Engineering Academic Talent Scholarship Program

Cuny Hostos Community College, Bronx NY

Investigators

Abstract

This five-year project will contribute to the national need for well-educated STEM professionals by supporting the success of thirty Scholars who are pursuing associate's and bachelor's degrees in engineering. The project is led by Hostos Community College, an urban Hispanic-Serving Institution in Bronx, NY, and member of the City University of New York system. The project will support the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need in partnership with The City College of New York's Grove School of Engineering. Over five years, this project will fund up to 110 annual scholarships. Each scholarship will provide a full year of financial support for up to four years of study, including up to two years at Hostos Community College and up to two years at the Grove School of Engineering. The project will increase the impact of the scholarship support by providing Scholars with mentoring by faculty and near-peers and ensuring that the Scholars take full advantage of available resources and professional development opportunities that are associated with student success. These resources include: 1) writing across disciplines in the STEM curriculum; 2) mentored immersive undergraduate research experiences; 3) guidance and support for transfer to a four-year institution; 4) exposure to STEM-related working and professional facilities; 5) participation at professional STEM conferences; and 6) career orientation workshops and other professional development opportunities. This project builds on the previous NSF-funded "Bridges to Engineering Success for Transfers" Program that helped to establish a Joint Dual Engineering Degree Program between Hostos Community College and the Grove School of Engineering. The project includes a robust evaluation plan to determine the impact of combined faculty and near-peer mentoring on Scholars' academic success. The evaluation plan will use a mixed-method approach to assess the project's impact on Scholars' academic performance, retention (institutional and within STEM disciplines), and post-graduate outcomes relative to their non-participant peers, as well as project implementation, progress in relation to developmental objectives, institutional impact, and alignment with the NSF Scholarships in STEM program. The research results from this study will be used formatively to refine the intervention model as student experiences and outcomes are better understood. The results are expected to be generalizable to other populations both inside and outside of Hostos Community College, creating the potential to expand the project model to other STEM programs and institutions. This project is funded by the NSF Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics program, which seeks to increase the number of low-income, academically high-achieving students with demonstrated financial need who earn degrees in STEM fields. It also aims to improve the education of future scientists, engineers, and technicians, and to generate knowledge about academic success, retention, transfer, graduation, and academic/career pathways of low-income students. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.