Montreal, Quebec, Canada
June 22, 2025
June 22, 2025
August 15, 2025
Diversity and NSF Grantees Poster Session
6
https://peer.asee.org/55801
Dr. Muhammad Dawood received his BE degree from the NED University of Engineering and Technology, Karachi, Pakistan, 1985, and his MS and Ph.D. degrees, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, in 1998 and 2001, respectively, both in electrical engineering. Dr
Dr. Paola Bandini is the Wells-Hatch Professor in the Civil Engineering Department at New Mexico State University (NMSU). She received her Master and Ph.D. degrees in civil engineering (geotechnical) from Purdue University, and joined the NMSU faculty in 2002.
Dr. Rachel Boren is the Director of the SOAR Evaluation and Policy Center in the College of Education at New Mexico State University. Her expertise is in research methodology and program evaluation in the social sciences.
Joe Butler is the Dean of Science, Engineering, and Mathematics at Doña Ana Community College. Joe earned the BS and MS in Mathematics at the University of North Texas.
Dr. Wendy Chi is the Director of ABC Research & Evaluation, specializing in education research and program evaluations of projects focusing on educational equity issues; specifically, the participation of underrepresented populations in STEM fields. Dr. Chi earned her PhD in Educational Foundations, Policy and Practice from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
An interinstitutional team of researchers at a Southwest HSI Land-Grant University and its affiliated local community college embarked on managing an NSF-supported Track III S-STEM scholarship project called STAR (“Successful Transfer and Retention”) project. This project is a synergistic effort between the University’s College of Engineering (CoE) and a neighboring 2-year Community College (CC). The project addresses an institutionally identified need of increasing recruitment of financially challenged, academically talented, 2-year CC transfer engineering students as well as retaining and graduating them. Major elements o this effort are: provide need-based financial assistance to academically talented engineering students; enhance transfer engineering students’ math proficiency through a Summer Math Boot Camp (SMBC); enhance Students’ Self-Efficacy, Growth Mindset, and Engineering Identity through metacognition- and cohort-based activities; and assess students’ academic performance using data analytics. The program began recruitment of scholars in Fall 2020 and continuing. As of now, it has 57 scholars at various stages of their education. The cognitive and noncognitive activities of the program support students’ academic preparation through SMBC, Self-Efficacy and Growth Mindset through metacognition-based workshops, Engineering Identity through cohort-based activities in Engineering Learning Communities (ELCs), time management skills, one-on-one relationships with near-peer and faculty mentors, and a cohort model. The program conducts yearly SMBC and monthly meetings comprising presentations, workshops, and cohort-building activities. The key preliminary findings indicate S-STEM financial support is the top-rated element of the program followed by professional preparation and community building. These scholars have seen progressive growth in their various aspects of engineering identity.
Dawood, M., & Bandini, P., & Boren, R., & Butler, J., & Chi, W. (2025, June), BOARD # 423: Preliminary Findings of an NSF-supported track-III S-STEM STAR Project Paper presented at 2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Montreal, Quebec, Canada . https://peer.asee.org/55801
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