Fostering Future Engineering Faculty Diversity by Building a Pipeline to Graduate Programs

该项目将通过支持马萨诸塞州洛厄尔大学的高成就、低收入学生的留校和毕业来促进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。马萨诸塞州洛厄尔大学是一所R2公立研究型大学，第一代本科生的比例很高。在为期6年的时间里，该项目将向24名独特的全日制学生提供奖学金，他们将从大学三年级起获得四年的奖学金，直到完成硕士学位或完成博士学位考试。该项目的目标是通过帮助学生探索他们对这些职业的兴趣，并支持他们准备和走上这些研究生教育道路，来创造一个多样化和有竞争力的学生池，这些学生可能成为未来的工程学教师候选人。项目活动包括与内部和外部教员的小组辅导会议、安全空间队列建设、工作跟踪、个别研究生院申请支持、积极的教学和研究经验、培养教学和教学知识的课程，以及一年级和二年级研究生的导师方案(进入研究导师方案；ERMP)。该项目还将使用播客作为向高中生介绍STEM职业的一种方式。该项目有可能显著增加传统上在工程学领域任职人数偏低的研究生人数，并加强高素质、多样化的应聘者进入高等教育领域的渠道。另一个更广泛的重要影响是，该项目有很大潜力培养具有多样性和包容性核心个人和专业信念的社会正义教育工作者，这有助于在高等教育中促进包容和公平的环境，以留住下一代工科学生。智力优势的目标是更好地理解激励低收入、高成就、代表性不足的工程学学生坚持攻读工程学研究生课程和未来高等教育教师职位的因素。该项目计划采用各种以证据为基础的干预措施，这些干预措施已经成功地用于支持学生实现其职业目标。该项目将确定基于群体的指导和安全空间队列建设是否有助于低收入、高成就率，并将分析从教授多样化人口课程收集的评估数据，以促进关于如何培养社会正义教育工作者的知识。此外，该项目将探索播客的潜力，作为学者自我表达和探索他们对从事教师职业的兴趣和信心的一种方式。最后，该项目将考察参加ERMP是否会带来积极的指导关系、职业认同感、研究和学术技能，以及对追求教师职业生涯的信心。该项目的成果将通过在地方和国家会议上的发言、工程教育期刊上的出版物、以队列活动为特色的网站以及针对高中生的播客节目来传播。该项目由NSF的科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金项目资助，该项目旨在增加在STEM领域获得学位的低收入学术天才学生的数量。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业成功、留住、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优势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 the University of Massachusetts Lowell, a R2 public research university with a high percentage of first-generation undergraduate students. Over its 6-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 24 unique full-time students who will be supported for four years from their junior undergraduate year through the completion of a master's degree or completion of their qualifying exam within a Ph.D. program. The goal of the project is to create a diverse and competitive pool of students who could become future faculty candidates in engineering by aiding them to explore their interest in these careers and supporting them to prepare and embark on these graduate education pathways. Project activities include group-based mentoring meetings with internal and external faculty, safe space cohort building, job shadowing, individual graduate school application support, positive teaching and research experiences, a curriculum to cultivate pedagogical and content knowledge, and a mentorship program (Entering Research Mentoring Program; ERMP) for first- and second-year graduate students. The project will also employ podcasting as a way to introduce high school students to STEM careers. This project has the potential to significantly increase the number of STEM graduates from traditionally underrepresented populations in engineering at the graduate level, and strengthen the pipeline of highly qualified diverse candidates entering careers in higher education. Another important broader impact is the project's strong potential to foster social justice educators with core personal and professional beliefs in diversity and inclusion, which help promote inclusive and equitable environment in higher education to retain a future generation of engineering students. The intellectual merit goal is to better understand the factors that motivate low-income, high-achieving, underrepresented engineering students to persist in the trajectory to engineering graduate programs and future faculty positions in higher education. The project plans to employ a variety of evidence-based interventions that have been used successfully to support students to achieve their career goals. The project will determine whether group-based mentoring and safe space cohort building contribute to low income, high achieving analyze the evaluation data collected from a teaching diverse populations course to advance knowledge about how to cultivate social justice educators. In addition, the project will explore the potential of podcasting as a way for scholars to self-express and explore their interest and confidence in pursuing a faculty career. Lastly, the project will examine whether participation in ERMP results in positive mentoring relationships, professional identity, research and academic skills, and confidence in pursuing faculty careers. Results of this project will be disseminated via presentations at local and national conferences, publications in engineering education journals, a website featuring cohort activities, and podcast episodes targeted to high school students. 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.