transfer students shows that different groups of transfer students need different kindsof assistance in order to succeed at their new college or university ([10] and references therein).Factors affecting transfer student success include: • Emotional factors (feeling of isolation, transfer shock, lack of sense of belonging), • Financial factors (cost), • Educational planning factors (credits earned, time to completion, clarity on credit transfer), • Academic factors (GPA, academic preparedness, required remedial courses), • Institutional factors (size of school, distance of school).Research on the STEM transfer pathway involves two sides of efforts: On the side of communitycolleges, they mainly focus on factors that can
plans are as described above;however, what is typically presented to the students at each institution are web pages that containhelpful degree plans for the degrees being pursued. That is, students are generally only vaguelyaware that many different curricula exist for a degree program, and they are likely even less awareof the underlying degree requirements associated with the degree program. The key point is thatwithin each institution, degree plans have been carefully constructed so that if students followthem, they will earn their degrees. Thus, at the bottom of the Community College panel in Figure 1 Community College University AS Program
completed—a 42% response rate,based on the total number of participating students who received the email invite (n = 50). Afterreviewing all responses, we analyzed the survey data and presented the results to the EMleadership team at the lead institution, along with college-based staff associated with EM. Basedon the survey responses, student demographics revealed a high percentage of students whoidentified as Black (38%), first-generation (81%), low-income (62%), and having a disability(43%), which underscores the program’ success in reaching underserved populations.ResultsAcademic backgroundsWe asked students about their academic background—i.e., questions about their academic plans,how they learned about the program, and why they chose to join
14% of the state college (2-year colleges) students earn a bachelor’sdegree in 6 years. The recent National Student Clearinghouse Research Center (NSCRC) 2020-21 Report (Bobbitt, R. et al., Aug 2021) indicated that higher education lost about 191,500 transferstudents in 2020-21, three times higher that 2019-20. Interestingly, HSI universities also reporteda substantial loss in the number of transfer students,(-11.8%).III.2: Florida Trends in Enrollment and GraduationThe Florida College Access Network (FCAN), June 2020, report noted that 42% of the currentlyenrolled college students said that their plans changed including taking a semester or a year off.Other data (FCAN, April 2018) indicate that the three-year AA-degree completion rate of
teachingpractices. Fellows also participate in workshops to prepare inclusive teaching philosophies andlearn to create lesson plans that are aligned with the mission of their institution and incompliance with the curricular or subject plans. The deliverables are submitted for review andfeedback from the faculty mentors and the Aspire lead team. At the end of the semester, fellowssubmit a teaching portfolio as evidence of completion and participate in a closing ceremony inwhich the fellows and their mentors are recognized.IV. Similarities and Differences between RC Collaborative modelsSimilarities:Each of the two Texas RC collaboratives includes two universities; one of them is a largeresearch-intensive in an urban setting while the other is a comprehensive
using the career construction theory [5], which underscores personal meaning of one’slived experiences, constructing careers through a sense of meaning, and clarifying plans. Threecomponents contribute to this theory: vocational personality (or career identity), careeradaptability, and life themes. Vocational personality is a person’s career-related abilities and interests, and pertains to how an individual constructs a career. Careeradaptability allows the person to construct a career that pertains to what career they desire. Lifethemes, the third component, deal with why a person selects that career. These themes emergethrough one’s lived experiences and personal stories and are often connected to one’s personalityand purpose. Career
, our state ranked 49th in the U.S. forhigher education funding [32]. Thirty of 64 counties in our state are described as “educationaldeserts,” and only 49.9% of high school graduates enter post-secondary education—compared tothe national average of 61.8% [34],[35]. The state’s economy is relatively resilient and growing,but its workforce is supplied by inward migration of talent from other states [32]. The state’s2017 higher education master plan sets targets including to increase credential completion,improve student success, and invest in affordability and innovation [38]. This context frames ourwork on improving transfer into our engineering college.Of in-state students who matriculate, many begin in a community college. Only 14.1
