2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

The single institution Track 2 NSF S-STEM (Scholarships in STEM) project titled “Increasing Retention and Success of Students from Low-Income Backgrounds in Civil Engineering” provides a total of 32 two-year undergraduate scholarships, spread over 4 years. The focus during the Scholar’s freshmen and sophomore years is on building a strong foundation in the Gateway 8 courses. These eight basic science, math and introductory engineering courses are often the primary reason for attrition from engineering programs and pose significant hurdles to students from low-income backgrounds. Emphasis during the Scholar’s junior and senior years is on personal/professional development, preparation for graduate studies and workforce training. The core project team has developed a four-year support plan that includes: (i) financial support during freshman and sophomore years, (ii) academic support in the Gateway 8 courses via customized tuition support recommendations, (iii) monthly one-on-one progress check-up meetings with PI, and early alert using the learning management platform MU Connect, (iv) STEM Cohort networking with regular community-engagement service projects, field trips, and professional/personal development seminars, (v) workforce training with external partners for internship opportunities and college faculty for hands-on graduate research training, (vi) feedback from regular internal and external program evaluations for knowledge generation and finetuning program support features, and (vii) team-building events involving all STEM Scholars, internal and external partner panels for the project, and the core STEM Team, including the annual Meet and Greet event every Fall with the entry of a new cohort, and the annual banquet to recognize Scholar accomplishments in late Spring.
We use a multi-pronged approach to evaluate program effectiveness. Each Scholar is followed individually and longitudinally throughout the first two years. The Sense of Community-2 survey and an Engineering Self-Efficacy survey is administered at the beginning and end of the two years and again at a point mid-way through. The Sense of Community-2 measures a student’s feelings of belonging to a community and commitment to one another, and feelings that each member’s needs will be met by the community. The Engineering Self-Efficacy survey measures students’ judgments concerning their academic performance in engineering courses and an engineering program, their expectations about an engineering career, and their persistence in pursuing an engineering education. In addition, at the end of each academic year, students participate in a focus group to discuss their personal experiences in the program and offer suggestions for change. Grade point averages from each semester are recorded and correlated with self-efficacy measures.
The project team also partners with the Research on Organizational Partnerships in Education and STEM (ROPES) Hub, an NSF-funded effort at the Virginia Tech whose emphasis is on understanding intra- and inter-institutional partnerships and their effectiveness in student success among low-income engineering students.
With experience with three cohorts of STEM Scholars, partnership in the NSF STEM research hub, the core project team has developed data to-date that demonstrate excellent retention record and anticipated success in graduating and retaining Scholars in STEM fields.