Conference Session

Women in Engineering Division Technical Session 1

Collection

2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Authors

Christine Delahanty, Bucks County Community College ; Jason Silverman, Drexel University

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

Paper ID #33241Creative Self-Efficacy of Undergraduate Women Engineering MajorsDr. Christine Delahanty, Bucks County Community College Dr. Delahanty is the Area Coordinator of Science and Engineering, and Professor of Engineering and Physics at Bucks County Community College (Bucks). She worked as an electrical engineer at General Electric Co. for nine years in both military and commercial communication satellite operations. Her research interests include investigating creativity within STEM education as a factor in cultivating diver- sity. She establishes technical, college level, programs of study for modernized

Conference Session

Women in Engineering Division Technical Session 3

Collection

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Authors

Amrita Dhakal Ghimire, Mississippi State University; Litany H Lineberry, Mississippi State University; Sarah B. Lee, Mississippi State University

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

programmingincreased from 5.5% to 7.0 % in spring 2019, and that measure decreased from 7.1% to 3.6% infall 2019. Males who indicated they are good in computer programming in comparison to theirpeers increased from 16.7% to 29.6% in spring 2019. Similar patterns can be seen in fall 2019 pre-to post- results where self-efficacy grew from 29.8% to 42.9% for male students, but remained flatfor females.Figure 3. Perceptions of Male vs Female between pre-post survey in Spring 2019 and fall 2019 (Column labels are in percentage).With the post-survey results across semesters presented in Figure 4, gaps between positiveperceptions of programming ability among males versus females is evident. The perception ofmale students reporting to be better at computer

Conference Session

Climate Issues for Women Students

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Stephen Krause, Arizona State University; Dale Baker, Arizona State University; Chell Roberts, Arizona State University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

,” Journal of Research in Science Teaching, Vol41, No.3, pp. 267-293.[14] Meece, M., What do women want? Just Ask, The New York Times October 29, 2006.[15] Pajares, F.,Hartley, J., and Valiante, G. (2001.) Response Format in Writing Self-Efficacy Assessment: Greater Discrimination Increases Prediction. Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development, 33, 214-221. Page 12.866.15

Conference Session

Women in Engineering Division Technical Session 9

Collection

2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Authors

Susan J. Ely, University of Southern Indiana

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

retainingwomen engineering students? Do the virtual measures foster the same levels of self-efficacy inwomen engineering students as the previously offered face-to-face interactions? Do womenengineering students feel additional isolation from their peer group and perhaps question theircareer path when faced with an increased amount of online presence and the removal of criticalprograms aimed at increasing retention?While it is impossible to know the long-term impact on women engineering students due to thepandemic, it is possible to measure the immediate change in self-efficacy, sense of belonging andconfidence in program of study. This study measured changes in self-efficacy, belonging andconfidence of undergraduate women engineering students at a

Conference Session

The Impact of Curriculum on the Retention of Women Students

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Rose Marra, University of Missouri; Barbara Bogue, Pennsylvania State University; Kelly Rodgers, University of Missouri; Demei Shen, University of Missouri

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

. Page 12.1262.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2007 Self Efficacy of Women Engineering Students: Three Years of Data at U.S. InstitutionsAbstract This paper describes the results of three years of engineering self-efficacy datacollected from engineering students at five institutions across the U.S. Results indicate that whilestudents show positive progress on some self–efficacy and related subscales, they show adecrease on isolation subscale from the first to second measurement period. It is also notable thatthere are almost no gender differences and that self efficacy seems to be related to participationin extracurricular activities and student plans to persist in the

Conference Session

Retaining Women Engineering Students

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Rachelle Reisberg, Northeastern University; Margaret Bailey, Rochester Institute of Technology; Carol Burger, Virginia Tech; Jerry Hamann, University of Wyoming; Joe Raelin, Northeastern University; David Whitman, University of Wyoming

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

-efficacy through the impact of contextual support.Self-efficacy was assessed through three measures – work, career, and academic – signifying the Page 15.1223.3confidence that students have in succeeding within the workplace, within their chosenengineering career, or in the classroom, respectively. Contextual support was measured as thesupport provided to students through a number of mechanisms, in particular, financial aid,mentors, advisors, family, friends, teachers, profession, campus life, and living/learningcommunities.This paper will present the survey methodology, the results to date regarding the effect of genderon self-efficacy through

