The Purdue Rising Scholars Experience: Exploring Student Success - Softcover

Stwalley, Robert M.; Stwalley, Carol S.; Tormoehlen, Roger

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1626713278 ISBN 13: 9781626713277

Publisher: Purdue Scholarly Publishing Services, 2026

Synopsis

Many intelligent low-socioeconomic status high school students correctly view STEM majors as a way out of poverty, but the challenges to ultimate success are plentiful. For those who applied but did not initially gain admittance into an engineering department, the Rising Scholars program at Purdue University offered these undergraduates a pathway through college that brought them into contact with a network of professional mentors, including university professors, staff, and graduate students. Program participants were also provided opportunities to engage in team-building activities and teaching seminars that involved writing research papers focused on postgraduate careers. Although no longer in operation, the program assisted nearly all its participants in earning degrees at Purdue, the vast majority of them graduating in STEM-related disciplines. The peer-reviewed articles compiled in this book represent formative reports produced by program leaders during the Rising Scholars program's active period on the West Lafayette campus between 2017 and 2024, and are intended to offer guidance to professionals at other institutions about how to nurture low-socioeconomic status students. The Purdue Rising Scholars Experience provides comprehensive coverage of the individuals who participated in the program and the important outcomes learned from this groundbreaking study.

About this title

About the Authors

Robert M. Stwalley III is an associate clinical professor at Purdue and teaches crop production equipment, power units and power trains, the design of off-road vehicles, computer numerical control (CNC) machining, and machine design in the Agricultural and Biological Engineering Department.

Carol S. Stwalley received a PhD in agricultural and biological engineering from Purdue University. For numerous years, she served as a data retention analyst for Purdue’s Minority Engineering Program and as assistant director for the Women in Engineering Program. Stwalley is currently the president of Paradocs Enterprises, Inc., an engineering consulting firm.

Roger Tormoehlen is a professor in the Agricultural and Biological Engineering Department and the former head of the Department of Agricultural Sciences Education and Communication. He teaches safety in agriculture in the Agricultural and Biological Engineering program and is a highly regarded agricultural sciences educator and researcher.

Edition details

• Publisher: Purdue Scholarly Publishing Services
• Publication date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1626713278
• ISBN 13: 9781626713277
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 162