Low-SES First-generation Students’ Decision to Pursue Engineering

The ability of this nation to provide a growing economy, strong health and human services, and a secure and safe nation depends upon a vibrant, creative, and diverse engineering and science workforce” (Blue, et al., 2005, p. 4). To address these global opportunities and challenges, and for the U.S. to remain globally competitive, it is necessary for our engineering workforce to be diverse.Nevertheless, the U.S. cannot claim a diverse engineering workforce, and its engineering student bodies are certainly not diverse despite the legislation and programs put in place to increase racial, gender, and socioeconomic (SES) representation. Programs and resources that increase racial and gender diversity in engineering have the advantage of creating an environment for the social interaction of people who have some shared experience as well as an interest in engineering. As a result, women and students of color in engineering have a variety of local and national programs from which they might seek support. Low socioeconomic status is both less visible and more likely to be concealed, so there are few formal programs to support or mentor low-SES students who want to pursue engineering. With an estimated projection of 1.67 million engineers needed to support the U.S. job market by 2016, there is some urgency to better understand how to encourage socioeconomic diversity in the engineering workforce and student bodies.The purpose of this qualitative study is to give low-SES students an opportunity to share their stories about the influences that prompted them to choose to study engineering. The research question this study addresses is: What are the lived experiences of low-SES first-generation students who pursue engineering study? Specifically, what are the influences of low-SES first-generation students that inspired them to study engineering?This study used a phenomenological inquiry approach, purposive criterion sampling, and descriptive and topical coding. Interviews were semi-structured, and consisted of open-ended questions. Transcripts were coded to identify general and unique themes that will be explored in the paper. Whereas family nurturers had a strong influence on college aspiration and attendance, encouragers with knowledge of engineering (who were not necessarily family members)particularly influenced these students to pursue engineering. Although the lack of engineering role models in the media has long been cited as an issue in the recruitment of students to engineering, the students in this study reported strong influence from television shows, books,and the internet. There was also evidence that some students developed an interest in engineering through extracurricular activities. A desire to escape low-SES circumstances through an engineering career was a strong influence among the participants

Returning Students in Engineering Education: Making a Case for “Experience Capital”

Students returning to college are not generally studied, where most of the research on non-traditional students is focused on individuals returning to earn their undergraduate degree. There are, however, many students returning to receive graduate degrees as they pursue new directions in life by interest or economic necessity. Undergraduate students with experience have clear educational related goals, practical approaches to problem-solving, and high learning motivation.Returning graduate students are expected to model similar behaviors. These individuals bring a lifetime of personal and professional expertise, which we identify as “experience capital.”A review of the literature reveals that capital has been pondered since early western philosophers considered the concept of social capital in terms of „community governance‟. Others credit Dewey with the first use of the term „social capital‟. Since then, development of other capitals include human, cultural, and symbolic. Human capital is viewed as knowledge, skills, and attributes; cultural capital as an indicator of class position acquired by family and education ; and symbolic as the prestige, recognition, and fame. Today, social capital is viewed as the networks,relationships, and connections of influence and support. Experience capital is the partial union of social, human, cultural, and symbolic capital, which individuals develop from their persona land professional experiences as they progress through life.This is an exploratory study capturing the perceptions of “experience capital” of individuals with several years of professional experience in their discipline returning for a doctoral degree in engineering education. The research question this study addresses is: what “experience capital”do returning students bring to an engineering education doctoral program? The participants will be interviewed; open coding will be used to identify common themes. The results of this qualitative study will position the experiences of the participants at the partial union of social,human, cultural, and symbolic capital, in a space called experience capital