Conference Session

Myths About Gender and Race

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Amy E. Slaton, Drexel University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society, Minorities in Engineering, Women in Engineering

attempts to correct minority underrepresentation in the engineering disciplines,educational researchers, cognitive psychologists, and scholars in related fields have since the1980s developed many studies centered on the notion of student self-efficacy. 1-6 These studiesseek to measure the degree to which under-represented minority or otherwise marginalizedstudents experience a sense of self-confidence or feeling that they are able to counter "barrierconditions." Those conditions might include discrimination or other challenging social andintellectual situations encountered in college. While such studies are certainly preferable to adenial of differences between minority and majority experiences, they intentionally or otherwisesupport the notion

Conference Session

Women in Engineering Division: Retention of Undergraduate Students

Collection

2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Elaine Zundl, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey; Laura Stiltz, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey; Helen M. Buettner, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

member.Since the inception of the Douglass Engineering Living-Learning Community in 2012, 42 first-year women have participated and completed the program. Of those women, 38 havesuccessfully stayed in an engineering curriculum (90% retention rate), and 29 have continued tolive together in another residence hall. To assess the effectiveness of this program on thepredictors of retention, all students participating were asked to complete the LongitudinalAssessment of Engineering Self-Efficacy (LAESE) developed by The Pennsylvania StateUniversity and University of Missouri. This instrument measures several outcomes related toretention and is widely used to better understand students’ feelings towards engineering. Focusgroups were also used to generate

Conference Session

Women in Engineering Division Technical Session 2

Collection

2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Suzanne Zurn-Birkhimer, Purdue University, West Lafayette (College of Engineering); Mayari I. Serrano, Purdue Polytechnic Institute; Rachel Ann Baker

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

personal impact of the conferenceand included questions related to conference usefulnesses, self-esteem, self-efficacy, and programlogistics, as well as feedback about the overall conference experience. The Heatherton and Polivy 11State Self-Esteem Scale (SSES) was specifically designed to measure state self-esteem, which isdefined as the temporary fluctuations in self-esteem. The SSES is generally considered to be astable qualitative measure that is psychometrically sound and valid in laboratory, classroom, andclinical settings 11 . Table 1 lists the 14 questions from the SSES utilized by this study to measurethe self-esteem subcategories of academic performance (seven questions) and social confidence(seven questions). A 5-point Likert scale was

Conference Session

Attitudes, Self-Confidence, and Self-Efficacy of Women Engineering Students

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Holly Matusovich, Virginia Tech; Ruth Streveler, Purdue University; Ronald Miller, Colorado School of Mines; Barbara Olds, Colorado School of Mines

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

tested. A keydistinguishing feature of expectancy of success is that relates to beliefs about a future potentialoutcome. It is this future component that theoretically distinguishes expectancies of successfrom self-concept of ability which is perception of current competence. Expectancies of successare also theoretically distinguished from self-efficacy, an individual’s beliefs about his or herability to perform a task at a designated capability level 10. However, researchers have argued Page 14.348.3these three constructs are difficult to differentiate empirically 11-14 and are often operationalizedin such a way as to be equivalent. 12, 15

Conference Session

Attitudes, Self-Confidence, and Self-Efficacy of Women Engineering Students

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kristian Trampus, University of Texas, Tyler; Fredericka Brown, University of Texas, Tyler; Michael Odell, University of Texas, Tyler

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

programs overtime.Among the numerous studies on women and minority students and why they fail to achievedegrees in STEM fields, the focus is on the students’ characteristics, but less attention is focusedon institutional characteristics and peer perceptions. When young women entering technicalcareers were asked what social factors concerned them about the climate of STEM fields, theresponses indicated the traditionally high indicators of “discrimination,” “prejudice/hostility,”and “lack of acceptance.”3Another limiting factor for women and minority students to achieving degrees in STEM fields istheir individual perception of their ability to succeed in a given situation, known as self efficacy,influences their thoughts, feelings, motivation, and

Conference Session

Attitudes, Self-Confidence, and Self-Efficacy of Women Engineering Students

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Angela Bielefeldt, University of Colorado, Boulder

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

students’ perceptions of ways of thinking in engineering student and practice. 36th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education (FIE) Conference. Oct. 28-31, San Diego, CA. S2G, 1-6.11. Besterfield-Sacre, M., M. Moreno, L.J. Shuman, C.J. Atman. 1999. Comparing Entering Freshman Engineers: Institutional Differences in Student Attitudes. Proceedings of the American Society for Engineering Education Conference, South Carolina. Session 1430.12. Fuertes, J.N, M.L. Miville, J.J. Mohr, W.E. Sedlacek, D. Gretchen. 2000. Factor structure and short form of the Miville-Guzman Universality-Diversity Scale. Measurement & Evaluation in Counseling and Development. 33(3), 157-170.13. Miville, M.L., P. Holloway, C. Gelso, R. Pannu, W. Liu, P. Touradji

