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

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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 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.