Improving Undergraduate Engineering Students' Degree Attainment Through Innovative Residential and Transfer Support

该项目将通过支持表现出经济需要的成绩优异的低收入家庭学生的保留和毕业，满足国家对受过良好教育的科学家、数学家、工程师和技术人员的需求。具体来说，该项目将支持东卡罗莱纳大学、勒诺瓦社区学院、皮特社区学院和韦恩社区学院的工程专业学生。这些机构服务于北卡罗来纳州东部的农村地区，该地区许多周边县的贫困率超过20%。该项目为期五年，将为80名攻读工程专业副学士和学士学位的学生提供四年奖学金。该项目将减轻上大学的经济负担，提供学术和社会支持，并引导学生走向工程职业，以帮助发展北卡罗来纳州东部的STEM劳动力。该地区历来难以吸引和留住工程专业人员。项目活动包括夏季桥梁项目、生活学习住宿项目、教科书借阅项目、辅导和职业准备活动。作为本项目的一部分，将开发和实施的活动将在赠款期后持续进行。因此，该项目具有支持未来学生的潜力，从而在每个合作机构中实现工程保留和毕业率的持续增长。该项目的总体目标是提高有经济需求的低收入、高成就本科生的STEM学位完成率。该项目将招收两组40名学生，主要来自北卡罗来纳州东部10个县的地区。本项目将采用联合课程支持模式，以Tinto的机构离职模式为基础。它将进行研究，以确定机构支持的哪些要素对吸引、留住和毕业低收入、成绩优异的学生最有效。具体的研究问题是：(1)社区学院转学生在社区学院、转学期间和转校期间如何体验学术、社会、专业和大学的融合？(2)综合联课支持对转校生和非转校生的学业、社会、专业和大学整合有什么影响？(3)较高水平的学术、社会、专业和/或大学整合是否比较低水平的整合能提高学位进展、学术成就和/或职业成就？该项目将通过收集数量数据（例如申请人数、留校率、毕业率）和质量数据（例如学生对支助机制价值的看法）来评价。该项目的结果将通过诸如美国工程教育学会年会和国家学术顾问协会会议等会议进行传播。研究结果将在IEEE Transactions on education Journal、Journal of Engineering education、International Journal of Engineering education等教育期刊上发表。该项目由美国国家科学基金会的科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金项目资助，旨在增加有经济需求的低收入学术天才学生在STEM领域获得学位的人数。它还旨在改善未来STEM工作者的教育，并为低收入学生提供有关学业成功、留校、转学、毕业和学术/职业道路的知识。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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. Specifically, the project will support engineering students at East Carolina University, Lenoir Community College, Pitt Community College, and Wayne Community College. These institutions serve a rural region in Eastern North Carolina in which the poverty rate in many surrounding counties exceed 20%. Over its five-year duration, this project will fund four-year scholarships to 80 students who are pursuing associate's and bachelor's degrees in engineering. This project will reduce the financial burden of attending college, provide academic and social support, and guide students toward engineering careers to help develop the STEM workforce of eastern North Carolina. This region has historically had difficulty attracting and retaining engineering professionals. Project activities include a summer bridge program, a living-learning residential program, a textbook-lending program, tutoring, and career preparation activities. The activities that will be developed and implemented as part of this project are designed to be sustainable beyond the grant period. As a result, the project has the potential to support future students, thus achieving persistent increases in engineering retention and graduation rates at each partnering institution. The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. The project will recruit two cohorts of 40 students, drawing primarily from a ten-county region in eastern North Carolina. This project will adopt the Model of Co-Curricular Support, built upon Tinto's model of institutional departure. It will conduct research to determine which elements of institutional support are most effective for attracting, retaining, and graduating low-income, high-achieving students. Specific research questions are: (1) How do community college transfer students experience academic, social, professional, and university integration at their community college, during transition between institutions, and at their transfer institution? (2) What effect does comprehensive co-curricular support have on academic, social, professional, and university integration for transfer and non-transfer students? (3) Do higher levels of academic, social, professional, and/or university integration result in improved degree progress, academic achievement, and/or career attainment than lower integration levels? The project will be evaluated by collecting both quantitative data (e.g., numbers of applicants; retention; graduation rates) and qualitative data (e.g., student perspectives of the value of support mechanisms). Results of the project will be disseminated through conferences such as the American Society for Engineering Education annual conference the National Academic Advisors Association conference. Results will be submitted for publication in education journals such as the IEEE Transactions on Education Journal, the Journal of Engineering Education, and the International Journal of Engineering Education. 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.