Conference Session

Attitudes, Self-Confidence, and Self-Efficacy of Women Engineering Students

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Carmen Villa, Texas A&M University; Carolyn Clark, Texas A&M University; Jennifer Sandlin, Arizona State University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

, studies in college student retention, which address students who remain at the sameinstitution where they start until they complete a program,4 have found retention is influenced by Page 14.919.2individual and institutional factors such as student background; ethnicity; high school grades andSAT scores; socioeconomic status; participation in social activities; faculty; size of theinstitution; and attachment to the institution.11,12,13 For instance, Bean’s13 study defines self-efficacy as students’ beliefs in their abilities to survive and adapt to the academic environment.He states that students who believe they can achieve their goals increase

Conference Session

Women in Engineering Division Technical Session 4

Collection

2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Andrea Nana Ofori-Boadu, North Carolina A&T State University; Dongyang Deng, North Carolina A&T State University; Cheryl Monique Stevens, North Carolina A&T State University; Kayla Gore; Iyshea Borders-Taylor, North Carolina A&T State University

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

wereattributed to mastery experiences and positive emotional states as the maximum percentage ofgirls who used words related to the four Bandura self-efficacy categories were: masteryexperiences (86%); emotional states (62%); vicarious experiences (59%); and verbal persuasion(36%). The broader 18 emergent themes of girls’ learning experiences included knowledge,doing, national priorities, fun, emotions, sustainability, civic responsibility, mentors, arts, softskills, minority, and persistence. Most girls had positive learning experiences, with sometransitioning from ‘difficult’ to ‘easy’ as they gained mastery experiences. A few girls expresseddifficulty and discomfort with mathematics, measurements, equipment usage, and outdoorenvironments. The

Conference Session

Women in Engineering Division Technical Session 7

Collection

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Christina S. Morton, University of Michigan ; Selyna Beverly, University of Michigan

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

, Science, & Arts and M-Engin which supports the engineering studentsin the College of Engineering. In this study we limit our focus to the experiences of engineeringstudents in the M-Engin program. Specific elements of the M-Engin program include: a summertransition program in which students gain exposure to the engineering curriculum, academiccoaching, study skill building, as well as career and professional development. Our studyexplores the relationship between students’ perceptions of the M-Engin program’s benefits andtheir engineering major confidence (a measure of self-efficacy) after their first year in college.We hypothesize that perceived program benefits of the M-Engin program will be positivelyrelated to women’s engineering major

Conference Session

Undergraduate Recruitment

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Patricia R. Backer, San Jose State University; Rona Tamiko Halualani, San Jose State University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

]. Below, wewill highlight some of the recent research in this area.A six-year study of STEM students at the University of Washington [30] found that most womenwho switched out of engineering (77.9%) cited discouragement and a loss of self-efficacy asfactors. Marr and Bogue [31] conducted a longitudinal study of women engineering student self-efficacy using data from five institutions across the U.S. The results of their study of 164 womenengineering students showed there was a positive increase in self-efficacy among students inthree self-efficacy measures (coping self-efficacy, second engineering self-efficacy, and mathoutcomes expectations) and reduced self-efficacy in feelings of inclusion in engineering. Incontrast, Reisberg et al. conducted

Conference Session

Women in Engineering Technical Session

Collection

2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Andrea Nana Ofori-Boadu, North Carolina A&T State University

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

Paper ID #21489Improving Middle-School Girls’ Knowledge, Self-Efficacy, and Interests in’Sustainable Construction Engineering’ through a STEAM ACTIVATED! pro-gramDr. Andrea Nana Ofori-Boadu, North Carolina A&T State University Dr. Ofori-Boadu is an Assistant Professor with the Department of Built Environment at North Carolina A & T State University. Her research interests are in bio-modified cements, sustainable development, and STEM education. Dr. Ofori-Boadu has served in various capacities on research and service projects, including Principal Investigator for two most recent grants from the Engineering Information

Conference Session

The Pipeline

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Paul Plotkowski, Grand Valley State University; Mary Ann Sheline, Grand Valley State University; Margo Dill, Grand Valley State University; Jessica Noble, Grand Valley State University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

remote controlled aircraft. While influencing longterm educational goals is a primary focus of the STEPS camps, the experiences andactivities are also designed to promote self esteem, self confidence, and demonstrate thebenefits of teamwork and collaboration. Based upon this positive message, Grand ValleyState University began offering STEPS camps in the summer of 2002, and the popularityhas ensured full capacity participation every year thereafter.Pre and post assessments measuring content knowledge, self efficacy about success inmathematics and science, and the likelihood of pursuing STEM related fields are used toevaluate the camps yearly. Results indicate that increase in content knowledge amonggirls in the 2007 program increased from 10.5