different than typical campus events is that these sessionsare tailored to STEM Core student interest and availability. The STEM Core team plans theworkshop schedule around the Bridge program and STEM Core academic schedule, i.e., test dates,busier times of the semester, etc. This is meant to be fun and exciting for students, not an extratask that might be stressful for students to attend.STEM Career AwarenessSTEM career industry awareness is a focus of the STEM Core program from the moment studentsbegin participating in the bridge program, as they are tied to specific employers wherever possible.During summer 2022, sites completed ORISE modules in additive manufacturing andcybersecurity tied to research being conducted at national labs. The bridge
from CC to 4-year institutions. In addition to the Bridgewhich reduces the need for remediation, Wright College Engineering spearheaded thedevelopment and articulation of curriculum with quality and rigor aligned with 4-year transferpartners to streamline transfer to junior level standing.Since its implementation, the HPAT model has emphasized intentional academic advising. Inaddition to one-on-one advising sessions at the start of the semester, midterm reviews and end-of-semester planning have been introduced. Even when students change their transfer or major goals,great care and academic planning is taken to ensure students have opportunities to transfer withoptimal course alignment. In Spring 2024, City Colleges implemented mandatory
provided transfer data from 2016-2022, while the other three institutionslisted data for only some of those years. As for the other universities, we were not able to find publicly available information ontheir respective institutional research websites. We then contacted each institutional office directlyvia email to request the engineering transfer data for Black students. In some cases, we weredirected to a data request form, which we have subsequently completed and are currently awaitinga response. In other cases, we have not received responses from our emails. In the coming months,we plan to continue contacting these institutional research offices to try to obtain the informationthat we are requesting. We are also working to contact the
Southern Indiana (USI). Her interests include faculty and organizational development to support both faculty and student success, learning analytics, teaching innovations, and systems thinking and storytelling for institutional change. ©American Society for Engineering Education, 2025 Approaches for Efficiently Identifying and Characterizing Student Need Assessments in Two-Year Colleges.AbstractThis paper describes an approach that can be used by faculty and administrators to efficientlydevelop program-level student support plans to increase student retention and completion inSTEM disciplines. These recommendations were developed as part of a National ScienceFoundation-sponsored workshop
andpromising trends in education is the “edutainment” concept, which combineseducational content with entertaining activities so, the participants learn while havingfun.The program proved its flexibility as it was adapted to various locations, number ofparticipants, and time intervals. The paper will present the continuation of the program,the new results, and the plans for future expansion of the program to reach a broaderrange of participants.IntroductionExtensive evidence supports the effectiveness of instructing engineering students inspatial visualization skills, leading to improved outcomes. Research, spanning from theearly 1990s onwards, has consistently shown that practicing and training in spatialvisualization enhances performance in
Native American undergraduates [5], [6]. Additionally, within the community collegepopulation, 58 percent are women and approximately 30 percent would qualify as firstgeneration college or low income students [2], [7] . Overall, 41 percent of all undergraduatesattend community college [5].First generation students make up almost one-third of all undergraduates and are more likely toattend community college [8], [9]. Additionally, first generation students with low-incomebackgrounds and an underrepresented racial identity often have less personal experience inacademic planning and are aware of fewer academic and career opportunities. These factorscontribute to the struggle many face with completing STEM degree programs. Supporting STEMdevelopment
helpcompare resource utilization patterns and identify the role of different project spaces insupporting students’ academic and personal projects. Survey D includes the workshop and willbe administered to Cohort 2025. TABLE I SUMMARY OF SURVEY ADMINISTRATION PLAN Cohort 2024 Cohort 2025 Fall 2024 / Fall • Survey A • Survey A 2025 • Survey B • Survey B • Survey C (Cohort 2024 only) • Survey D (Cohort 2025 only) Subsequent At the end of each subsequent From Spring 2026–Fall 2028, Semesters semester (Spring 2025–Spring surveys B
