Developing and Encouraging Engineering Professionals within a Commuter Student Population

该项目将有助于满足国家对有技能的科学家、数学家、工程师和技术人员的需求。它将通过支持扬斯敦州立大学表现出经济需求的高成就、低收入学生的留校和毕业来做到这一点。这所大学的大多数学生都是上下班的学生，他们住在校外，有兼职或全职工作，必须平衡学业以外的责任。在为期五年的项目期间，30名通勤学生将获得奖学金。奖学金将在每年两次的15名学生中进行招募，这些学生可以是全日制或半日制的一年级学生或转校生。这些学者将攻读工程领域的学士学位，包括化学、民用、电气、工业、机械和制造。奖学金获得者将获得每年可续期的奖学金，最长可达四年。此外，奖学金获得者将有机会获得现有的和新的支持结构，强调社区建设、指导以及专业和领导技能的发展。拟议的项目具有重大的学术价值，因为它解决了与通勤学生的学业成功有关的两个差距：(I)关于通勤学生融入大学支持系统的学术文献有限；(Ii)大学对通勤学生需求的关注有限。该项目的更广泛影响包括有可能改变通勤校园的工程项目的文化和成果，同时通过提供更多的工程师来填补俄亥俄州与技术相关的职位空缺，从而加强地区经济。提出的工科学生成功模型有望为全国通勤校园的学生支持结构设计提供参考。该项目的总体目标是提高低收入、高成就、有经济需求的本科通勤学生的STEM学位完成率。该项目将通过调查支持模式对提高通勤族学生对毕业的坚持性的有效性来产生新的知识。这种知识的价值被相对独特的机构环境所提升，其特点是主要是通勤人员的校园，有几个完全经过认证的工程项目。两个研究问题被提出：(I)工科本科生如何体验大学的学术和社会融合？以及(Ii)以队列为基础的学生学习社区如何影响工程类通勤学生的融合？将通过收集和分析调查、面谈和焦点小组的定量和定性数据来寻求这些问题的答案。项目管理团队拥有所需的专业知识，包括将领导教育研究活动的工程和科学教育研究人员。一名合格的外部评估员将审查项目执行情况，并监测遵守项目管理计划的程度。传播项目成果的计划是强有力和全面的，包括校园演示、专业工程会议、社交网络和K-12外联。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 skilled scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians. It will do so by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at Youngstown State University. Most students at this University are commuter students who live off campus, have part-time or full-time jobs, and must balance responsibilities outside their academic work. Over the five-year project duration, thirty commuter students will receive scholarships. The Scholars will be recruited in two annual cohorts of fifteen students, who can be first-year or transfer students enrolled full- or half-time. These Scholars will pursue bachelor’s degrees in engineering fields including chemical, civil, electrical, industrial, mechanical, and manufacturing. The Scholars will receive annually renewable scholarships for up to four years. In addition, the Scholars will have access to established and new support structures that emphasize community building, mentoring, and development of professional and leadership skills. The proposed project has significant intellectual merit because it addresses two gaps related to the academic success of commuter students: (i) limited scholarly literature on the integration of commuter students into college support systems; and (ii) limited attention of colleges to the needs of commuter students. Broader impacts of the project include the potential to transform the culture and outcomes of the engineering programs at a commuter campus and, simultaneously, strengthen the regional economy by providing additional engineers to fill technology-related job openings in Ohio. The proposed model for engineering student success is expected to be informative for designing student support structures on commuter campuses nationwide.The overall goal of the project is to increase STEM degree completion rates of low-income, high-achieving undergraduate commuter students with demonstrated financial need. The project will generate new knowledge by investigating the effectiveness of the support model for increasing commuter student persistence to graduation. The value of this knowledge is elevated by the relatively unique institutional setting, which features a primarily commuter campus with several fully accredited engineering programs. Two research questions are posited: (i) How do undergraduate engineering commuter students experience academic and social integration into the University? and (ii) How do cohort-based student learning communities influence integration of engineering commuter students? Answers to these questions will be sought through collection and analysis of quantitative and qualitative data from surveys, in-person interviews, and focus groups. The project management team has the required expertise, including engineering and science education researchers who will lead the educational research activities. A qualified external evaluator will examine project execution and monitor the extent of adherence to the project management plan. The plan for dissemination of project results is robust and comprehensive, including on-campus presentations, professional engineering conferences, social networks, and K-12 outreach. 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.