Regaining America's leading global position in the innovation of science and technology: Increasing engineering program enrollment in higher education

While the United States has always been a global leader in the innovation of science and technology, this leading global position is in jeopardy. As other developing countries produce intellectual capital in the form of engineers at increasing rates, the country will continue to lose ground. Today the need for the country to produce engineers is greater than ever before. Recognizing this need, attempts have been made to increase entrance into engineering fields in higher education by providing STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) activities during K-12 education. While STEM initiatives create awareness and interest, this study investigates what actually motivates individuals to choose engineering programs in higher education. A quantitative study utilizing survey results from 202 first year engineering students in the state of Ohio illustrates what has motivated them to choose engineering as a major. The study examines who, when, and what motivated the students to choose engineering by examining the relationship of influential people and STEM initiatives participated in during their K-12 education to enrollment in engineering programs at colleges and universities in the state of Ohio. The study proved the general hypothesis that there are influential people in an individual's college choice, such as the parent, and there are time periods during K-12 education when individuals are more motivated, such as the high school years. The study also showed a positive correlation between the motivation toward engineering programs and the number of STEM opportunities in which individuals participated yet there was little difference when comparing the different types of STEM initiatives.