2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

The National Science Foundation established the Rising Scholars program to demonstrate how the cultivation of mentor support networks could promote the matriculation and retention of qualified low socio-economic students into STEM fields. Rising Scholars students are those individuals with low socio-economic status that have distinguished themselves academically in secondary education and wish to move into a collegiate STEM major. The overarching goal of this NSF S-STEM effort was to determine if professional-based mentors could help an individual make-up for a lack of ‘institutional’ collegiate knowledge within their own family and friends. Under this program, twenty-one incoming exploratory studies students, across three years, who had expressed an interest in engineering were provided with a defined path of social and professional activities in college, where they engaged in numerous experiential activities, including on-campus research and internships. The overall goal of this defined path was to introduce the students to potential mentors within technical fields, who might later assist the students with their own careers. Rising Scholars students were sent to the Minority Engineering Program’s Academic Boot Camp, prior to entering school as freshmen, and they were scheduled for annual seminars and continuing social events to provide group cohesiveness. While many elements of keeping the students on the designated path where they could co-mingle with potential mentors was difficult, finding paid work experience for the students was particularly challenging. COVID-19 negatively affected the ability of these students to find professional employment, but some of students truly excelled in collegiate Professional Practice. Anecdotal experiences and data from employment-based activity of the Rising Scholars program are presented. Some students from the program remain actively working toward completing college, but to-date graduation and entry-level employment data are provided.