-prepared to perform research(1.0) My students were well-prepared to make technical presentations(0.6) My students had sufficient experience in computing to support their workLessons Learned and Planned ActionsThe formative evaluation of Year 1 of REU-PATHWAYS as well as the grant teams revealedsome interesting insights:• There is need for REU participants to feel they belong to the program. We will add a home room meeting every morning in Year 2 and Year 3.• Given that the community college students all commute to campus, a physical space is needed as a “homebase” to provide a communal location for interactions outside of their research labs.ConclusionsBased on the results from this final program evaluation, the REU-PATHWAYS program
indiscussion with the presenters and each other throughout. The first activity, which is also anactivity for students that had been previously tried early in the semester at WCC, involvedwriting a paragraph about a recent learning experience (related to the course topic if done withstudents) describing: 1. What you were trying to learn and why; 2. How you planned to use yourlearning; 3. A positive experience during your learning; and, 4. A negative experience duringyour learning. After that, in a second activity, pairs of participants: 1. Reviewed each others’paragraphs; 2. Captured empathy and encouragement points; and, 3. Verbally summarized whatthey learned about each other. For students in their classroom, this activity would be replaced bythe
5 25 125 Red Rocks Community College2 4-6 2 25 50 Front Range Community College2 4-6 2 25 50 Arapahoe Community College2 4-6 2 25 50 Totals 17 4251 Year 1 is a planning year for the Community College of Denver.2 Years 4-6 (phase 2) include three “optional” years for scaling, with year 4 being a planning year for three new colleges. Two cohorts of ~25 students, at each new college, will be supported through Engineering
to Engineering” course at the two-yearcollege in service of the “2+2” engineering transfer program. The course is a required part of engineeringdegrees in the state of South Carolina and is a standard course for any student planning to transfer to aBachelor of Engineering program from the two-year Trident Technical College. It must be noted that the“2+2” program is separate from the two-year engineering technology degree programs at the institution.Students enrolling in the course discussed here do so with the intention of preparing for a bachelor’sprogram and thus employing learning practices aligning with a four-year program is encouraged by theinstitution. In this initial implementation of the Framework in a two-year college setting, we
majors. Preliminary results reinforce prior STEM literature which emphasizes theimportant connections between the development of identity and elements of sense of belonging [23].RQ2: How do activities focused on research identity support transfer students in STEM fields?Our preliminary results indicate the artifact activity was a wonderful way to help students develop aresearch identity in the class. Sharing the artifacts with other students empowered some students to adoptspecific roles in the class over time. The student insights are consistent with prior findings by Rodriguezet al about STEM identity [26].Based on our work in progress results with a small initial offering we plan to continue offering this coursein the future as a bridge for
self-efficacy and senseof belonging for Engineering and Computer Science (ECS) students using the campusmakerspace as a central hub for cohort activities. The scholars received financial assistance eachsemester, intentional advising, mentoring and transfer support. Weekly study hall/tutoringsessions were made available to all ECS students and were strongly encouraged for the scholars.In addition, scholars were advised to complete the Introduction to Engineering course whichemphasizes research on engineering disciplines, team building activities, academic planning andinternship preparation.Reviewing the academic outcomes of these scholars compared to other ECS students from springof 2020 to spring of 2024 demonstrates the positive impact of the
college”, and often struggle to create education plans [2]. Others, still, have sharedthe negative impacts that first-generation college students face based on having lower income,being under-represented, and lesser prepared [3]. While attending middle and high school, manypotential future first-generation college students lack an awareness that college is a viable path.For those that are aware of higher education, it is often seen as an expensive option or one thatisn’t possible based on current academic success since low-income and under-representedstudents are also statistically more likely to be below grade-level standards.Once in college, low-income students spend additional time and resources seeking scholarshipsand/or working in what are
