ECU gets $4 million grant to support engineering students
East Carolina University’s College of Engineering and Technology has received a $4 million grant from the National Science Foundation Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Program (S-STEM) in an effort to support low-income students pursing undergraduate engineering degrees.
The grant will provide scholarships to 80 students total — a cohort of 40 students beginning in the fall semester of 2020 and a cohort of 40 more in the fall of 2021. Half of each cohort will begin as freshmen at ECU, while the other half will be distributed among three community college partners — Pitt Community College in Winterville, Lenoir Community College in Kinston and Wayne Community College in Goldsboro. Those students will complete their first two years of study at their respective community colleges with the intention to transfer to ECU to complete their degrees.
ECU students with demonstrated financial need will be eligible for up to $10,000 per year, while community college (CC) students can receive up to $3,000 per year.
“I’m incredibly excited about this award because there are such amazing opportunities to build pipelines of students into STEM degrees,” said Dr. Harry Ploehn, dean of ECU’s College of Engineering and Technology. “This exemplifies the kind of thing that we want to do here at ECU, to help provide the workforce for the region, to help students succeed and thrive, and to help lead regional transformation in eastern North Carolina.”
The program is called Providing Inclusive Residential and Transfer Experience Scholarships (PIRATES) in Engineering. It establishes a consortium among ECU and the community colleges with the common goal of supporting low-income students not only with scholarships, but also High Impact Practices (HIPs). These include faculty interaction, mentors, tutors, job-shadow opportunities, career counseling, professional networking, extracurricular activities and team building. A research component will track the success of the program with a goal of long-term sustainability.
One of the goals of PIRATES is to contribute to the understanding of barriers that exist for low-income college students and the best practices that can be used to help students overcome those barriers.
“If you go out in eastern North Carolina, we have so many communities that have financial constraints where there are limited opportunities,” said Dr. Ricky Castles, associate professor in ECU’s Department of Engineering and the lead principal investigator on the grant. “We see this as an opportunity to make a financial impact on our region, to be able to enable students to attend college who may not be able to afford it otherwise. A lot of students are just not aware of the engineering opportunities that exist in eastern North Carolina or see it as a possible career path.”
Another goal is to foster relationships between community college students, and university students and faculty before the CC students matriculate to ECU. The aim is to improve persistence into a four-year degree program, increase retention in both the two-year and four-year degree programs and lead to improved educational outcomes for CC transfer students.
“[PIRATES is] an articulation that aligns perfectly with PCC’s efforts to make higher education accessible to all, enhance student success, and improve the experiences and outcomes of first-generation students,” said Dr. Lawrence Rouse, president of Pitt Community College. “I am looking forward to seeing the results of the seamless transition this initiative creates for PCC students who transfer to East Carolina in preparation for engineering careers.”
“This joint venture supports our mission of connecting hope to opportunity by supporting our students financially, allowing them to engage more in campus activities and foster better relationships with faculty and their peers through mentoring programs and collaborative advising,” said Dr. Rusty Hunt, president of Lenoir Community College.
“Wayne Community College is excited to collaborate with East Carolina University to support students who want to enter engineering careers,” said Dr. Patty Pfeiffer, vice president for academic and student services at Wayne Community College. “The NSF grant provides the opportunity to create a co-curricular model that can provide the support needed to help a student achieve their dreams of becoming an engineer.”
Research results from the program are expected to be presented at a future American Society for Engineering Education conference.
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Contact: Dr. Harry Ploehn, Dean of ECU’s College of Engineering and Technology, ploehnh17@ecu.edu
Telephone: 252-328-9604