2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

With the growing demand for engineers, there is a need to recruit high-achieving economically disadvantaged school students who may not consider attending a 4-year university and to facilitate their success. Our SSTEM (NSF 22-527) Award# 2221623 award looks to identify and recruit high-achieving low-income students who show an interest in the advanced manufacturing industry and facilitate academic success using Tonso’s socialization theory of engineering identity development. We have also found that a foundational common first year seminar course combined with peer mentoring has become powerful tools in helping to enhance engineering identity.
Our recruitment strategy is to engage and recruit through local high school teachers. To assess high achievement, emphasis was placed on the teacher’s recommendations. This successful recruitment model was expanded with additional schools and teachers, which has resulted in a higher number of strong candidates for future cohorts.
SSTEM students meet initially in a common first-year program and continued to meet regularly on and off campus. Students had connections with industry partners in the spring 2024, with all students engaged in co-ops over the summer.
After the first year, Cohort 1 students (n=6) had 100% retention, compared to a college first-year retention average of 64.8%, with an average cumulative GPA of 3.57 compared with the college average GPA of 2.76.
Through group activities, Cohort 1 students have developed into a cohesive group. Cohort 1 students were included as part of the interviews and final selection of Cohort 2 and provided valuable input. Participation in the Cohort 2 selection process improved Cohort engagement with the SSTEM program activities. Cohort 2 selected Cohort 1 students to peer mentor. These connections proved important in forming a connection to the SSTEM program and reinforcing their engineering identities.
The limited data from the spring survey of Cohort 1’s perception of their SSTEM experience shows that the cohort feels a connection to their careers, and while they have an understanding of future difficulties, they have confidence that they will persist.

The key findings from our initial evaluation of the SSTEM program are that involving high school teachers in the selection process has been critical for the recruiting of appropriate candidates. In addition, involving the current SSTEM scholars in the selection process of future cohorts has helped to develop a strong sense of connection between students which has enforced their peer-mentoring relationships. We anticipate that this will help to enhance their connections to the SSTEM program, engineering identity, and retention.