Scholarship Program in Manufacturing Engineering Leadership Development

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The Scholarship Program in Manufacturing Engineering Leadership Development will provide tuition scholarships to 25 academically talented full-time freshmen engineering students with financial need who will complete an undergraduate degree in manufacturing engineering at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. Scholars will also develop leadership experience through career development activities targeting leadership skills and opportunities for internships in industry. The leadership experience will build skills in communication, critical thinking, teamwork and professionalism. The program allows the University of Michigan-Dearborn to offer scholarships to directly address an area of national concern: maintaining US competitiveness in manufacturing. Scholarships for academically strong engineering students, who may not otherwise be able to afford college, have an impact on the number of engineering graduates prepared to help national, regional, and local manufacturing companies. The Manufacturing Engineering Leadership Development at the University of Michigan-Dearborn will recruit students in two groups. Each group will form a cohort that will take several engineering courses together, work on common projects, share experiences and learn from each other, both inside and outside of the classroom. In addition to the tuition scholarship, the program will include academic support, mentoring and career guidance so that the student cohorts will successfully complete their degrees in four years. Graduates will find employment in the manufacturing field or enroll in graduate studies. The STEM scholars will also be given the opportunity to participate in industry visits and projects in Fall and Winter semesters, which will provide engineering experience and enrich their education with practical knowledge. The STEM scholars will receive mentoring and academic support from faculty, graduate students, alumni and practicing engineers throughout the four years of their studies in the University. The STEM scholars will also have the option of participating in the University of Michigan-Dearborn structured engineering co-op program in their junior and senior years, which will provide them with practice-oriented education and experiential learning that will help them in their career. Assessment and evaluation will provide insight into the retention benefits of student scholarships, learning communities, career development activities, and faculty mentoring/advising. Lessons learned and effective practices that emerge from the program evaluation data will be disseminated widely to the engineering education community and help enlarge the knowledge base regarding attributes and practices of successful scholarship programs of this type.