Engineering Persistence: A Support System for Low Income Students to Catalyze Diversity and Success

The project aims to serve the national need for well-educated scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians by fostering student success and supporting the retention and graduation of domestic, high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at Rowan University (RU), a public institution in New Jersey with approximately 15,000 undergraduate and 2,700 graduate students. Over its 6-year duration, this project will provide renewable scholarships for up to four years to twenty-four (24) distinct full-time, high-achieving, low-income students (3 cohorts with 8 students each) who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in an engineering discipline.

These students often face significant challenges to degree completion due to the financial costs of attendance and numerous other factors. In addition to receiving financial support, scholars will be part of a multi-tiered academic and co-curricular support program to help overcome barriers that often can hinder retention in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields and persistence to graduation.

The project will implement an evidence-based, multi-faceted support system for students by providing: (1) $10,000 annual scholarships; (2) an Engineering Living-Learning Community (ELC), and other integrated elements and services to help foster students’ development of a STEM identity and a sense of belonging; and (3) opportunities to build leadership skills through participation in a leadership program with a focus on student development of a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) mindset. As part of the support program, the project team will initiate new and innovative strategies that will result in an inclusive curriculum for all engineering students, DEI-focused ELC seminars, and a Diversity Catalyst Leadership Program for the S-STEM Scholars.

Primary project outcomes will be an increased persistence rate of low-income, academically talented students in engineering and the production of engineering students who will be well-prepared for the STEM workforce, in general, and engineering workforce, in particular.

To increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need, this project will pursue five key goals. First is to provide scholarships to encourage low-income, talented students with demonstrated financial needs (Scholarship Students) to graduate with engineering majors in the College of Engineering at RU.

Second is to implement, study, and assess an academic and co-curricular support system that integrates new and extant elements and services designed to empower Scholarship Students to persist and succeed in their engineering studies. Third is to advance student development of sense of belonging, STEM identity, and appreciation and understanding of diversity and equity issues.

This goal will be pursued through the project’s promotion and enhancement of inclusive learning and social environments by engaging all engineering students in DEI experiences through curriculum, special seminars, mentoring, and social activities. Closely related to the third goal, a fourth goal is to initiate and investigate an innovative Diversity Catalyst Leadership Program for Scholarship Students to develop leadership skills and an enduring equity mindset.

Fifth is to generate new knowledge with respect to impact and effectiveness of the project’s overall support model. To accomplish these goals, the project will employ new and evidence-based strategies and interventions and will also engage in strategic partnerships with several RU offices including the Office of Student Life, the Office of Residential Learning & University Housing, and the Office of Student Success Programs.

In addition to the scholarships, strategies and student interventions will be comprised of: the RU Engineering Living-Learning Center to ease the transition to college for approximately 125 students each year including the Scholarship Students; DEI curriculum components for all first-year students and throughout students’ undergraduate engineering training; engagement with existing University programs; and a new DEI motivated Diversity Catalyst Leadership Program for Scholarship Students. At the same time, this leadership program will be open to all engineering students to promote and enhance an inclusive environment.

The project will add to the STEM education knowledge base through project evaluation by employing mixed methods techniques and a quasi-experimental design with a comparison group of non-Scholarship engineering students to analyze and gain insights regarding the extent of impact and effectiveness of the project's activities and interventions on retention, engagement, DEI mindset, academic performance, workforce preparation, graduation, and overall student success. The knowledge generated by this project will be disseminated through workshops both locally and in national venues, traditional publication methods, and through the development of a Diversity Catalyst Training Manual, which will include practical, evidenced-based inclusion strategies.

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.