The Hostos Engineering Academic Talent Scholarship Program

This project aims to 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 The City University of New York’s Hostos Community College (HCC). Hostos is a Hispanic-serving institution that serves the residents of New York City’s South Bronx.

Over its six-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 30 unique full and/or part time students who are pursuing associate and bachelor’s degrees in mechanical, electrical, civil, chemical, and environmental engineering. The students will start at HCC and transition seamlessly to the baccalaureate program at The City College of New York’s Grove School of Engineering.

First- and second-year community college students will receive a full year of financial support for up to four years of study, including up to two years at HCC and transfer students up to two years at City Collège of New York. This project aims to increase the rates of retention and graduation for students pursuing degrees in engineering by combining financial support, a robust faculty and peer mentoring program, and access to resources and activities associated with student success.

Such services include writing across disciplines in the STEM curriculum; mentored immersive undergraduate research experiences; support for transfer to a four-year institution; exposure to STEM-related working and professional facilities; participation at professional STEM conferences; career orientation workshops; and available mental health services. The central feature of this project is its combined faculty and peer mentoring approach that leverages a group faculty model.

Given the high population of students at Hostos Community College who have been traditionally underrepresented in STEM, this project has the potential to broaden participation in STEM and to examine how a more efficient mentorship structure can enhance the likelihood of success for this student population.

The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need, specifically in engineering. The project is guided by four measurable objectives. First, is to employ a robust recruitment strategy which yields at least 20 competitive applicants per year.

Second, is to implement a management structure and leverage existing curriculum alignment between partner institutions to facilitate transfer of its Scholars. Third, is to adopt evidence-based practices and activities to ensure successful student learning, sense of belonging, and high self-efficacy. Fourth, is to generate knowledge through an integrated research/evaluation effort that investigates the impact of a novel combined faculty and peer mentoring approach, while also examining the factors that affect transfer from two- to four-year institutions.

Project outcomes will be disseminated nationally. 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.