Conference Session

Issues of Persistence in Engineering

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Matthew Ohland, Purdue University; Michelle Camacho, University of San Diego; Richard Layton, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; Russell Long, Purdue University; Susan Lord, University of San Diego; Mara Wasburn, Purdue University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

the female populations tend to have lower eight-semester persistence rates forthe same six-year graduation rate. Men, conversely, will derive self-efficacy from a diverse set ofachievements, including simply passing their classes. Attributing failures to the professor, badluck, or other sources bolsters the self-efficacy of men at times beyond reasonable limits,resulting in their languishing in degree programs and, at times, exhausting their options. We willcontinue our work to test this hypothesis by examining the populations with high eight-semesterpersistence rates but low six-year graduation rates to determine if they do indeed have feweroptions available to them when they leave engineering as measured by their academic standing attheir

Conference Session

Women in Engineering Division Technical Session 6

Collection

2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Laura K Alford, University of Michigan; Valeria Bertacco, University of Michigan

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

example, student agreement/disagreement with “I believe that other students in computerprogramming courses will be welcoming of me” could have a disproportionately large effect onthe number of women deciding to major in computer science/computer engineering.After improving the survey process based on recommendations from the initial study, weembarked on a 5 year program to gather data and assess the gender differences in two sequentiallarge programming courses. Our overarching research question is: Do women and men show astatistically significant difference in their perceptions of their abilities and learning environmentas measured by self-efficacy, intimidation by programming, and feelings of inclusion?This paper will present the first set of

Conference Session

Knowing Our Students I

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Christina Vogt, National Academy of Engineering

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

, and Waggoner26 conducted at a well-established Midwesternuniversity, the math test scores of females in both engineering and biological sciences wereexamined. Also, to determine if confidence differed by major, confidence scales wereadministered to the same females entering both programs. In essence, the females majoring inengineering had both higher math entrance scores and stronger measures of self-confidence thantheir female counterparts in biological sciences.However, when comparing women to men, several studies have found that women self-reporttheir academic confidence and engineering self-efficacy as lower than men's.2,4,5,28,29Accordingly, self-efficacy may be enhanced or diminished due to feedback from external factorssuch as society

Conference Session

Undergraduate Recruitment

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Susan Shapcott, Arizona State University; Katherine G. Nelson, Arizona State University; Jenefer Husman, Arizona State University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

-efficacy (i.e., thinks she can succeed).19 Knowing the relation of self-efficacy with motivation, engineering educators havefocused intensely on it. Researchers have devised ways to measure self-efficacy in engineeringstudents14 and have successfully conducted interventions that have increased self-efficacy levelsof female engineering students.15 These interventions have increased self-efficacy by engagingfemale engineering students in mastery-orientated classes15 and curriculum design.20 A mastery-orientated classroom emphasizes learning new skills by focusing on the processes they involve.For example, Baker and colleagues, 2007, developed a course that embedded “tinkering”activities and applied technical skills. Class content that

Conference Session

Retention of Women Students II

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Heidi M. Steinhauer, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

presented in this section. Page 25.1311.6More specifically, we present the professional skills gained, as structured from the participantsown words.Overall Rating on the General Self Efficacy ScaleTable 2 presents the average ratings. When completing this survey, participants were instructedto reflect back holistically – to consider and measure personal, professional, and academicexperiences when rating each item. It is observed that all responses are rated highly, with thelowest as 3.18/4.00, “if someone opposes me, I can find the ways and means to get what I want.”When participants were asked to offer an example or an explanation of why they

Conference Session

Women in Engineering Division Technical Session 1

Collection

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jennifer S Gurski, Drexel University; Penny Louise Hammrich, Drexel Univeristy

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

persistence in engineering as part of the CAEE’s (2007) Academic PathwaysStudy (APS), which identified 21 variables for persistence in engineering. The instrument’soverall goal was to collect data utilizing relevant questions from each survey instrument onindividuals’ experiences and perceptions during their K-14 and academic careers and to create acomprehensive picture of the culture-sharing group – in this case, the young women that hadpersisted in the research site’s College of Engineering.The MSLQ questions were used to identify within the results a measure of motivationalorientation for college engineering students (Pintrich et al., 1991) and examine women’s feelingsof self-efficacy to determine if patterns existed among the women in the

