Supporting Student Success and Higher Degree Attainment in Engineering: A Scholarship-Based, Comprehensive Strategy for Talented Low-Income Students

Miami University, Oxford OH

Investigators

Abstract

This project will contribute to the national need for well-educated scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at Miami University in Ohio. Miami University is a predominantly undergraduate public university with approximately 19,900 main campus students and 4,600 regional campus students, and degrees ranging from the Associate to the Master’s level. Over its 6 year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 132 unique full-time students who are pursuing associate, bachelor’s, and master’s level degrees in Engineering, Computer Information Technology, Mechanical Engineering Technology, and Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering (MME). The size of the institute, broad cross-section of programs, and physical presence within an industry manufacturing intensive region are all factors that endorse the development of this project at Miami. The curricular plan of this project can enable a graduating high school student to progress from the Associate degree to the Master’s level. To ensure a high level of student success, multiple project activities will create a framework that monitors, supports, and guides student progress from selection to graduation. This multi-tiered approach is a distinguishing feature of the project: The scholarship addresses financial need while the additional activities create tools such as bridge modules and a mentoring program, all of which will reduce time to graduation and encourage the attainment of higher degrees. The broader impacts of this project emerge from the transformation of the practices used to improve the recruitment, retention, and graduation of students, especially women and those from groups underrepresented in STEM. It is focused on enabling the attainment of higher-level degrees, and the transformative approaches presented here are anticipated to have a broad impact because they, i) create a curricular framework that enables greater mobility, and, ii) develop instructional models tailored to specific cohorts. The success of the project can be replicated at other institutions as specific bridge modules may be used directly. The project establishes its intellectual merit by demonstrating innovation in a scholarship program by building a sense of community and identity as a vehicle for academic advancement. By purposefully connecting scholarship recipients to mentors and a cohort of peers, the proposed project provides a pathway to greater retention and development of a skilled workforce. The project will also provide initial data to inform the conceptual model in which identity can be clarified through a learning community, mentoring, and seminar experiences. The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. The need for more advanced education for individuals entering the workforce is becoming increasingly apparent as sectors across industry adopt higher levels of technology and automation. The emerging gap in the current workforce and required skill-sets creates the backdrop for the goal of this project. A significant element of the proposed approach for the attainment of a more diverse and qualified graduating class in STEM disciplines is cohort development. This aspect of the project, as supported by pedagogical research, is designed to create a group dynamic that promotes student learning and can respond to individual needs, thereby eschewing a one-size-fits-all approach to degree completion. The project outcomes include the creation of a system to administer the awarding of 132 scholarships over six years, enable greater accessibility to higher degrees by creating a range of learning modules, and the alignment of resources that help sustain student progress. The research team has created an interwoven assessment plan to enable reflection and data generation and to guide future S-STEM projects. The evaluation and assessment plans will elucidate the factors that contribute to or challenge the project’s capacity to recruit, enroll and retain low-income, academically talented students in the program. Avenues for the dissemination of the project results include NSF-organized conferences, reporting of assessment findings, and content of learning (bridge) modules at professional conferences. This project is funded by NSF’s Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics program, which seeks to increase the number of low-income academically talented students with demonstrated financial need who earn degrees in STEM fields. It also aims to improve the education of future STEM workers 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.