Engineering Technology Scholars - IMProving REtention and Student Success (ETS-IMPRESS)

Recognizing a national and regional need for a highly trained engineering technology STEM workforce with baccalaureate degrees, the Engineering Technology Scholars - IMProving Retention and Student Success (ETS-IMPRESS) project provides financial support and an ecosystem of high-impact curricular and co-curricular activities to increase the success of academically talented students. With funding from the National Science Foundation's Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (S-STEM) program, ETS-IMPRESS will support a total of 12 first-time students for four years and 36 students transferring from community colleges will be supported for two years. The goals of the project are to (1) increase the number and diversity of students pursuing degrees in engineering technology (first-generation, underrepresented students, women, and veterans); (2) add to the body of knowledge regarding best practices in Engineering Technology and promote employment; and (3) contribute to the literature on self-efficacy. Located at Michigan Technological University, ETS-IMPRESS brings together programs in engineering technology that are offered through the School of Technology and programs in the Pavlis Honors College, an inclusive and unique college designed around high-impact educational practices.

The ETS-IMPRESS project provides a unique opportunity to engage academically talented engineering technology students in activities designed to foster leadership, technical know-how, and employability skills for technology fields that actively recruit and employ graduates from diverse backgrounds and communities. By focusing on a broad range of students, the project will investigate the relationship between student characteristics and student success through (1) a mixed-methods pre/post research design that examines differences in motivation, self-efficacy and professional skills and (2) a matched cohort comparison study of transfer students that examines participation/non-participation in engineering technology programs of study with honors' college elective programming.