Lance Perez
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, NE·Education Research
Nearly one in five Americans lives in a rural area, yet rural students are an untapped source of engineers, even as about 966,000 engineering jobs go unfilled. This project asks how growing up in a rural community shapes whether students become aware of engineering, see themselves as engineers, feel they belong, and stay in the field.
- Fields
Education Research
Engineering
Social Science
- Topics
engineering education
rural students
rural education
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Aug 2029
What they work on
- Identify the rural assets and structural barriers that shape engineering awareness before college, through site visits and semi-structured interviews with principals, counselors and STEM teachers at rural Nebraska high schools.
- Follow rural engineering students over several years at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, using a first-year survey and mixed methods, to learn which experiences turn rural strengths into belonging and persistence.
- Study how community-engaged, rural-focused engineering projects, supported by student mini-grants within the Complete Engineer framework, shape students' professional development.
More about the research
It treats rural identity as a strength. Rural students bring commitment to community, resourcefulness and hands-on problem solving.
Why it matters
Rural students are underrepresented in engineering even as the field faces large workforce shortages. By identifying which rural strengths and school or college experiences help students choose and stay in engineering, this work could give land-grant and rural-serving universities a transferable model. That model could help them recruit and support rural students and build engineering workforces that serve their communities.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Jennifer Detlor
University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI·Education Research
Identify which factors lead engineering students to self-identify as rural, and how strongly they hold that identity, using a survey in which students define rurality in their own terms.
Stephanie Claussen
San Francisco State University, CA·Education Research·Early-career
Trace how low-income and first-generation engineering students convert family and community assets into the social and cultural capital needed for success, using longitudinal interviews with students and recent graduates.
Michelle Vigeant-Haas
Pennsylvania State University, PA·Education Research
Evaluate whether five high-structure and inclusive teaching strategies raise cognitive belonging in an upper-level architectural engineering course, using surveys, in-class observations and interviews.
The school
University of Nebraska-Lincoln: 17 labs on PI Pages, $657M a year on research, 261 research doctorates a year.
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