This project will contribute to the national need for skilled scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students at Western New England University. Over its five-year duration, the project will fund scholarships to 18 undergraduate students who are pursuing mechanical engineering degrees. Two cohorts of incoming first-year students will be supported for up to four years. Two new course-based experiences will provide Scholars with research experiences and develop their entrepreneurial skillsets. The project will also strengthen the existing student support programs at the University, including faculty and peer mentoring, learning communities, student conference participation, and career consultation. Project activities and services are expected to boost the self-efficacy of low-income students early in their college careers, thus better preparing them to tackle challenges in college and future careers. This project intends to advance understanding of the relationship between the proposed activities and student retention and degree completion. The findings from this project will contribute new knowledge about activities that improve the persistence and graduation rates of college students from low-income communities. The project will broaden its educational and economic impacts by establishing a community outreach program to increase the number of high school and middle school students entering STEM fields.
The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. It aims to support students pursuing STEM degrees and careers and contribute to economic growth in technology on a local and national level. The combination of research activities, entrepreneurship skill development, and student services is intended to improve the pathway to success for low-income STEM students. The goal of the research experience is to deepen the students’ technical knowledge in the engineering field through laboratory-based research activities. Additionally, the complementary entrepreneurship curriculum will teach students to identify innovative opportunities, as well as strengthen their workplace skills and execution ability. This project will advance the understanding of the impact of undergraduate research combined with entrepreneurial skillset development on low-income student success. It will utilize validated assessment instruments to evaluate the implemented curricular and co-curricular activities and will improve the activities based on student and faculty feedback. The benefits of the project will be disseminated both internally and externally. The effective evidence-based practices determined by the project will be implemented across a wider student population at the University. 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.
