2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

In the University of Florida (UF) Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering, 20% of our students are first-generation in college and 22% have documented family financial need. Overall combined, 28% of students are either first-generation or in financial need, totaling approximately 2,240 UF engineering undergraduate students.
Experiential learning during college, those co-curricular educational experiences outside the classroom, are important in the transformation of students into practicing engineers. Co-curricular experiences include participating in student organizations, design teams, hackathons, competitions, internships, co-ops, study abroad, undergraduate research, professional development seminars, and company tours. These experiences beyond the classroom are critical in student development, identity formation as engineers, retention, and in building the practical skills needed to be leaders in the engineering workforce.
Experiential learning opportunities often have financial barriers that prevent students with financial need from participating, putting them at a disadvantage compared to their peers. Costs like travel for national design teams, attending professional meetings, visiting corporate sites, funding study abroad courses, or presenting at conferences can be prohibitive. Further, students with financial need may choose to be employed in a non-STEM paid position instead of accepting a volunteer STEM-relevant opportunity. First-generation college students face challenges due to a lack of family experience with the college system, making it harder for them to understand the importance of engaging in these essential professional development activities.
Through a partnership with the ExxonMobil Foundation and the College’s Center for Experiential Learning, we are building co-curricular programs that take into thoughtful consideration the barriers to access that first-generation and financial need students commonly face. As a college-level office, our offerings are well positioned to serve all engineering majors and years. This paper will discuss how one industry partnership was used to create a multi-faceted means of engaging first-generation and financial needs students by one 1) establishing an undergraduate research scholarship program, 2) establishing an undergraduate abroad scholarship program, 3) creating free hands-on workshops in our prototyping facility , 4) equipping peer mentors who unknowingly interact with these populations with knowledge and language via training , and 5) providing additional support and materials for our students organizations who create hands-on activities for K-12 events.