Preparing Academically Talented Students with Financial Need to be the Next Generation of Engineering Professionals by Fostering Innovation and Leadership Skills

该项目将通过支持北卡罗来纳农工州立大学工程学院表现出经济需求的高成就、低收入家庭学生的保留和毕业，为满足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。在HBCU中，北卡罗来纳理工大学是培养非裔美国人本科工程师最多的大学，工科本科女生比例在全美排名第五。该项目为期五年，将为22名攻读工程学院9个本科工程专业之一的学生提供四年奖学金。这些学科包括建筑、生物（医学）、生物、土木、化学、计算机、电气、工业与系统、机械工程和计算机科学。该项目将扩大目前的学生渠道，重点关注农村地区。一个结构化的过程将在学生学术生涯的早期阶段就培养他们的创新能力和领导能力。基于群体的创造性学习经验将与国家认可的工程大挑战学者计划和领导力发展联系起来。真正的体验式学习将通过指导和跨学科的体验来促进。该项目将提供创新和领导能力方面的培训，并鼓励全球和跨文化视角。通过服务学习，培养社会意识。工程领导带识别系统将正式确定并扩展，以影响北卡罗来纳理工学院的广泛学生，并支持其他资助的学生发展努力。再加上全国工程学院创新和创业的趋势，该项目有潜力培养领导者，并广泛向全国学生介绍共同的核心领导能力。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。这种创新和领导力的结合有望促进学习动机和成绩。它还有望激发企业家精神、知识和对社会相关解决方案的兴趣。这一前提植根于已发表的关于服务不足人群以及全国不断变化的学生角色的研究。将构建和评估一个称为“学-做-领导”的适应性模型。该模式将促进任何学生成长计划的执行，在我们的案例中是创新，在一致的领导力发展背景下。该项目将努力确定最能影响创新和领导力的内容和教学方法。它还试图了解对学生成绩、动机和创业知识的影响，以及评估机构整合方法的可持续性。结果将通过专业会议和工程教育专业期刊，以及讲习班，研讨会和其他培训机会传播。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 in the College of Engineering at North Carolina A&T State University. An HBCU, NC A&T is the largest producer of African-American undergraduate engineers and fifth in the nation for the percentage of undergraduate women engineering graduates. Over its five-year duration, this project will fund four-year scholarships to 22 students who are pursuing one of nine undergraduate engineering programs in the College of Engineering. These include architectural, bio(medical), biological, civil, chemical, computer, electrical, industrial & systems, and mechanical engineering, and computer science. The project will expand the current pipeline of students with a focus on rural areas. A structured process will develop innovation and leadership in students beginning in the early stages of their academic careers. Cohort-based creative learning experiences will connect to the nationally recognized Engineering Grand Challenges Scholars Program and leadership development. Authentic experiential learning will be promoted through mentoring and interdisciplinary experiences. The project will provide training in innovation and leadership and will encourage global and cross-cultural perspectives. It will also foster the development of social consciousness through service learning. An Engineering Leadership belt recognition system will be formalized and extended to impact a broad range of students at NC A&T and support other funded student development efforts. Coupled with the national trend in engineering colleges toward innovation and entrepreneurship, this project has the potential to develop leaders and broadly introduce a shared core leadership competency to students nationally. The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. This combination of innovation and leadership is expected to promote academic motivation and performance. It is also expected to stimulate entrepreneurship knowledge and interest in socially relevant solutions. This premise is rooted in published research regarding under-served populations as well as nationally changing student personas. An adaptable model termed "Learn-Do-Lead" will be structured and evaluated. The model will facilitate the execution of any student growth initiative, in our case innovation, within a consistent leadership development context. The project will strive to identify the content and pedagogy that will most impact innovation and leadership. It also seeks to understand impact on student performance, motivation, and entrepreneurial knowledge, as well as assess institutional integration methods for sustainability. Results will be disseminated through professional conferences and engineering education professional journals, as well as workshops, seminars, and other training opportunities. 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.