NSF Award
2221037
This project will contribute to the national need for well-educated scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at Wayne State University (WSU), an urban, public research university in Detroit, Michigan. Over its 6-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 48 unique undergraduate students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in Engineering Technology (ET) programs. WSU’s ET programs are upper division only, designed to provide a pathway for community college graduates to earn a BS degree in 2 years. These non-traditional students face significant financial and personal challenges in completing their degrees. This project will provide high-achieving low-income students with financial support, implement evidence-based active learning techniques, as well as offer various professional and academic support services to strengthen students’ engineering identity and commitment to enter the STEM workforce or graduate school upon graduation. The project will also impact all ET students at WSU by a) promoting utilization of evidence-based active learning techniques in all programs of study at the institution, b) increasing student retention and graduation rates, while reducing time-to-degree, and c) providing a qualified technical workforce for local industry. <br/><br/>The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. A recent national study indicated that the six-year graduation rate of transfer students who earned a 4-year baccalaureate degree was only around 42% and the likelihood of degree completion for low-income students is even less. Based on identity theory that seeks to understand the links between social organization and individual behavior, this project hypothesizes that early engagement, and continuous support play a key role in fostering engineering identity, retention, and persistence of ET transfer students, thus improving their academic and professional outcomes. The project will inform faculty, the engineering education community, and administrators about how engineering technology students perceive their identification with engineering careers and how “early engagement” and “continued support” of transfer students in engineering technology impact their commitment to and identification with the engineering profession. Upon the successful completion of this project, three outcomes are expected. First is to improve overall 1st-to-2nd year retention rates, the average time-to-degree, and the average 4-year graduation rates of all ET transfer students. Second is to have at least 90% of participating students enter the STEM workforce or graduate studies within 6 months of graduation. And third is to help meet industry demand for technologically competent graduates. An external evaluator will perform process and outcome evaluation using results from formative and summative assessments. The findings of this project will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications, conference presentations and workshops, workshops for area community colleges, and seminars. This project is funded by NSF’s Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics program, which seeks to increase the number of low-income academically talented students with demonstrated financial need who earn degrees in STEM fields. It also aims to improve the education of future STEM workers, and to generate knowledge about academic success, retention, transfer, graduation, and academic/career pathways of low-income students.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
