An Integrated Program for Recruitment, Retention, and Graduation of Academically Talented Low Income Engineering Students

伊利诺伊大学芝加哥分校的科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金(S-STEM)项目旨在解决低收入天才学生和高收入天才学生在工程专业的毕业率差异很大的问题。通过招募学业上有天赋的低收入学生参与各种支持结构和机会，包括有保障的实习，该项目努力提高这一群体的学生成功，奖学金将支持30名学生。一个重要的结果是每个学者在毕业后6个月内找到一份工程工作或STEM研究生课程。这种方法包括第一个秋季学期前的夏季桥梁计划，每个学者与一名教师导师和一名学生大使配对，以及在工程学院(CoE)的研究实验室或100多家公司中的一家进行有保障的带薪实习。定性和定量研究支持这样的目标，即确定该项目如何影响学生的工程身份，以及他们的留存和毕业。该项目团队包括各种工程学科、工程教育和跨学科社会科学的教职员工。为了改善UIC COE其他学生的教育成果，并为全国其他工程项目服务，项目成果将通过时事通讯、期刊出版物、专业会议和专用网站在当地和全国范围内传播。

This Scholarships for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM) project at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) seeks to address the high discrepancy in graduation rates of low-income talented students and high-income talented students in Engineering. By recruiting low-income academically talented students to participate in various support structures and opportunities, including a guaranteed internship, the project endeavors to improve student success among this population with scholarships that will support 30 students. An important outcome is for each scholar to find an engineering job or a STEM graduate program within 6 months of graduation. The approach includes a Summer Bridge Program before the first Fall semester, which pairs each scholar with a faculty mentor and a student ambassador, and a guaranteed paid internship in a College of Engineering (COE) research lab or one of more than 100 companies. Qualitative and quantitative studies support the goal of determining how the program affects the students' engineering identities and their retention and graduation. The project team includes faculty in the various engineering disciplines, engineering education, and interdisciplinary social sciences. To improve the educational outcomes of other students in the UIC COE and to serve other engineering programs in the nation, the project results will be disseminated locally and nationally via newsletters, journal publications, professional conferences, and a dedicated website.