An Integrated Program for Recruitment, Retention, and Graduation of Academically Talented Low-Income Engineering Students: Lessons Learned and Progress Report.

This paper provides the status report of an NSF S-STEM program that is currently in its fourth year in the College of Engineering at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), a minority-serving institution. The paper also offers a list of the lessons learned during the implementation of the project. A summary of the paper materials will be presented at the National Science Foundation (NSF) Grantees Poster Session during the 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition. The objectives of this S-STEM program are to 1) enhance students' learning by providing access to extra and co-curricular experiences, 2) create a positive student experience through mentorship, and 3) ensure successful student placement in the STEM workforce, or graduate/professional degree programs. Financial assistance is provided to the students who have been admitted to this program. The program supports three cohorts of students. Cohort I and Cohort II consist of 18 and 13 students, respectively. These students started their engineering programs as first-year. Cohort III has 19 students who transferred to the College of Engineering from various community colleges. More than 60% of the students identify as part of underrepresented groups in STEM. Several support and intervention programs have been created through this project. They include 1) a Summer Bridge Program that was taken by all the cohorts before or during their first semester at the UIC, 2) an Engineering Success Initiative course that was taken by all cohorts in their first semester, 3) a Service Learning Project course that is taken by each student in at least two consecutive semesters, and 4) an integrated mentoring program that matches each student with a faculty mentor and an industry mentor. The paper reports a summary of the support components of the program and the lessons learned from them. Out of the 50 students recruited by this S-STEM project, one student has graduated and is working in industry. At the time of this report, of the 50 students enrolled across all cohorts, one graduated to an industry position, 46 remain in school, and 3 did not continue with the program. All the continuing students have passed at least three semesters of their studies. Therefore, the project has a 94% first-year retention rate which is above the university's first-year retention rate. The paper provides more information about the retention and performance (Grade Point Average) of the students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]