Session: 10-03-01: Globalization of Engineering, Study Abroad Education, Engineering Accreditation, Curricular Reforms and Revisions, ABET Programs Assessment, Continuous Education and Ethical Dimensions

Paper Number: 165578

Role of Work-based and Research-based Opportunities for Learning in the Career Pathways of S-STEM Scholars 

This paper presents the results from the National Science Foundation-sponsored S-STEM grant at Milwaukee School of Engineering. The STEM overall goal of ensuring a conducive environment and appropriate interventions for financially challenged, academically talented undergraduates to persist, graduate and enter STEM workforce is currently being realized.  All students that have graduated so far have smoothly transitioned into STEM careers (work/ graduate school). As these student scholars are provided curricular and co-curricular supports, there are many interesting paths for learning outside of curricular processes. This paper presents the impact of many work-based opportunities such as internships and cooperative education on the final outcome of employment in STEM fields.  It also presents various research-based opportunities students were offered and how students approached those avenues. This paper also deals with a combination of research-based and work-based efforts a few students embraced and how that led to different results of choice of career. It is fascinating to see the inner workings of peer learning, peer shadowing, industry response and overall development of engineering identity of scholar in these co-curricular adventures. Presented in this paper are lessons from our observations and knowledge generation data.  Comparison data from a few other institutions are included to provide a guidance on scalability of lessons for engineering educators.

While leaving the above as abstract, the following is for reviewers to see more details on the project: DUE-2027632, the first NSF S-STEM grant to Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE), Scholarships to Support Retention, Academic Success, and Career Pathways in Mechanical Engineering (October 2020- September 2025, PI/Co-PIs: Subha Kumpaty, Mohammad Mahinfalah and Jan Fertig), is in its final year supporting 19 engineering undergraduate students with four-year scholarships. The project provides financial, academic, and engineering identity and self-efficacy support through scholarships, faculty advisor mentoring and academic advice, academic coach interaction to support goal setting and holistic growth, peer mentoring and study table interactions, industry tours and seminars/webinars, quarterly kickoff workshops to address the needs of each cohort, career enhancement support through summer internship and research experiences, and an annual meeting with presentations by each scholar on their summer experiences along with various review sessions by faculty advisors and the STEM team preparing students for the new school year.  This paper deals with various opportuntiies outside of the University such as summer internships, year-long part-time cooperative learning at industry, research experiences and different combinations students chose to grow in their technical and professional skills.

Presenting Author: Subha Kumpaty Concordia University Wisconsin

Presenting Author Biography: Dr. Subha Kumpaty, currently Professor and Chair of Engineering at Concordia University Wisconsin has led several initiatives involving undergraduate students, such as Research Experiences for Undergraduates, International Research Experiences for Students and S-STEM. This work is part of the S-STEM grant funded by the National Science Foundation (Grant No. DUE-2027632).

Authors:

Subha Kumpaty Concordia University Wisconsin
Mohammad Mahinfalah Milwaukee School of Engineering
Jan Fertig Milwaukee School of Engineering