Strengthening Pathways for the Domestic Graduate Engineering Workforce and Future Professoriate: Increasing Access to Engineering Master’s Programs

该项目将通过支持宾夕法尼亚州立大学（Pennsylvania State University）的优秀、低收入、有经济需要的学生继续进入研究生院和随后的毕业，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。该项目为期6年，将为45名攻读工程学科硕士学位的全日制学生提供奖学金。学生将获得为期两年的奖学金，并参加旨在影响学术和社会成功的项目。项目活动将包括有意的策略，以增加兴趣，申请和注册工程硕士课程。此外，在为期两年的学者学习计划中，将提供诸如指导（团体和个人）和专业发展规划等留用活动。最后，该项目计划为54名教师培养包容性指导技能，这些技能将在项目持续时间之后产生影响。通过资助“隐藏”的低收入研究生群体，该项目希望改善学生的社会经济流动性。此外，拥有更高学位、更加多元化的国内工程师队伍将在STEM劳动力中担任更大的领导和指导职位。该项目还将培养一种包容的文化，并通过对大量教师进行包容性指导实践的教育，在广泛定义的服务不足的研究生的招聘和入学方面取得持续成功。最后，取得工程硕士学位可能会培养一些学者对博士课程的兴趣，从而增加未来工程教师的潜在资源，这是国家迫切需要的。这些潜在的新教师将成为未来其他低收入学生的榜样，这种整体方法很有可能被其他机构复制，以增加国内工程教师的数量。该项目的智力价值是基于通过期望值、自我效能和角色认同理论来检验高成就的低收入硕士学生的社会化和成功完成课程。宾夕法尼亚州立大学工程学院的总体目标是促进工程硕士学生的专业发展，发展和多样化工程劳动力，并通过发展一个具有包容性指导技能的教师社区来维持一个包容的环境。在混合方法研究中使用多方面的数据收集，项目团队期望三角定性和定量数据将产生对硕士学生社会化和成功完成项目的丰富理解。将传播研究生过渡和身份形成的最佳实践。这个项目有可能将我们所知道的对代表性不足的少数民族学生的模范辅导推广到低收入家庭的学生。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，该项目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 into graduate school and subsequent graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at The Pennsylvania State University. Over its 6-year duration, this project will attract and fund scholarships to 45 full-time students who are pursuing master’s degrees in engineering disciplines. Students will receive 2-year scholarships and participate in programming designed to impact academic and social success. Project activities will include intentional strategies to increase interest, applications, and enrollment in engineering master’s programs. In addition, retention activities such as mentoring (group and individual) and professional development programming will be offered for the two years of the scholars’ programs of study. Finally, the project plans to build skill in inclusive mentoring for 54 faculty members that will have impact beyond the duration of this project. By financially supporting the “hidden” population of low-income graduate students, the project expects to improve students’ socio-economic mobility. Furthermore, an expanded pool of domestic engineers with advanced degrees who are more diverse will be poised to take on greater leadership and mentorship positions within the STEM workforce. The project will also foster a culture of inclusion and sustained success in the recruitment and matriculation of underserved graduate students broadly defined, by educating a critical mass of faculty in inclusive mentorship practices. Finally, the achievement of a master’s degree in engineering will likely foster interest in doctoral programs for some of the scholars, thus increasing the potential pool of future engineering faculty, which is an urgent national need. These potential new faculty will serve as role models for other low-income students in the future, and this overall approach has strong potential to be replicated at other institutions to increase the numbers of domestic faculty in engineering.The intellectual merit of the project is based on examining high-achieving low-income master’s student socialization and successful program completion through the lens of Expectancy Value, Self-Efficacy, and Role Identity theories. The broad goals are to facilitate the professional advancement of engineering master’s students, grow and diversify the engineering workforce, and sustain an inclusive environment in the Pennsylvania State University College of Engineering by developing a community of faculty skilled in inclusive mentoring. Using multifaceted data collection within a mixed methods study, the project team expects that triangulated qualitative and quantitative data will yield a rich understanding of master’s student socialization and successful program completion. Best practices in graduate student transitions and identity formation will be disseminated. This project has the potential to extend what we know about exemplary mentoring of underrepresented minority students to low-income students. This project is funded by NSF’s Scholarships 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.