With support from an Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science (ICTAS) Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) grant, Dr. Simmons is engaging an interdisciplinary group of four undergraduate researchers and one graduate researcher on a project examining personal resilience of civil and construction engineering undergraduate and graduate students.
In education, resilience is accomplishment in terms of developing skills and producing a positive outcome despite the stress involved. Resilience is thought to develop in early childhood and continue to develop throughout a person’s lifetime. The concept of resilience can be used as a measure to help determine the quality of student experiences in the STEM fields. Studies found that students with higher degree of resilience generally exhibited lower stress which implied better health and hence quality of life. Despite a high level of knowledge and experience on the kind of stress that the students undergo, we are generally unaware of the associated symptoms.  This critical literature review examines research that addresses resilience in undergraduate students, how resilience relates to stress experienced by undergraduate students, and how resilience has been measured in the undergraduate population. Initial findings from the review suggest that resilience, as exhibited by undergraduate students, can be qualitatively analyzed through various research methods. Review findings can contribute to the development of positive traits among undergraduate students as practitioners work to assess quality in higher education and improve the undergraduate experience.