ETSTE DCL: Expanding Low-Income Student Access and Success through an Engineering and Computer Science Student Design Center

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 at Clark College, an open-enrollment community college in southwest Washington State. Over its six-year duration, this project will provide scholarships to 48 undergraduate students who are pursuing associate degrees in engineering and/or computer science.

First-year scholars will receive up to three-year scholarships, intensive faculty mentorship, and authentic project-based learning with industry collaborations. This will provide enhanced access to and success within the high-demand fields in the region. Through development of structured onboarding curriculum, cultivation of industry partnerships and industry projects, and establishment of expectations of industry mentors and resources, the project aims to create a sustainable model.

The project will build a strong workforce pathway and a model that can be useful to other community colleges and engineering or computer science programs.

The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. The project has two major goals: (1) Significantly improve the recruitment, retention, completion, and transfer rates of Engineering and Computer Science students with demonstrated financial need; and (2) Educate 48 S-STEM Scholars in essential disciplinary and professional competencies.

The project will investigate the effects of structured onboarding to build fundamental STEM competencies, as well as the impact of participation in a project-based Student Design Center on building disciplinary and professional competencies, social capital, and confidence. Recognizing that community colleges serve disproportionate numbers of low-income students and students from underrepresented groups in STEM, the project has the potential to advance understanding of creating an equity-centered sustainable workforce pathway in Engineering and Computer Science.

This project will be evaluated using quantitative and qualitative analysis based on information from student recruitment; student backgrounds; quality and value of student opportunities and support; student, academic mentor, and industry representative relationships; student scientific and professional socialization and skill development; and the influence of the project offerings on student’s academic and career decisions and pathways. Results of this project will be made available via STEM educational research conferences such as ASEE and the S-STEM PI Conference.

This project is funded by NSF’s Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics program under the ETSTE DCL, in partnership with Intel Corporation. The program 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.