Zerda, K. S., & Long, S. A., & Claydon, F. J. (2012, June), Multicultural Engineering Recruitment and Retention at a Large Urban University   Paper presented at 2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, San Antonio, Texas. 10.18260/1-2--21715

\bibitem{asee_peer_21715}
  Zerda, K. S., \& Long, S. A., \& Claydon, F. J. (2012, June), \emph{Multicultural Engineering Recruitment and Retention at a Large Urban University }
  Paper presented at 2012 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, San Antonio, Texas.
  10.18260/1-2--21715

Katherine S. Zerda, Stuart A. Long, and Fritz J. Claydon.  "Multicultural Engineering Recruitment and Retention at a Large Urban University ".  2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, San Antonio, Texas, 2012, June.  ASEE Conferences, 2012.  https://peer.asee.org/21715 Internet.  23 Apr, 2024

\bibitem{asee_peer_21715}
  Katherine S. Zerda, Stuart A. Long, and Fritz J. Claydon.
  "Multicultural Engineering Recruitment and Retention at a Large Urban University ".
  \emph{2012 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, San Antonio, Texas, 2012, June}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2012.
  https://peer.asee.org/21715 Internet.  23 Apr, 2024

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_21715
author = "Katherine S. Zerda, Stuart A. Long, and Fritz J. Claydon"
title = "Multicultural Engineering Recruitment and Retention at a Large Urban University "
booktitle = "2012 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition"
year = "2012"
month = "June"
address = "San Antonio, Texas"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://peer.asee.org/21715}
number = {10.18260/1-2--21715}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  -        Category: Innovative retention and development programs for undergraduate       minority engineering students.        Multicultural Engineering Recruitment and Retention at a Large                               Urban UniversityOur large urban university serves a diverse population of students including many first-generation-in-college (FGIC) students and many from groups traditionally underrepresented inthe engineering workforce. Students who enroll in engineering generally must work to financetheir education. As a result, four-year graduation rates are low, especially among AfricanAmerican and Hispanic students. To address the issue of low participation and low success forstudents of color, particularly women, in engineering fields, the college has developed amulticultural learning community framework with a number of related support structures.Participation is voluntary and multidisciplinary, and the community numbers approximately 500undergraduates, i.e. about 20% of the total population of engineering undergraduates. Thisintegrated framework of recruitment and retention activities supports the College ofEngineering’s mission of increasing student participation and student success amongunderrepresented groups.The scope of programs within this multicultural community framework includes unique outreachcollaborations with local school districts, nonprofits, and corporations to expose youngsters toexciting math, science, and engineering design activities led by engineering undergraduates. Italso includes on-campus day and residential summer engineering programs for precollegestudents and their undergraduate engineering student mentors. Once admitted to engineering,incoming college students gain access to a system of academic Best Practices that includes first-year common cohorts for math, science and engineering courses, collaborative learningworkshops, academic success tools, personal skills enhancement, formalized peer mentoring, andservice learning. Returning and transfer students access supplemental collaborative learningworkshops in support of sophomore- and junior-level engineering courses. These are peer-ledproblem-solving sessions that meet for three hours each week to reinforce concepts from lecturecourses such as Circuit Analysis, Electromagnetics, Thermodynamics, Statics, Dynamics, andChemical Processes. Upper division students also serve as mentors for new incoming students toreinforce these Best Practices.Over the past five years, we have tracked the effectiveness of this integrated systems approachby comparing outcomes between students engaged in this programming and non-participatingpeers enrolled in engineering. While the general population of first-time-in-college (FTIC)engineering students end the freshman year with an average cumulative GPA of 2.55 (five yearaverage), FTICs participating in the interventions have consistently done better. Data fromspring 2011 indicate an average GPA of 3.11 for participating FTIC students as compared to2.66 by non-participating FTIC students.Engineering workshops for sophomores and juniors have proved effective in improvingretention. We use a Mixed Methods approach in assessing impact. Pass rates are calculated as aquantitative measure and student feedback and perceptions are captured by mid and postsemester surveys to assess qualitative outcomes. Data shows increased pass rates and lower droprates among participants in workshops as compared to non-participating peers. Workshopstudents express that they feel more engaged in the process of learning, as do students in thecommunity as a whole. We attribute increased feelings of engagement and higher pass rates in                                                1key courses to recent improvements in four-year retention and graduation rates for communityparticipants compared with non-participants.
AU  - Katherine S. Zerda
AU  - Stuart A. Long
AU  - Fritz J. Claydon
CY  - San Antonio, Texas
DA  - 2012/06/10
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Multicultural Engineering Recruitment and Retention at a Large Urban University 
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/21715
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--21715
ER  -