2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

The Angelo State Engineering Scholars (ASES) program is a track 2 S-STEM project that aims to increase the enrollment, graduation, and workforce participation of low-income engineering students. This presentation highlights the lessons learned from recruiting, mentoring, personal development, and career seminars in the program's first year.
This presentation discusses issues encountered in the start-up year of this S-STEM program including, a late start date, problems with the use of Pell grant eligibility as a measure of low-income status, and the use of student essays in selection of scholarship recipients. Challenges in each of these areas are discussed and mitigations or changes made are presented. The presentation will be beneficial to similar programs in planning their recruitment efforts with a focus on retention and addressing the challenges associated with implementing an S-STEM program in the first year.