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Doctoral attrition is rampant and rising mental health concerns point to a graduate student population that is struggling with the doctoral process. Research shows that these issues are worse in underrepresented populations in STEM. Poor socialization or transition into the doctorate can worsen doctoral attrition.  However, research shows that offering students early information about the doctoral process and correcting their misconceptions can improve their likelihood of success and degree completion. Through the Dissertation Institute, we found that building community among underrepresented minority students with similar goals increases students’ motivation to complete the degree. We also found that involvement in the broader department and disciplines can often enhance the doctoral experience by creating information pathways that connect students to the things they should know to be successful. While many interventions have capitalized on this information, these efforts are often isolated on individual campuses, holding little cross-talk with similar interventions across the nation, and not typically sustainable in the long term due to the costs, organization labor, and other contextual factors unique to individual institutions. 

The goal of the Rising Doctoral Institute (RDI) project is two-fold: (1) examine the effect of early interventions for doctoral students on the transition into the engineering doctorate and (2) develop sustainable models for institutions to implement on their campuses to help URM students transition into the doctorate.  We intend to achieve this in a five-year effort. In the first year of the grant, our team will host an RDI with a national sample of URM students entering their Ph.D. We will model this off a pilot RDI program hosted in 2019 in conjunction with the Dissertation Institute.  We will also invite six collaborating institutions to observe our model of the RDI and work with them to develop for their institution. In the second year, the collaborating institutions will receive a stipend to host an RDI-type intervention at their institution. The research team will serve as on-site consultants helping them address the needs of incoming URM graduate students. In the third year, we will host a showcase with the initial collaborating institutions where we will invite additional institutions to overview different models of the RDI and develop their own versions of the intervention for their institutions. In the fourth year, we will develop a network of institutions hosting RDI interventions and train-the-trainer sessions for collaborating institutions to sustain the RDI at their campus. Throughout the first four years of the grant, our team will be conducting research on the experiences of students participating in the RDI interventions as well as the institutional factors that affect the adoption and design of the RDI interventions. The fifth-year will focus on summarizing research findings and finalizing shareable research products such as evaluation tools, guides to hosting support programs, etc.   

The intellectual merit of our study is three-fold. We will: (1) develop a large-scale, mixed methods study of the transition into the doctorate of URM students, (2) examine the motivation and barriers to implementing diversity-focused interventions in institutions across the US, and (3) examine institutional and contextual factors that impact intervention implementation through a large sample of institutions across the US. The broader impact of our study is two-fold, where we will develop: (1) a workshop directly aimed at improving the experience of minorities pursuing an engineering Ph.D. with a proactive focus on early intervention. This workshop will have a direct impact on all student participants of the RDI and its variations, most of which will be URM, and (2) a model for sustainable intervention dissemination applicable to multiple types of interventions aiming to broaden participation in engineering. 

Project Research Bibliography:

• Cruz-Bohorquez, J. M., Huggins, N., Matusovich, H. M., Adams, S. G., Artiles, M. S., & Lee-Thomas, G. (2026). RDI and Institutional Change: The Contextual Transfer of a National Program Supporting Incoming Engineering Doctoral Students. Education Sciences, 16(6), 955.
• Wang, S., Peyton, J., & Artiles, M. S. (2026, March). WIP: Examining Motivation of Engineering Doctoral Students: Insights from the Rising Doctoral Institute. In 2026 ASEE North Central Section Conference.
• Peyton, J., Artiles, M., Cruz-Bohorquez, J. M., Matusovich, H., & Adams, S. G. (2025, November). WIP: Developing Agency Through a Rising Doctoral Institute. In 2025 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE) (pp. 1-5). IEEE.
• Artiles, M. S., Matusovich, H. M., Cruz, J. M., & Adams, S. (2025). From proving to connecting: The shifting nature of belonging in the first year of minoritized US doctoral engineering students.
• Geary, C., Fonseca, M. A., Blackowski, S., & Matusovich, H. M. (2025). Rising Minoritized Doctoral Students in Engineering: Who are Their Mentors and What Roles Do They Fill?. Journal of women and minorities in science and engineering, 31(2).
• Artiles, M. S., Huggins, N., Matusovich, H. M., & Adams, S. G. (2025). Advisors, peers, and counterspaces: The socialization of minoritized doctoral engineering students. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education.
• Artiles, M. S., Rivera, A. M., & Cruz, J. M. (2025). Unprepared Spaces: A Longitudinal Examination of Black and Latiné Students’ First Year in Doctoral Engineering Programs. Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering, 31(5).
• Huggins, N., Cruz-Bohorquez, J. M., Howard-Reed, C., Griggs, L., Matusovich, H., Artiles, M., … & Lee-Thomas, G. (2024, October). WIP: Implementing the Rising Doctoral Institute, a Case Study in an R1 University of the US Northeast. In 2024 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE) (pp. 1-5). IEEE.
• Parra-Gaete, I., Rivera, A. M., Artiles, M. S., Adams, S. G., Cruz, J. M., Matusovich, H. M., & Lee-Thomas, G. (2024, June). A Qualitative Study of Support and Transition Experiences for Underrepresented Minority Students in the Rising Doctoral Institute. In 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition.
• Rivera, A. M., Morales, M. L. C., Mejía, E. R., Artiles, M. S., Cruz, J., Mautosivch, H. M., & Adams, S. G. (2023, October). Seeking Alignment: Exploring Underrepresented Minority Students’ Motivations to Pursue Doctoral Degrees in Engineering. In 2023 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (pp. 1-5). IEEE.
• Cano, M., Corey-Weinberg, M., Rodriguez Mejia, E., Cruz, J. M., Lee-Thomas, G., Matusovich, H. M., … & Adams, S. G. (2023, June). The Quest for URM Doctoral Persistence: An Analysis of Feedback Loops in the Academic System. Proceedings-ASEE Annual Conferences and Exposition. American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference and Exposition.
• Rivera, A. M., Artiles, M. S., Cruz, J., Matusovich, H. M., & Adams, S. G. (2022, October). Choosing where to pursue a PhD: Ideals sought and compromises made by traditionally minoritized students. In 2022 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE) (pp. 1-7). IEEE.
• Artiles, M. S., Cruz-Bohorquez, J., Matusovich, H. M., Adams, S. G., & Lee-Thomas, G. (2021, January). The Rising Doctoral Institute: Preparing Minority Students for the Transition into the Engineering Ph. D. Proceedings. In ASEE Annual Conferences and Exposition.

For our Institutional Toolkits, please visit our project’s website: http://www.TheRisingDoctoralInstitute.com

This project is in collaboration with the following institutions:

This project is sponsored by the National Science Foundation.