EAGLES

Engagement Achievement and Graduation for Low-incomE Students

 

OUR MISSION

Engagement Achievement and Graduation for Low-incomE Students (EAGLES): A Partnership in STEM Education will provide an interdisciplinary, integrated support structure for low-income, academically promising students majoring in STEM fields at Portland State University (PSU) in Oregon and Heritage University (HU) on the Yakama Reservation in Washington. Scholarships over the five-year funding period will allay the cost of tuition for at least 116 high-achieving students meeting Pell financial need eligibility in STEM majors (e.g., environmental science and engineering, ecology, chemistry, biology and others) at both campuses.

 

THE PROGRAM’S THREE PRIMARY OBJECTIVES

  • Increasing enrollment and retention of low-income and other underrepresented groups in STEM fields

  • Developing an integrated structure for mentoring, advising, and overall support to engage high-achieving undergraduate students in research and outreach activities focused on community-based challenges associated with environmental pollution.

  • Examining the impact of instructional interventions in introductory STEM courses and EAGLES seminar built around deliberative pedagogy and place-based, culturally responsive learning on undergraduate students’ science identity and sense of community. With annual career panels on both campuses beginning in year two, the program will fill existing gaps at HU in the STEM education pathway, thereby increasing enrollment and retention by allowing qualified HU scholars to pursue PSU baccalaureate degrees in civil and environmental engineering while strengthening connections to PSU career placement services and graduate programs.

 

PROJECT OUTCOMES

Project outcomes include increases over baseline retention and graduation rates in STEM disciplines at PSU (current 6-year retention for incoming full time freshmen averages 49%), leading to greater participation of low-income and other underrepresented minority (URM) groups in the local and regional STEM workforce and in graduate training. Strategies to ensure a broad applicant pool include recruitment trips to local high schools and community colleges, printed and online promotional materials, social media postings, and support from outreach avenues at both campuses, including Mathematics, Engineering, and Science Achievement (MESA) programs.

 

INTELLECTUAL MERIT

The EAGLES project will expand knowledge and practices across several fields. An organizing theme of environmental pollution, coupled with undergraduate student engagement in original research with the support of faculty mentors, will contribute to the scientific literature and understanding of issues degrading ecosystems and affecting the sustainability of rural and urban communities in the Columbia River Basin and Pacific NW region. Collaboration among faculty at a large urban research university and rural minority-serving institution will advance use of innovative, engaging, and culturally relevant curriculum and co-curricular activities in the environmental sciences and engineering. Quantitative and qualitative education research, using comparison groups, will examine how different program elements and experiences combine to foster students’ development of science identity over the scholarship period. External evaluation will assess the skills and habits of mind related to STEM practice that are developed as students progress through the EAGLES program, as well as quantitative indicators of student success factors (retention, graduation, subsequent graduate training and/or job/career entry).

 

BROADER IMPACTS

The HU and PSU campuses collectively serve some of the nation’s highest-need students, with low-income status correlating with first-generation and URM backgrounds (e.g., Native American and/or tribal-affiliated and Latinx). Student research and service learning activities will address authentic local/regional issues and strengthen community connections. Results will demonstrate a model worthy of national replication for increasing enrollment, retention, and graduation in STEM majors and development of the sense of science identity needed in further studies and/or careers in the environmental sciences and engineering. Products will include websites, sample curricular materials, education research findings published in professional journals, a training workshop, student-faculty research presentations, senior theses, NSF reports, advisory board recommendations, and interim and final evaluation findings.