Undergraduate research experiences (URE) can help retain and support STEM undergraduate program persistence for underrepresented populations, women, and nontraditional STEM students, such as community college students. Understanding their primary discipline, obtaining critical thinking skills, improving their communication skills, gaining networking opportunities, and increasing the probability of pursuing graduate education are some of the many benefits UREs can provide. Despite the impact of UREs, engineering community college students do not always have an opportunity to participate in them at their institution due to limited resources. An URE like the National Science Foundation-funded Research Experience for Undergraduate (REU) Program can be a significant intervention, particularly for community college students. The purpose of this study is to explore how a community college student experiences an URE and its influence on their motivation and values, including its influence on the completion of their engineering degree and persistence in an engineering career. The theoretical framework that provides this study's lens is Eccles' expectancy-value theory (EVT) with two primary beliefs: competence and value of achievement-related choices and behaviors. The idea is that achievement-related actions like vocational choices relate to individuals' expectations for success and the importance or value individuals attach to these options. A conceptual framework was creating applying the Eccles' expectancy value theory to explain how the intervention of an REU Program can help community college persistence in an engineering program. This dissertation study is a phenomenological case study analyzing the influence of a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) Program on community college participants in three cohorts in 2017, 2018, and 2019 as well as their persistence in their engineering program and continuing into an engineering program. There were three sources of data: student created electronic portfolios, demographic survey, and semi-structured interviews. The electronic portfolios were collected during the REU experience of the participants. Ten participants completed the demographic survey and were interviewed two to four years after the experience to understand the impact of the program on their persistence in their engineering undergraduate program and continuation into an engineering career. The analysis included inductive and deductive thematic approaches. The findings show that the REU Program was able to influence interest, attainment and utility value, which in turn provided low cost values for the participants in the study. Students were able to identify their engineering interests, find significant utility in the characteristics of the REU Program, and identify with the engineering progression. Based on participants discussions, it is hard to determine whether these findings were specific to the community college students and if they influenced their persistence and continuation into engineering. The phenomenological case study demonstrates why these experiences need to be more readily available. Participants were able to identify their specific interests and disinterests, develop their identity, and gain benefits related to engineering. If correctly designed, these experiences can provide high impact with a very low cost. This study will also provide a starting point for future research into understanding if there is a difference in how a community college student and a four-year student use an undergraduate research experience in terms of their future opportunities and engineering career. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]