Building a Chemical Engineering Inter-Institutional Consortium to Support Talented, Low-income Students

We will establish a consortium across three chemical engineering programs – University of Houston, Prairie View A&M University, and University of Kentucky – to facilitate development of a robust Track 3 S-STEM cohort model that provides comprehensive financial, engineering identity, and wellness support for students. With 28 years of collective teaching experience, our project team has a profound understanding of the challenges students face, which positions us to enhance the students’ overall college experience as they navigate their education. We possess expertise in engineering education research, including mixed-methods and participatory action research, focused on engineering identity development and mental health. Henderson and Antoine have received NSF funding through the HSI IUSE (# 2225246) and HBCU EIR (#2302112) programs, highlighting their dedication to student-centered research. Wilson and Henderson have also led collaborative data collection across all three institutions, allowing us to better understand challenges that students experience (NSF #2225567). We will leverage this experience to explore effective support interventions related to financial stability, engineering identity, and wellness. Despite significant efforts to enhance retention and graduation rates in engineering, challenges persist within our three institutional contexts (a Hispanic-serving Institution, a Historically Black College & University, and a Predominantly White Institution), as well as in the engineering literature. Students with academic ability, talent, and potential who experience financial distress often face obstacles leading to delayed or discontinued pursuit of their engineering degrees. Financial instability, identity interference, and mental health challenges contribute to this trend. Data from our NSF grant indicates a correlation between financial stress, mental health distress, and reduced academic performance among engineering students at our institutions. Commonly employed interventions are institution-centric, lack evidence-based grounding, and fail to account for unique disciplinary features such as those that exist in chemical engineering. Importantly, they also frequently overlook student input as co-creators of knowledge. This highlights a crucial gap in understanding how to effectively provide sustainable disciplinary support for student success. Financial aid alone cannot increase retention and graduation. Therefore, the planning grant will develop, identify, and refine consortium activities through five concurrent stages: 1) Refine activities established based on prior research, 2) Identify novel activities, 3) Integrate activities into existing institutional resources, 4) Collect baseline data and 5) Develop a plan to evaluate outcomes. Activities will be identified and refined through focus groups with stakeholders (students, faculty and support staff) within chemical engineering ecosystems. Additionally, student, faculty and administrative advisory boards will ensure that activities complement and integrate with existing institutional resources across our institutions. Intellectual Merit Our NSF grant data on engineering students underscores the impact of financial stress on their mental health and academic performance. To address this, our planning grant will pave the way for an inter-institutional consortium, dedicated to enhancing performance and retention for students experiencing financial distress in chemical engineering. Through this initiative, we aim to establish favorable practices for a transformative Track 3 S-STEM consortium applicable across the three institutions. Crucially, student voices will be at the forefront, guiding the design and timing of interventions. The insights gained will be widely disseminated empowering institutions with effective, scalable, and student-focused retention strategies. By prioritizing stakeholder engagement through participatory methods, we aspire to expand the knowledge base surrounding support for low-income students, fostering a community-driven approach to student success. Broader Impacts While research exists on interventions for low-income engineering students, a stakeholder-centered approach remains underexplored. This planning grant seeks to fill that gap by identifying interventions that prioritize the voices of students, particularly those from underrepresented backgrounds, fostering increased stakeholder buy-in and impact. Our findings (e.g., policy recommendations) will be widely disseminated for implementation beyond our institutions. Insights from focus groups (including innovative methods like photovoice) will be showcased in exhibits across our Colleges. This will expand conversations on student success, belonging, and identity, inspiring positive change in the wider academic community.