, and peers more. However, students'meetings with faculty/staff are less frequent than in community colleges. In addition, more transferstudents never met their faculty/staff advisors after transferring, so more close support is needed.The author plans the following recommendations for future works: - to perform the same CSF survey in future years to compare the outcomes, - to perform the same survey with juniors who just transferred to CPP, and - to conduct the CSF survey to other disciplines across the campus.AcknowledgmentsThis material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under AwardNo. 2225128.References[1] J. Sislin, and M. C., Mattis, Enhancing the Community College Pathway to EngineeringCareers
data between institutions, and promotion ofa sense of belonging in students [3], [13], [14], [16], [17], [18]. Additionally, GE@SF includesshared investment in student support services, physical collaboration and laboratory spaces onthe SF campus; UF faculty engagement and instruction at SF; and high-impact experientiallearning [19], [20]. Details of program structures are discussed below. These structures, whichrequired 4 years of careful collaborative planning between the two institutions, allow SF and UFto establish meaningful relationships, guidance, and support of students two or more years beforematriculation on the UF campus.Academic Transition and Support StructuresTo assist with the academic transition from high school to SF and from
his post-graduation interview. As we have a singleparticipant, the data is preliminary and anecdotal. The participant did not believe the SPECTRAprogram inspired any changes in his career plans, but his participation opened doors to careers hewas interested in and made him a desirable candidate to prospective employers. I don't think without SPECTRA, I wouldn't have had much to speak about with prior experiences. Because of- so many people in the job market, wanting to have prior experience to- or prior experiences of being an engineer when there's not many opportunities to be an engineer without getting your hands into something. And so SPECTRA was a nice pathway into being able to utilize that. And the only
Psychology: A User's Portfolio. Causal and Control Beliefs, 1995. 1: p. 35-37.21. J.R. Terborg, G.S. Howard and S.E. Maxwell, Evaluating Planned Organizational Change: A Method for Assessing Alpha, Beta, and Gamma Change. Academy of Management Review, 1980. 5(1).22. H. Goedhart and H. Johan, The Retrospective Pretest and the Role of Pretest Information in Evaluative Studies. Psychological Reports, 1992. 70(3): p. 6.23. Education, A.S.F.E., Profiles of Engineering and Engineering Technology, 2021. 2022, American Society for Engineering Education.24. D. Jenkins and J. Fink, What We Know About Transfer. 2015, Columbia University, Teachers College, Community College Research Center.: New York, NY.
of Engineering. This paperpresents the first-year development, implementation, and outcomes of the program with plans forfuture program improvement.First-Year Implementation of the S-SMART Summer Research Internship ProgramIn 2022, the S-SMART Summer Research Internship Program was piloted with a cohort of tenstudents participating in four research projects across three engineering disciplines - civilengineering, computer engineering, and mechanical engineering. Each project team wassupervised by at least one faculty advisor and one SFSU student peer mentor.Recruitment and Selection of Program ParticipantsThe S-SMART interns were selected through an online application process. The applicationform, created on Qualtrics, asked for information
, retention, and graduation data revealabout the current enrollment and student success trends for Black engineering students from [State]community colleges?A member of the research team with an existing account accessed an interactive reporting toolsplatform from the website at Institution 1. The platform provides a robust database with differentdata point options to select from. First, we downloaded the “enrolled Students by Admit Type”database. A unique feature of this platform was the “choose filter” option, from which we wereable to disaggregate the data by time variables (e.g., academic year and semester), academicstructure variables (e.g., college of engineering and degree plan (BA and BS)), degree and levelvariables (e.g., selecting only
often associated with qualitative data, we plan to follow an explanatory sequential casestudy research design where we pursue a rich description of two decades of data to betterunderstand the vertical transfer pathway into engineering degree programs [79]. By considering arich data source of background characteristics, enrollment patterns, and student outcomes over twodecades, this study also aims to contribute to the broader discourse on engineering education byinvestigating trends in vertical transfer student success at research-intensive institutions.3.1 Study Context and Data Source. This study used two decades of data from SU, a large publicresearch-intensive university in Florida. SU was chosen as the case study site due to its strong