BOARD # 393: Mentoring as a Support Tool for Low-Income Engineering Transfer students in an S-STEM program

Anna-Lena Dicke; David A. Copp; Analia E. Rao

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Conference: 2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Publication Date: June 22, 2025
Start Date: June 22, 2025
End Date: August 15, 2025
Conference Session: NSF Grantees Poster Session II
Tagged Topics: Diversity and NSF Grantees Poster Session
Page Count: 5
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/55767

Paper Authors

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Anna-Lena Dicke University of California, Irvine orcid.org/0000-0001-8816-455X

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Dr. Dicke is an Associate Project Scientist within the School of Education at the University of California, Irvine. In her research, she aims to understand how students’ motivation and interest in the STEM fields can be fostered to secure their educational persistence and long-term career success. Trying to bridge the gap between theory and practice, she is currently involved in an NSF-funded project aimed at fostering the persistence and retention of low-income engineering transfer students.

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David A. Copp University of California, Irvine orcid.org/0000-0002-5206-5223

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David A. Copp received the B.S. degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Arizona and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Teaching at the University of California, Irvine in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. Prior to joining UCI, he was a Senior Member of the Technical Staff at Sandia National Laboratories and an adjunct faculty member in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of New Mexico. His broad research interests include engineering education, as well as control and optimization of nonlinear and hybrid systems with applications to power and energy systems, multi-agent systems, robotics, and biomedicine. He is the recipient of several awards for his innovative teaching and excellence in research mentorship.

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Analia E. Rao University of California, Irvine

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Abstract

As community college students transfer to four-year institutions, they commonly encounter a phenomenon called “transfer shock” that can impact their academic success negatively (Smith et al, 2021). Along with other issues, one of the main issues transfer students face is a lack of social integration at the new institution. This includes a lack of personal relationships with faculty as well as no integration into a peer group (Monroe, 2006, Walker & Okpala, 2017). Qualitative research has shown that this lack of personal connection can be linked to less help seeking behavior shown by transfer students, which, in turn, is likely to affect their academic success negatively (Elliott & Lakin, 2021). One of the tools that can help address this issue is the facilitation of quality interactions with faculty and peers through mentoring (Dhin & Zhang, 2020; Smith & Van Aken, 2020; Winterer et al., 2020). To help increase the number of low-income community college students who successfully transfer to four-year-institutions, graduate with an engineering baccalaureate degree, and enter the STEM workforce/graduate school, the current project, funded through an NSF S-STEM grant, developed a comprehensive scholarship program to help underrepresented low-income students from diverse backgrounds. To address the issue of social integration, the comprehensive scholarship program included structured faculty and peer mentoring that transfer students enrolled in the program received as part of their participation. On the one hand, based on their chosen engineering major, they were matched with an individual faculty mentor to provide them with guidance. On the other hand, they were matched with a more advanced transfer student in their major to promote social integration. The aim of the current study is to showcase the mentoring program and students’ perceptions of the mentoring program in terms of its benefits and opportunities for improvement. Findings will help inform the improvement of the existing program and the development of future mentoring programs that aim to specifically support transfer students.

Citation
Format

Dicke, A., & Copp, D. A., & Rao, A. E. (2025, June), BOARD # 393: Mentoring as a Support Tool for Low-Income Engineering Transfer students in an S-STEM program Paper presented at 2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Montreal, Quebec, Canada . https://peer.asee.org/55767

TY - CPAPER
AB - As community college students transfer to four-year institutions, they commonly encounter a phenomenon called “transfer shock” that can impact their academic success negatively (Smith et al, 2021). Along with other issues, one of the main issues transfer students face is a lack of social integration at the new institution. This includes a lack of personal relationships with faculty as well as no integration into a peer group (Monroe, 2006, Walker &amp;amp; Okpala, 2017). Qualitative research has shown that this lack of personal connection can be linked to less help seeking behavior shown by transfer students, which, in turn, is likely to affect their academic success negatively (Elliott &amp;amp; Lakin, 2021). One of the tools that can help address this issue is the facilitation of quality interactions with faculty and peers through mentoring (Dhin &amp;amp; Zhang, 2020; Smith &amp;amp; Van Aken, 2020; Winterer et al., 2020). To help increase the number of low-income community college students who successfully transfer to four-year-institutions, graduate with an engineering baccalaureate degree, and enter the STEM workforce/graduate school, the current project, funded through an NSF S-STEM grant, developed a comprehensive scholarship program to help underrepresented low-income students from diverse backgrounds. To address the issue of social integration, the comprehensive scholarship program included structured faculty and peer mentoring that transfer students enrolled in the program received as part of their participation. On the one hand, based on their chosen engineering major, they were matched with an individual faculty mentor to provide them with guidance. On the other hand, they were matched with a more advanced transfer student in their major to promote social integration. The aim of the current study is to showcase the mentoring program and students’ perceptions of the mentoring program in terms of its benefits and opportunities for improvement. Findings will help inform the improvement of the existing program and the development of future mentoring programs that aim to specifically support transfer students.
AU - Anna-Lena Dicke
AU - David A. Copp
AU - Analia E. Rao
CY - Montreal, Quebec, Canada
DA - 2025/06/22
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - BOARD # 393: Mentoring as a Support Tool for Low-Income Engineering Transfer students in an S-STEM program
UR - https://peer.asee.org/55767
ER -