Scholarships for Student Success in a Combined Bachelor/Master Degree Program in Engineering

该项目将通过支持在大谷州立大学（Grand Valley State University）有经济需要的高成就低收入学生的保留和毕业，为全国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做出贡献。在为期五年的时间里，该项目将为30名全日制工程本科学生提供奖学金，这些学生将通过大学的综合学位课程攻读工程学士和硕士学位。被选中的学者将获得为期两年的奖学金支持，从本科课程的最后一年到研究生课程的第一年。这项资助旨在鼓励有学术天赋的低收入家庭学生攻读更高的工程学位。除了提供奖学金外，该项目还将为学者提供有效的课程和其他支持结构。例如，该项目将提供教师指导、队列沉浸、同伴指导、体验式学习、研究活动、有针对性的讲习班、研讨会和行业高级管理人员的领导力影子。通过提供财政资源，减少获得硕士学位所需的时间，并提供指导和培养，该项目旨在使学者按时完成学位并进入STEM劳动力市场。预计这些学者将能够担任领导职务，并通过为后代创造新的实习、奖学金和其他机会，对社会产生积极影响。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。该项目的具体目标是：1)向30名成绩优异的低收入STEM本科学生颁发奖学金，让他们在短时间内攻读工程学士学位和工程硕士学位；2)将不同的STEM毕业生与行业联系起来，并在毕业后创造全职就业渠道；3)促进对循证活动如何帮助学生留校和毕业的理解。尽管高影响力活动对本科生群体的影响研究广泛，但对研究生群体的研究文献有限。这个项目将探讨高影响活动对心理变量的影响，包括冒名顶替综合症和自我效能感，这些变量决定了学生的自我价值感。该项目的范围将允许在本科和研究生阶段进行评估。工作假设是，提出的结构和活动将导致较高的学业成绩，成功的就业结果，并提高自我价值。多方法准实验设计将被用来评估整个项目的结构和个别组成部分对学生的社会、学术和专业成长的影响。由此产生的知识将有助于高等教育机构制定基于证据的战略，以支持低收入群体接受研究生教育。该项目产生的知识将通过区域和国家会议以及STEM出版物与更广泛的学术界共享。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 at Grand Valley State University. Over its five-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 30 full-time undergraduate engineering students who will pursue a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in engineering via the University’s Combined Degree Program. The selected Scholars will receive two years of scholarship support spanning the final year of their undergraduate program and the first year of their graduate program. The support is intended to encourage academically talented, low-income students to pursue a higher degree in engineering. In addition to providing scholarships, the project will also provide the Scholars with effective curricular and other support structures. For example, the project will provide faculty mentoring, cohort immersion, peer mentoring, experiential learning, research activities, targeted workshops, seminars, and leadership shadowing of industry senior managers. By providing financial resources, reducing the time required to obtain a Master’s degree, and providing mentoring and nurturing, the project intends to enable the Scholars to complete their degree on time and enter the STEM workforce. It is anticipated that these scholars will be able to assume leadership positions and positively impact society by creating new internships, scholarships, and other opportunities for future generations. The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. The specific aims of the project are to: 1) award scholarships to 30 high-achieving, low-income undergraduate STEM students to pursue both a Bachelor of Science in Engineering and Master of Science in Engineering degree in a compressed timeline; 2) connect diverse graduate STEM students to industry and create a pipeline to full-time employment upon graduation; and 3) advance the understanding of how evidence-based activities aid in retention and graduation. Though the effects of high-impact activities are widely studied for undergraduate student populations, limited literature exists for graduate student populations. This project will explore the effect of high-impact activities on psychological variables, including imposter syndrome and self-efficacy, which determine a student’s sense of self-worth. The scope of the project will allow for assessment to occur at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. The working hypothesis is that the proposed structures and activities will result in high academic achievement, successful employment outcomes, and improved self-worth. A multi-method quasi-experimental design will be used to evaluate the effect of the entire project’s structure and individual components on the students’ social, academic, and professional growth. The generated knowledge will help institutions of higher education develop evidence-based strategies for supporting low income groups to pursue graduate education. Knowledge generated from the project will be shared with the broader academic community via regional and national conferences and STEM publications. 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.