., Barber, P. H., & Hasson, T. (2015) at UCLA viii showsthat the overall 5-yr degree-completion rate for STEM students at UCLA is 65%. This is muchhigher than the national average. Nearly 70% of non-URM students completed their STEMdegree in 5 years, while the degree-completion rate of URM students in STEM was only 39%.This is significant because it has also been found that URM students entering U.S. colleges arejust as likely as their non-URM peers to aspire to complete a STEM major. ix Native AmericanSTEM students who do attend college face a new barrier. Thompson writes, “FGCS have beendemonstrated to have less access to support for success in higher education, fewer financialresources, fewer role models, and lower career aspiration and
engagement and learning outcomes [8]. These ten practices are: first-yearexperiences, common intellectual experiences, learning communities, writing intensive courses,collaborative assignments, experiencing different worldviews, community-based learning,capstone experiences, undergraduate research, and internships. In particular, undergraduateresearch and internships are relevant to engineering education but are not utilized by allundergraduate students (as opposed to a required capstone design experience). Thisunderstanding of high impact practices, the engineering education landscape, and the variationsin access to these experiences amongst students led to the focus on the role of undergraduateresearch and internships on engineering task self