Civil and Mechanical Engineering Scholarship Program

该项目将通过支持犹他谷大学（UVU）表现出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。弗吉尼亚大学是一所公立高等教育机构，具有双重使命——综合性大学和开放招生的社区学院。该项目为期6年，将为至少36名攻读土木工程和机械工程学士学位的全日制学生提供奖学金。一年级学生可以获得长达五年的奖学金支持，转学生可以获得长达三年的奖学金支持。该项目将实施以证据为基础的实践，以支持学者在他们的学习项目中取得进展。例如，UVU在土木和机械工程方面的认证和精心设计的学士学位课程将通过支持辅导、合作项目、顶点项目和实习而得到加强。教师导师还将帮助学者创建个人教育和发展计划（IEDP），以指导指导工作，促进学生成长，并提高学生在坚持、完成和职业准备方面的成果。电子档案的引入将允许学生反思和综合他们在各种课程和活动中的工作，帮助建立课堂和专业学习能力之间的联系，并为研究生申请和工作面试做准备。来自行业合作伙伴的导师、演讲嘉宾、实习和顶点项目等形式的合作将丰富项目内容。该奖学金项目将使低收入学生有机会受益于本地区及其他地区机械和土木工程专业的动态增长和催化影响，并为其做出贡献。该项目的总体目标是提高有经济需求的低收入、高成就本科生的STEM学位完成率。该项目旨在促进对开放招生大学STEM项目的循证干预措施的理解，该大学的学生群体与研究型机构的学生群体明显不同。该项目解决了弗吉尼亚大学工程教育管道中几个制度性的人员流失率问题，包括一年级和二年级学生的高流失率、学生进入专业课程的速度缓慢、女性、代表性不足的少数民族和第一代学生的参与率和完成率低。根据UVU之前的Track 1项目的数据，以及对即将采用的以证据为基础的实践的成功记录的研究，我们预计该项目将在使参与者留在学校，帮助他们及时完成学位，以及为满足地区和国家需求准备一支具有技术和软技能的人才队伍方面产生重大影响。我们觉得这个项目有潜力为其他有类似人口和关注的机构提供信息。外部评估人员将帮助确定哪些干预措施和干预措施组合对学生最有影响，最受学生重视。该奖学金项目的成功成果和值得注意的经验教训将由项目团队通过出版物和在工程教育会议上的演讲来传播。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，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 and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at Utah Valley University (UVU). UVU is a public institution of higher education with a dual mission – that of a comprehensive university and that of an open-admissions community college. Over its 6-year duration, the project will fund scholarships to at least 36 unique full-time students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in Civil Engineering and Mechanical Engineering. First-year students may receive up to five years and transfer students up to three years of scholarship support. The project will implement evidence-based practices to support scholars as they progress through their programs of study. For example, UVU’s accredited and well-designed baccalaureate programs in civil and mechanical engineering will be enhanced by supports for tutoring, collaborative projects, capstone projects, and internships. Faculty mentors will also help scholars create an Individual Education and Development Plan (IEDP) that will guide mentoring efforts, foster student growth, and increase student outcomes for persistence, completion, and career preparation. The introduction of e-portfolios will allow students to reflect on and synthesize their work in various courses and activities, help build connections between classroom and professional learning competencies, and prepare for graduate school application and job interviews. Collaboration from industry partners in the form of mentors, guest speakers, internships, and capstone projects will enrich the project. This scholarship project will give low-income students an opportunity to benefit from and contribute to the dynamic growth and catalytic impact of the mechanical and civil engineering professions in this region and beyond.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. The project aims to advance understanding about evidence-based, context-specific interventions for STEM programs at an open-admissions university with a markedly different student population from those at research-focused institutions. The project addresses several institutionally identified attrition points in the engineering educational pipeline at UVU, including high attrition of first- and second-year students, slow pace of students to matriculation into the professional program, and low participation and completion rates of women, underrepresented minorities, and first-generation students. Based on data from UVU’s prior Track 1 project and on research documenting the success of the evidence-based practices to be employed, we anticipate that this project will make a substantial difference in keeping participants in school, helping them complete their degrees in a timely manner, and preparing a talented workforce with the technical and soft skills to meet regional and national needs. We feel this project has potential to inform other institutions with similar populations and concerns. An external evaluator will help determine which interventions and combinations of interventions are most impactful to students and most valued by them. The successful outcomes of this scholarship project and noteworthy lessons learned will be disseminated by the project team through publications and presentations at engineering education conferences. 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.