Scholarships, Services, and a Framework of Programmatic Belonging Cues to Improve Undergraduate Student Success in Engineering Majors

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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, this project at Hope College in Holland, Michigan, will provide 15 students with four-year scholarships and with services to support recruitment, retention, and graduation of the Scholars with four-year engineering degrees. Students will progress through the program in two cohorts, one of eight students beginning in the first year of the award and a second cohort of seven students beginning in the second year of the award. During their first two academic years, students will be mentored and participate in activities such as cohort building, supplemental instruction, career development opportunities, and a vocation-focused diversity and inclusion seminar series. This focused set of interventions is expected to lead to strong cohort development, which, when combined with continued attentive faculty mentoring, is expected to aid in the persistence of students to graduation. Students in the program will participate in early research or internship opportunities that will help to address employment needs of regional employers. The program aims to increase the retention of students through a framework that is easily transferable to other institutions. This framework includes longitudinal, focused integration of belonging cues into each student’s academic programming. Belonging cues are short, simple activities that invoke students’ sense of belonging. Examples include highlighting successful engineers who were first-generation or from low socioeconomic backgrounds and providing current students with messages from former students about their successful transition to college and persistence through adversity. Research questions will investigate if regular application of such programmatic belonging cues over an extended period leads to lasting improvement in motivation and sense of belonging that results in increased GPA and student retention. Qualitative and quantitative methods will be used to determine the attainment level of program objectives and to assess a student’s sense of belonging and feelings of support as it relates to their persistence. Self-determination theory, a well-established theory used in various contexts, will serve as the theoretical framework for the evaluation. 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.