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 Central Connecticut State University. Over its five-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 24 unique full-time and part-time students who are pursuing master’s degrees in Software Engineering. Scholars will receive scholarship support for up to one year of prerequisite coursework, as needed, and up to two years to complete the degree on a full-time basis or up to three years on a half-time basis. Project activities will focus on three strategies for sustaining engineering graduate students: recruitment, mentoring and support, and career development. The project will be designed to attract Scholars with a broad range of STEM experiences and offer them a unique opportunity to combine their interdisciplinary background with the study of software engineering. Admitting Scholars as cohorts will create a supportive environment that supports Scholars’ academic success, retention, and timely graduation. This project builds upon successful prior S-STEM projects at the University, which established a well-functioning student support infrastructure. It also builds upon the faculty and staff experience in these previous projects, incorporating and improving upon the lessons learned so far. By supporting advanced degree attainment of low-income high achieving graduate students from non-traditional and interdisciplinary backgrounds, the project has the potential to increase workforce diversity in the software industry and help to address the national shortage of software professionals.
The project will support the study, implementation, and evaluation of curricular and co-curricular activities leading to the improved academic success of low-income academically talented graduate students. The proposed strategies are consistent with existing practices in higher education leading to the successful persistence of low-income students, including those from historically underrepresented groups. The project will help address an under-studied research question regarding the relationship between the level of identity as a software engineering professional and graduation rates for academically talented, low income graduate students. The research team will use a mixed-methods approach that will collect both quantitative and qualitative data and will employ a two-round data collection plan. 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.
