded programs to increase student success in engineering since 2007. The SSP builds on these prior efforts by providing financial, academic, personal, and professional support to engineering students starting in their first year of college through four years of academic study. The first cohort of twenty-four students was selected through an application process after learning about the program at orientation. The SSP team focused heavily in the first year on academic support and community building while also providing each student a financial scholarship of up to $10,000 depending on unmet financial need. Throughout the first year, students in the SSP attended a three-day-a-week first-year engineering course instead of the typical two-day-a-week course. This provided additional access to the lab equipment, contact hours with their instructor, practice problems, and helped foster community among the cohort. Additional academic support was provided through supplemental instruction sessions strategically designed to provide support in both their engineering and mathematics courses. These sessions were led by upper-level peer mentors. Students were connected with faculty mentors in their discipline through lunches that the SSP faculty team provided each week. These lunches helped reduce food insecurity while also providing an inviting atmosphere for interaction between peers and faculty. Lunches also offered an opportunity to have career discussions and bring in professional development speakers like student organization leaders and graduate students. At the start of the first quarter of their sophomore year, nineteen students were either still on track or just one quarter behind in their engineering curriculum. This record will be compared with the approximately 420 students who either were eligible or did not take part in this program. Historical data will be reviewed to determine how predictive these initial markers are toward completion of the degree. 

First-year students frequently struggle with the transition from high school to college as they juggle academic requirements, new living accommodations, and social expectations. Transitional struggles can be amplified for engineering students due to the challenging mathematics, engineering, and science courses taking during their first term. First-year students are commonly ill-equipped to manage their time wisely and study properly. Structure and guidance can assist in fostering skills and behaviors that are vital for success. The SUCCESS Scholars (SS) Program was developed to provide foundational support for 24 low-income first-year engineering students. The program was designed to provide academic support in the form of extra Fridays sessions for engineering and peer mentorship led supplemental instruction (SI). The 24 students were grouped into exclusive sections of a precalculus course and an engineering course. Two upper-level students were selected to lead the SI sessions while providing peer mentorship and community engagement for the first-year students. The faculty teaching both courses worked together with the peer mentors to develop a plan for the SI sessions. This paper will detail the SS Program and analyze the performance of the students in their first quarter at the university. Data from common exams given in their precalculus and engineering courses will be used to examine the effectiveness of the program.