Support for Electrical Engineering Students Emphasizing Pathways to the Electric Power Sector

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 the Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology (BFIT), a Minority-Serving Institution located in Boston, Massachusetts. Over its six-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 34 unique full-time students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in Electrical Engineering (EE).

The duration of the scholarship depends on the starting year of funding; for freshmen, the duration is four years; sophomores, three years; and juniors, two years. Boston Tuition-free students, who are funded by the Boston Tuition-free program for three years, will receive a scholarship with a one-year duration. The community of scholars will be supported by: a pre-matriculation overnight stay in Maine to learn about electric energy, sustainability, and Maine's unique ecology; a hands-on seminar about electric power; mentoring opportunities with local Boston middle and high school students; and exposure to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Power and Energy Society events and other professional activities.

The scholars will take classes together, attend weekly IEEE meetings, participate in an annual Electric Power Day event, learn together in study groups, and benefit from BFIT's extensive support services. The significance of the project would be an increase in the number of electrical engineers, particularly in electric power, an industry that is experiencing a shortage, including minorities underrepresented in engineering.

It will serve as a potential model to middle schools, high schools, community colleges, universities, and industry demonstrating that partnerships among these constituencies encourages students - particularly minorities - to study engineering, resulting in an increase in both minority representation among engineers in the US, and more qualified engineers overall. The project aims to further the understanding of the extent that activities aimed at providing academic and social support, progress feedback, increased self-efficacy and project involvement impact S-STEM Scholars’ self-identity and motivations to persist in EE degrees.

Its results can be applied to similar contexts and programs desirous of improving their students’ retention and persistence.

To increase STEM degree completion rate of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need, this project aims to improve retention to graduation in EE and entry into the STEM workforce, particularly into the electric power industry, for academically qualified Boston Public High School students with limited financial means. In particular, BFIT will partner with several entities, including eight companies that service the regional electric power grid around Boston, a middle school program, three Boston Public high schools, and one community college.

Most students from these schools are underrepresented minority students with financial need. The objectives of the project are: 1) to have a 90% second-year retention rate with a 90% five-year graduation rate; and 2) to have at least half of the Scholars intern in electric power and pursue work in that industry. Achieving these objectives requires multiple factors in addition to meeting students’ financial needs.

Research has demonstrated that academic and non-academic factors affect levels of success in STEM disciplines, and, while important, financial support alone cannot increase retention and graduation rates. Therefore, the project explores the effects of institutional and departmental level support to promote successful academic and social student experiences, answering the question: "To what extent do activities aimed at providing academic and social support, progress feedback, increased self-efficacy and program involvement impact S-STEM Scholars’ self-identity and motivations to persist in EE degrees?" Tinto’s model of institutional action will be used as a theoretical lens to explore how project activities impact S-STEM Scholars’ motivations to persist in EE.

A comprehensive evaluation of this project, using quantitative measures such as surveys and the college’s data system, and qualitative measures such as interviews, observations, and exit tickets, will be performed. The findings of the project will be disseminated both within BFIT and to the broader public, through workshops, seminars, conferences, and publications.

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.