Impacts of Industry Seminars and a Student Design Competition in an Engineering Education Scholarship Program.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) of the United States of America has established a Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM) program to provide scholarships (financial aid) and increase academic success of low-income, academically talented students with demonstrated financial need who are pursuing associate, baccalaureate, or graduate degrees in STEM. This paper describes the overall framework of the NSF-funded SSTEM program at Utah State University, including program goals and student recruitment and selection. Over the past three-year project period, 31 students were awarded S-STEM scholarships. Students could renew their scholarships for up to 4 years. A detailed description of two co-curricular activities that were particularly designed and implemented for SSTEM students is provided. These activities include S-STEM industry seminars and a student design competition. The impacts of these activities are assessed through analysis of student comments and responses to questionnaire surveys. The assessment results show that both activities have a positive impact on S-STEM students. Four lessons learned from the program implementation are described to help engineering educators adopt these activities in their respective institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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