Removing the Disparity in Success-Related Outcomes Between Academically Talented Low-Income Engineering Students and Other Engineering Students

该项目将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，方法是支持伊利诺伊芝加哥大学留住并毕业有经济需求的高成就低收入学生。伊利诺伊芝加哥大学是一所联邦指定的研究密集型机构，是美国种族最多元化的大学之一。在为期五年的时间里，该项目将为51名正在攻读工程或计算机科学学士学位的全日制学生提供奖学金。一年级学生和转校生将获得四年的奖学金支持。该项目将利用伊利诺伊大学芝加哥分校(UIC)工程学院现有的项目，并纳入各种活动，包括本科教育中的队列建设和培养、与教师、同行和行业合作伙伴三管齐下的指导计划、通过有保障的带薪实习计划进行的专业实践、高级准备课程和一个设计项目。该项目的直接影响将是参与的学者和未来的工程师。此外，该项目还有可能影响部门计划和政策。UIC处于独特的地位，因为可持续项目的实施和发展将示范这些做法如何在其他研究密集型机构、有很大比例的转学学生或为少数族裔服务的机构中采用。该项目的总体目标是增加低收入、高成就、有经济需求的本科生的STEM学位毕业率。为了实现这一目标，团队将专注于几个项目目标。一是提高一年留存率。第二个目标是提高六年毕业率。第三是提高毕业生在毕业后六个月内获得与专业相关的工作机会/研究生入学的比例。我们将使用多种研究方法来促进对来自低收入背景的优秀工科学生在UIC期间如何发展他们的工程认同的理解，以及转学学生在UIC的时间中影响工程认同发展的普遍方面。除了向符合佩尔资格的学生提供更高的经济支持外，该项目的制度化部分还将产生连锁反应，可能会影响所有UIC工程专业学生的成功。该项目由不同的教职员工组成，他们在不同的工程和计算机科学学科、教育和跨学科社会科学方面具有协同专业知识。该小组计划使用多种方法对该项目进行评估，包括调查形式的定量方法和访谈形式的定性方法。该传播计划确保了成果将在各个层面上共享，包括部门、学院行政部门、国家工程教育委员会、会议、期刊和通过专门网站的公众。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 Illinois Chicago, a federally designated research-intensive institution that is among the most ethnically diverse universities in the United States. Over its five-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 51 unique full-time students, who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in engineering or computer science. First-year students and transfer students will receive four years of scholarship support. The project will leverage available programs in the College of Engineering at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and incorporate activities, which include cohort building and nurturing throughout the undergraduate education, a three-pronged mentoring program with faculty, peers, and industry partners, a professional practicum through a guaranteed paid internship program, senior preparation course, and a design project. The direct impact of the project will be on the participating scholars and future engineers. In addition, the project has the potential to impact departmental programs and policies. UIC is in a unique position in that implementation and development of a sustainable project will model how these practices may be adopted at other institutions that are research intensive, have a significant portion of transfer students, or are minority serving institutions. The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. To achieve this goal, the team will focus on several project objectives. The first is to increase the one-year retention rate. The second objective is to increase the six-year graduation rate. The third is to increase the percentage of graduates with a major-related job offer/graduate study admission within six months of graduation. Multiple research methods will be used to advance the understanding of how high-achieving engineering students from low-income backgrounds develop their engineering identity during their time at UIC, and what are the prevalent aspects of a transfer student’s time at UIC that impact engineering identity development. In addition to providing higher financial support to Pell-eligible students, the institutionalized components of the project will have ripple effects that can impact the success of all UIC engineering students. The project consists of a diverse group of faculty members with synergistic expertise in the various engineering and computer science disciplines, education, and interdisciplinary social sciences. The team plans to evaluate the project using multiple methods including quantitative methods in the form of surveys and qualitative methods in the form of interviews. The dissemination plan ensures that results will be shared at various levels, which includes departments, college administration, national engineering education committees, conferences, journals, and the public via a dedicated website. 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.