This Project Grant award, with a total funding amount of $2,497,206, was provided by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under the STEM Education program (CFDA 47.076). The award will support a six-year project at the University of Arizona, a public, land-grant, Hispanic-Serving Institution, to increase the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students pursuing bachelor's degrees in engineering disciplines.
The project will provide scholarships to up to 50 undergraduate students, with transfer students receiving up to 3 years of support and direct-entry students receiving up to 5 years. In addition to the scholarships, the project will implement an asset-based approach, where students develop and maintain individualized portfolios of their academic, cultural, and personal strengths. These portfolios will inform targeted support services, including strengths-based academic advising, faculty mentorship, and internship/job placements in engineering. The overall goal is to improve STEM degree completion rates among low-income, high-achieving students from rural and urban communities in the Southwest region. The project aims to generate knowledge about how students identify and activate their assets to succeed in engineering programs, and how asset-based practices influence outcomes and identities of engineering students at different campus locations.