Conference Session

WIED Olio

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Natalie C.T. Van Tyne P.E., Colorado School of Mines; Chester J. Van Tyne, Colorado School of Mines; Kathryne Van Tyne, University of Chicago

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

mayinfluence how students evaluate themselves and others. The present paper explores the role ofgender in self-evaluation and peer evaluation, with regard to both teamwork and final overallperformance, as measured by final course grade in a first-year engineering design course.Individual Factors for Successful EvaluationsSince part of our study relies upon a self-evaluation of the students' performance on a team, it isimportant to understand how students approach such evaluations. Self-evaluation of one’steamwork skills and contributions to the success of a design team is influenced, in part, by an Page 22.739.2attribute known as self-efficacy. Self

Conference Session

Women in Engineering Division Technical Session 7

Collection

2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Authors

Victoria Beth Sellers, University of Florida; Idalis Villanueva, University of Florida

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

measures to determine mismatches between how efficacious a woman in engineeringthinks she is versus the strategy she chooses and if it depends on the type of HC or who thecommunicator of the HC is. Our future work will compare the strategies used by people withother gender identities in engineering to see how:(1) others work to overcome HC inengineering, and (2) see how different others’ strategies are to those that women employ. We alsoplan to analyze responses to a self-advocacy item to determine how women extend their self-efficacy into advocating for themselves and others in engineering. With these findings, we aredeveloping professional development workshops to support women engineers’ advocacymentoring capacity within engineering

Conference Session

Women in Engineering Division Technical Session 2

Collection

2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Madison E. Andrews, University of Texas, Austin

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

include 1 mixed-method, 6 qualitative and 6quantitative studies. The sample sizes ranged from 4 to 15,771. All the sources included werepeer-reviewed and framed as research studies, rather than as practitioner papers. Additionally,the quality of each of these studies was systematically assessed. The full texts of the 13remaining qualifying studies were then examined and coded to reveal themes within the existingbody of knowledge.DiscussionAlthough the total number of publications examined was quite small, clear trends existed in thedata collected. The majority of articles measured students’ confidence or some form of self-efficacy in the classroom or the workplace. The quantitative studies measured a variety ofoutcomes, but almost never found

Conference Session

Women in Engineering Division Technical Session 5

Collection

2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kristin E. Sherwood, Stony Brook University; Angela M Kelly, Stony Brook University; Monica Bugallo, Stony Brook University

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

TransitionAbstractPeer mentoring has been shown to be an effective means of improving the retention of women inengineering, but few studies have explored the impact of participation on the development of theleadership abilities of undergraduate women. Transitioning to a leadership mentality as a peermentor has the potential to foster self-efficacy in science, technology, engineering, andmathematics (STEM) and socially stable academic relationships that may be replicated in post-graduate study and/or the workplace. This one-year study explored the experiences of junior andsenior female students in STEM majors (N=11) serving as mentors to first-year students in theWomen in Science and Engineering Honors Program (WISE) at Stony Brook University, a largeresearch

Conference Session

Women in Engineering Division Technical Session 2

Collection

2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Malle R Schilling, University of Dayton; Margaret Pinnell, University of Dayton

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

,engineering, and math (STEM) a function of objectively measured math competencies. Second,students are more likely to select math and science courses when they are confident in theirability to do well in these courses. In other words, students with greater self-efficacy in scienceand math are more likely to choose these courses. Third, the value a student places on particularschool subjects are important for their career trajectory. Finally, the perception of strong socialsupport for achievement is vital when a student is considering a career choice, which isparticularly true for females [7].Through the use of implicit and self-report measure, it was found that elementary school femalessupported the stereotype that math is for males, demonstrating

Conference Session

Women in Engineering Division Technical Session 5

Collection

2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jennifer A Gatz, Stony Brook University ; Angela M Kelly, Stony Brook University; Monica Bugallo, Stony Brook University

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

be measured in terms of gradeperformance and intellectual development during the college years [22]. While ability has beenpositively associated with college persistence, commitment to the goal of completion is the mostinfluential factor in determining persistence [22]. A feeling of success and congruence in theacademic environment may lead to increased motivation to study, which may lead to betterperformance, increased academic self-efficacy, and institutional commitment [23]. Learningcommunities are a way to combine academic and social aspects of an institution to help increaseacademic performance and retention, particularly in the transition from high school to college[24]. Learning communities that include mentoring encourage personal