This project is supporting over 50 academically talented students with demonstrated financial need in attaining baccalaureate degrees in Engineering at Northern New Mexico College (NNMC). Cohort-building and academic-support activities for scholars include faculty mentoring, peer tutoring, participation in engineering-focused first-year experiences and community service, career- and graduate-school awareness events, and opportunities to participate in undergraduate research related to the Solar Energy Research Park and Academy, Northern New Mexico Cisco Networking Academy, and partnerships with the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The intellectual merit of the project lies in its comprehensive approach to recruitment and support of scholars in a young, vibrant engineering department that has built strong connections to industry and other educational institutions in the region. Broader impacts include promotion of student success in this impoverished, rural region. 80% of NNMC students are first-generation-in-college, 83% are Hispanic, and 9% Native American. This program is thus expanding and diversifying the engineering workforce in the region, as well as providing a model approach for consideration by similar institutions.
