The purpose of this study was to help undergraduate STEM students at a Hispanic-serving institution make connections between calculus and physics content and their lives using a utility-value intervention. As part of either a Calculus II or a calculus-based Newtonian Physics course, 471 undergraduate students were randomly assigned to either read essays written by peers emphasizing the usefulness of their coursework in their daily life or to a control group. We found that students in the intervention condition reported significantly higher levels of utility value, midterm grades, and earned higher course grades. A path analysis revealed that utility value indirectly improved achievement through interest and engagement factors. Findings support predictions stemming from Expectancy-Value theory and offer practitioners with principles for leveraging perceived utility value, interest, engagement, and achievement. [For the complete proceedings, see ED658295.]