This project will contribute to the national need for well-educated engineers by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students pursuing energy-related degrees in the College of Engineering at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Over its five-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 38 unique, full-time students who are pursuing bachelor's degrees in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, civil engineering, chemical engineering, petroleum engineering, or industrial technology. Scholars will include 18 freshman, 12 sophomores, and 8 juniors, who will receive up to four years of scholarship support. The Scholars will be provided with effective support activities including high-quality faculty mentoring, undergraduate research experiences, service learning opportunities, connections to local industries, guidance on graduate school preparation and career development, and participation in targeted workshops and seminars. With individualized guidance from faculty mentors, Scholars will create individual development plans outlining their career goals and steps toward achieving those goals. The project will support curriculum design aimed at improving overall student retention in the College, particularly for first- and second-year students, who are at greatest risk for transfer or drop-out. This project can help the United States remain competitive in the field of energy technologies by graduating students who can fill workforce needs in these fields. In addition, the project has the potential to increase understanding about the roles of mentoring and individual development plans in supporting STEM degree attainment and to broaden student participation and success in STEM fields.
The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. The specifically focuses on creating a sustainable and adaptive pathway that will provide students with the necessary engineering skills and solutions-based approaches needed by future employers in energy technology fields. To do so, the project aims to: 1) Provide scholarships to students pursuing energy-related engineering fields; 2) Implement evidence-based support services for Scholars; and 3) Develop a model of strategies to support undergraduate student success. Preparing graduates to enter the energy technologies workforce is an imperative component of this project, reflecting the role of energy technologies in Louisiana’s workforce and economy. Through cohorts, mentoring, field experiences, internships, and workshops, Scholars are expected to develop knowledge about current and future challenges of energy technologies. Although the project focuses on energy technologies, the educational model that will be implemented has the potential to work across other STEM disciplines. The projects' research plan includes an investigation of the effectiveness of the cohort engagement model when paired with financial support. The investigation will seek to identify the impact that project activities, including workplace training, research experiences, and new engineering courses, have on student success. Project success will be assessed through an external evaluation that compares outcomes of Scholars to those of peers. The project results and outcomes will be presented in local, regional, and national conferences and through the project's website. 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.
