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

该项目将通过支持在大峡谷州立大学有经济需求的高成就、低收入学生的保留和毕业，为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做出贡献。在五年的时间里，该项目将为30名全日制本科工程学生提供奖学金，这些学生将通过大学的联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，包括本科课程的最后一年和研究生课程的第一年。 这项支持旨在鼓励学术上有才华的低收入学生攻读更高的工程学位。除了提供奖学金，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，同行指导，体验式学习，研究活动，有针对性的研讨会，研讨会和行业高级管理人员的领导阴影。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，该项目旨在使学者能够按时完成学位并进入STEM劳动力队伍。 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机会，奖学金和其他机会来积极影响社会。 该项目的总体目标是提高低收入，高成就的本科生与证明财政需要完成STEM学位。该项目的具体目标是：1）向30名成绩优异、收入较低的本科STEM学生颁发奖学金，以便在压缩的时间轴内攻读工程理学学士和工程理学硕士学位; 2）将不同的STEM研究生与行业联系起来，并在毕业后创造一个全职就业的渠道;以及3）促进对循证活动如何有助于保留和毕业的理解。虽然高影响力活动的影响被广泛研究的本科生群体，有限的文献存在研究生群体。本研究将探讨高影响力活动对心理变量的影响，包括冒名顶替综合征和自我效能，这些因素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两级进行评估。工作假设是，拟议的结构和活动将导致高学术成就，成功的就业结果，并提高自我价值。一个多方法的准实验设计将被用来评估整个项目的结构和学生的社会，学术和专业成长的个别组件的效果。所产生的知识将有助于高等教育机构制定以证据为基础的战略，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分享。该项目由NSF的科学，技术，工程和数学奖学金计划资助，该计划旨在增加低收入学术人才的数量，这些学生表现出经济需求，并获得STEM领域的学位。它还旨在改善未来STEM工作者的教育，并产生关于低收入学生的学术成功，保留，转移，毕业和学术/职业道路的知识。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力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.