WVU researchers receive grant to empower students and their engineering identity

Associate Professor Leslie Hopkinson and her team are dedicated to fostering students' engineering identities and enhancing support services to improve the retention of the next generation of STEM professionals. (WVU Photo/Paige Nesbit)

As students begin their engineering journeys, many grapple with their understanding of the discipline and how it relates to their identity as engineers. Researchers at  West Virginia University are focused on empowering students in the Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources with tools, resources and services to support and retain them beyond their first year.

Story by Paige Nesbit, director of marketing and communications
Photos by Paige Nesbit

Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources

This "engineering identity," which encompasses how students see themselves and how they are perceived by others, significantly influences their performance and success in undergraduate engineering programs. 

When students start entry-level engineering programs, most colleges offer comprehensive and focused support. However, as they transition into their specific engineering majors in their second year, they encounter fewer support options, which can present challenges that need to be addressed. 

With a $200,000 National Science Foundation grant, Leslie Hopkinson, principal investigator and associate professor in the Wadsworth Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and her team will investigate connections between engineering identity and the role of student support services in engineering education.  

The goal is to assist colleges and universities in defining the support structure for improved retention of the next generation of STEM professionals. 

“Student support services include academic, faculty interaction, extracurricular, peer-interaction, professional development and more,” Hopkinson explained. “The levels of support attributed to these areas likely change over the course of study for an engineering student at a large, regional university. 

“This project provides a great opportunity to better understand the curricular and co-curricular support that is essential to help students navigate their four-year engineering program,” Hopkinson, said. “Much of the current research has been focused on first-year engineering students.”  

Current integrated programs can improve retention and graduation rates in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines, particularly for first-generation, low-income and underrepresented students. 

Aimee Morewood, professor from the College of Applied Human Sciences, Lizzie Santiago director of the Fundamentals of Engineering program and Lynnette Michaluk research assistant professor from the WVU Center for Excellence in STEM Education will support the project. 

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