Can University Inspire STEM Vocations in Rural Areas?

This paper evaluates the impact of a Service-Learning (SL) project designed to promote vocations in Civil Engineering. Two university students from UPM presented their Final Degree Projects to 73 high school students at a rural school in Torrelaguna (Madrid, Spain). A mixed-methods approach was used, with pre- and post-activity surveys for the high school students and a focus group with the university presenters. The quantitative results show that knowledge of the profession rose from 7% to 41% and specific interest in the degree doubled from 4% to 8%, although the perception of the field’s high difficulty remained largely unchanged. The activity was rated very positively by 85% of attendees. Qualitative analysis revealed that the university students, who began with low expectations, significantly improved their capacity for improvisation and adaptive communication through audience interaction. The experience also reinforced their vision of engineering’s social impact by connecting it to the youths’ daily realities. The study concludes that the near-peer SL model is a promising tool, generating bidirectional benefits.