Scholarships for Success: Husky Pathways for Academic Wellness and Success

Michigan Technological University, Houghton MI

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 Michigan Technological University. Michigan Tech is a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math-focused high-research activity institution with approximately 7000 students, located in the rural upper peninsula of Michigan. Over its six-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 46 unique full-time students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees and accelerated master’s degrees in applied physics, engineering and computer science. First-year students will receive four-year scholarships; additional finishing scholarships will be awarded to fourth-year students pursuing an accelerated master’s degree. This project aims to foster professional and personal growth in six distinct types of social capital identified in Yosso’s Cultural Wealth Model while also supporting metacognition skills and scholars’ sense of belonging in STEM. Specific project activities will include a summer bridge opportunity, a first-year experience designed to develop self-awareness, continual career counseling and alumni mentor connections, an option for immersive study abroad, and opportunities to perform undergraduate research. Ultimately, the coupling of student financial support with social capital resources will prepare talented low-socioeconomic students to enter the workforce as successful world-class scientists and engineers. The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. Within Engineering, Computing, and Physics at Michigan Tech, 60% of Pell students successfully graduated within six years, compared to 71% of the non-Pell students. This project will elevate student’s cultural assets to increase their sense of belonging and retention to achieve Pell students’ graduation rates comparable to non-Pell student levels. Using an asset-based approach and leveraging existing curricula in self-authorship that places students in the driver’s seat to identify and map their own development pathway, students will strategize ways to develop the social capital essential to navigating and succeeding in academic systems. Program activities will be assessed and refined through participatory action research involving STEM scholars as co-researchers, recognizing their expertise in their own lived experiences. Evaluation will guide program revision so that future practices will be informed by student scholars. 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.