CAREER:Influence of Social Capital on Under-Represented Engineering Students' Academic and Career Decisions

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。该工程教育研究职业奖授予克莱姆森大学，将促进社会互动的基本知识，这些知识会影响代表性不足的学生决定进入并坚持工程。 本研究具有很强的创新性，因为PI首次将社会资本的理论框架应用于解释工科学生的学业和职业选择。这项工作值得注意的是，它建立在其他领域的研究人员的结果，带来了新的观点和新的工具，工程学生的持久性研究。研究结果和方法将广泛传播给学术界和从业人员。该项目将增加完成工程学位并准备从事工程工作或创办新的高科技企业的学生人数。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5)This engineering education research CAREER award to Clemson University will advance fundamental knowledge of the social interactions that influence under-represented students' decisions to enter and persist in engineering. The research is very innovative because the PI is the first to apply the theoretical framework of social capital to explain engineering students' academic and career choices. The work is notable in that it builds upon the results of researchers in other fields to bring fresh perspectives and new tools to the study of engineering student persistence. The research findings and methods will be disseminated widely to academic and practitioner communities. The project will enhance the number of students who complete engineering degrees and are ready to fill engineering jobs or start new high tech businesses.