Transgenic Expression of Nonclassically Secreted FGF Suppresses Kidney Repair

FGF1 is a signal peptide-less nonclassically released growth factor that is involved in angiogenesis, tissue repair, inflammation, and carcinogenesis. The effects of nonclassical FGF export in vivo are not sufficiently studied. We produced transgenic mice expressing FGF1 in endothelial cells (EC), which allowed the detection of FGF1 export to the vasculature, and studied the efficiency of postischemic kidney repair in these animals. Although FGF1 transgenic mice had a normal phenotype with unperturbed kidney structure, they showed a severely inhibited kidney repair after unilateral ischemia/reperfusion. This was manifested by a strong decrease of postischemic kidney size and weight, whereas the undamaged contralateral kidney exhibited an enhanced compensatory size increase. In addition, the postischemic kidneys of transgenic mice were characterized by hyperplasia of interstitial cells, paucity of epithelial tubular structures, increase of the areas occupied by connective tissue, and neutrophil and macrophage infiltration. The continuous treatment of transgenic mice with the cell membrane stabilizer, taurine, inhibited nonclassical FGF1 export and significantly rescued postischemic kidney repair. It was also found that similar to EC, the transgenic expression of FGF1 in monocytes and macrophages suppresses kidney repair. We suggest that nonclassical export may be used as a target for the treatment of pathologies involving signal peptide-less FGFs

Low-SES first-generation students’ decision to pursue engineering

“The ability of this nation to provide a growing economy, strong health and human services, and a secure and safe nation depends upon a vibrant, creative, and diverse engineering and science workforce”. 1 To contribute to technological advancements, engage in global collaboration, solve complex problems, encourage a more socially just profession, and respond to the predicted shortage of American engineers, it is necessary for this nation’s engineering workforce and university student bodies to be more diverse in its racial, gender, and socioeconomic (SES) representation. The lack of representation in SES is the focus of this research

Low socioeconomic status individuals: an invisible minority in engineering

Not only does engineering lose the diversity of experiences that students from different socioeconomic backgrounds bring, but the field commits a social injustice by systematically excluding people from a lucrative profession. The authors posit that this injustice is not intentional, but is rather due to a lack of awareness, and so we present this chapter to give the reader a glimpse into the lives of low SES students. Using Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) as a framework, we discuss the barriers at every stage of pursuing and completing an engineering degree—barriers that affect low SES students in particular. Not only have we presented the statistics, we have also added low SES students’ statements from multiple sources, including dissertations, interviews, outreach programs, and personal communications, to help illustrate the conditions this population faces and to increase awareness of the value they bring

Identifying engineering interest and potential in middle school students constructing and validating an instrument /

Due to the projected U.S. market demand in 2014 for 1.64 million engineering educated and trained individuals, it is vital that we help children understand engineering concepts, explore career choices in the field of engineering, and determine if pursuing engineering would be a good fit for them. Today’s curriculum is very focused on mathematics and writing due to the demands of standardized testing, however with a national interest in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM) education, there is a movement to incorporate engineering into the curriculum. Since children make career choices by 7th grade, integrating engineering concepts and engineering college education and career options into the K-6 curriculum are a necessary change. One way to determine if engineering is a good fit is for a student to use a self-assessment instrument. A self-assessment tool helps an individual discover more about him/her self. In making career choices, an assessment of one’s skills, interests, personality, and values influences career decisions. Exploration of the literature reveals that an instrument for self-assessment of young engineering talent, interest, and fit does not exist. The purpose of this research is to create an instrument to help fifth and sixth grade students identify themselves as having engineering interest and potential. The purpose of this instrument is to raise awareness of student interest and potential in engineering and is not intended to serve as a screening instrument. This work describes the instrument development, the input from the engineering and education communities in the context of content validity, the pilot and revision of the draft instrument, and the content validation of the final instrument

Returning students in engineering education: making a case for “experience capital”

Using an emancipatory theoretical framework, this exploratory qualitative study captures the perceptions of professional non-traditional students with several years of experience in one or more disciplines returning for a doctoral degree in engineering education. This study addresses the research question: how do professional non-traditional students engage with a doctoral program? Participants were selected using criterion sampling from a single doctoral program and they were interviewed. These professional non-traditional students described the experiences they bring to the doctoral program and reactions to those experiences from their academic colleagues. Open coding is used to identify common themes. The results of this study are that professional non-traditional students (1) come with a more developed habitus and substantial capital, which (2) prepare them well for the program, and (3) significantly affects their engagement during their PhD program. These results position the participants‘ experiences at the partial union of their human, cultural, economic, and symbolic capitals. The participant‘s capital developed and accumulated from their professional work and life experiences is what we call 'experience capital.