Exploration of the Experiences That Shape Engineering Students’ Entrepreneurial Mindset Development

Abstract

The overall purpose of this research is to be able to understand how engineering students believe they are developing EM throughout their higher education experiences. Is EM development attributed to the inclusion of EM based projects and activities within their engineering course work? Perhaps, EM development occurs more readily through engineering students’ participation in extracurricular or co-curricular activities? Alternatively, maybe EM development is not tied to the higher education ecosystem at all, and engineering students develop EM as a result of job or volunteer experiences. As such, this research study seeks to answer the following research questions: (1) Which types of experiences contribute to engineering students' EM development? And (2) What types of attributes of EM do engineering students perceive are developed through these experiences? The study involves a qualitative analysis of engineering student interviews to determine the experiences that have contributed to student EM development as well as EM traits that were specifically focused upon within these experiences. Through understanding engineering students’ perceptions of how they developed an EM, it will provide the necessary information to determine best practices for EM student development in the future.