NSF Award
2424733
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 The Catholic University of America (CUA). Located in the District of Columbia, Catholic University is the national university of the Catholic Church in the United States. Over its five-year duration, this Track 1 project will fund two-year scholarships to 20 unique full-time, third-year transfer students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in biomedical engineering, civil and environmental engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, or computer science. The project intends to increase the number of students from underrepresented groups who transfer to CUA from local two-year institutions to complete their undergraduate engineering education and join the much in-demand DC Metro engineering workforce. The program will provide a pathway for first- and second-year students at the local partnering institutions to join the CUA engineering community without increasing the time to graduation. The project will include focused efforts on recruitment, onboarding, articulation, and financial and academic support through advising, mentoring, community-building and cultural engagement. The outcomes of this project will expand knowledge of ways to provide effective and lasting financial and programmatic support for transfer students who have not previously identified local, private institutions as an option to complete their undergraduate education. <br/><br/>The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. There are three project-specific aims supporting this goal: 1) increasing student body diversity; 2) increasing the transfer rate for local commuter transfer students; and 3) increasing retention and ultimate graduation rates of scholars. The project will address a number of challenges to meeting these goals, including the need for local recruiting at partner institutions, inherent complexities of the admissions process, and high tuition costs. The project’s components will strengthen CUA’s understanding of commuter transfer students in engineering and its commitment to addressing challenges in mentoring, advising, and engagement of scholars. Project evaluation will utilize surveys administered at critical time points in the program to assess the impact of project activities on scholars' academic outcomes and engagement. Evaluation data and project outcomes will be shared externally with the larger academic community through journal articles and presentations at conferences journals, and to local partners and the broader public through channels including the university’s magazine, alumni network, and social media platforms. 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.
