Scholarships to Support a Co-Op Based Engineering Education

该项目将有助于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要，通过支持在明尼苏达州立大学，曼卡托的高成就，低收入学生的保留和毕业证明经济需要。在六年的时间里，该项目将为120名攻读工程学理学学士学位的全日制学生提供奖学金。大三第一学期，以转学为主，学生将获得一个学期的奖学金。Iron Range Engineering（IRE）STEM学者计划为全国各地的学生提供了一条经济上可持续的途径，使他们能够获得工程学位和长达两年的行业经验。学生通常在全国各地的社区学院完成前两年的工程课程。然后，学生加入IRE，并花一个过渡学期获得培训和经验，使他们具备在工程队伍中取得成功所需的技术，设计和专业技能。在他们的教育的最后两年，IRE学生在行业工作，赚取工程实习生的工资，同时在他们的技术和专业发展的教授，学习辅导员和自己的同龄人的支持。IRE STEM学者项目将通过在过渡学期期间为低收入学生提供经济上负责的工程学位，这有两个财务挑战：大学学费高于他们以前的社区大学费用，并且学期发生在他们能够赚取工程合作社收入之前。此外，该项目将在学生毕业的整个过程中提供个性化的指导，例如每周与导师进行对话。通过提供这些支持，IRE STEM学者项目旨在帮助学生成为具有职业发展和工程合作经验的工程劳动力的有竞争力的申请人。由于社区学院吸引了来自各种背景的学生的相对代表性比例，因此该项目有可能了解转学途径和合作教育如何为更多样化的学生群体提供经济上可持续的工程学位途径，并有助于发展多样化，有竞争力的工程劳动力。该项目的总体目标是增加低收入，有经济需求的优秀大学生。作为该项目范围的一部分，将对工程专业学生的成长，特别是他们的身份，归属感，动机和整体健康（或身心健康）进行同步混合方法研究。学生的成绩以前主要通过学业指标来衡量，如毕业率和GPA。除了这些成果，该项目还探索了更好地支持学生整体发展的方法。本研究将解决以下研究问题：如何做本科生的工程身份和忠诚度随着时间的推移，在合作为基础的工程项目的发展？本科生的动机和身份如何与基于合作社的工程项目中的整体福祉联系起来？这项工作的结果将在会议和期刊出版物和研讨会上提供，重点是其他工程合作项目的应用，以更好地支持成绩优异的低收入学生。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，并产生有关学术成功，保留，转移的知识，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得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来支持。

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 Minnesota State University, Mankato. Over its six-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 120 unique full-time students who are pursuing Bachelor of Science degrees in engineering. First-semester junior, primarily transfer, students will receive scholarships for one semester. The Iron Range Engineering (IRE) STEM Scholars Program provides a financially sustainable pathway for students across the nation to graduate with an engineering degree and up to two years of industry experience. Students typically complete their first two years of engineering coursework at community colleges across the country. Students then join IRE and spend one transitional semester gaining training and experience to equip them with the technical, design, and professional skills needed to succeed in the engineering workforce. During the last two years of their education, IRE students work in industry, earning an engineering intern salary, while being supported in their technical and professional development by professors, learning facilitators, and their own peers. The IRE STEM Scholars project will provide access to a financially responsible engineering degree for low-income students by financially supporting them during the transitional semester, which has two financial challenges: university tuition costs are higher than their previous community college costs, and the semester occurs before they are able to earn an engineering co-op income. In addition, the project will provide personalized mentorship throughout students’ pathway to graduation, such as weekly conversations with a mentor. By providing these supports, the IRE STEM Scholars project aims to prepare students to be competitive applicants for the engineering workforce with career development and engineering co-op experience. Because community colleges draw relatively representative proportions of students from a variety of backgrounds, this project has the potential to learn how transfer pathways and co-op education can support financially sustainable pathways to engineering degrees for a more diverse group of students and contribute to the development of a diverse, competitive engineering workforce.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. As part of the scope of this project, a concurrent mixed-methods research study will be done on engineering students’ thriving, specifically their identity, belonging, motivation, and overall wellbeing (or mental and physical health). Student outcomes have previously been measured primarily through academic markers such as graduation rates and GPA. In addition to these outcomes, this project explores ways to better support overall student thriving. This study will address the following research questions: How do undergraduate students’ engineering identity and belongingness develop over time in a co-op-based engineering program? How do undergraduate students’ motivation and identity connect to overall wellbeing in a co-op-based engineering program? The results of this work will be available in conference and journal publications and workshops focused on applications for other engineering co-op programs to better support high achieving low-income 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,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.