Creating Pathways to Industry for Pre-College Students and Two-Year Undergraduates

Kenie Moses; Fred Lacy

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Conference: 2025 ASEE -GSW Annual Conference
Location: Arlington, TX, Texas
Publication Date: March 9, 2025
Start Date: March 9, 2025
End Date: March 11, 2025
Tagged Topic: Diversity
Page Count: 9
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--55037
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/55037
Download Count: 7

Paper Authors

biography

Kenie Moses Southern University at Shreveport orcid.org/0000-0003-3452-7241

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Kenie serves as Professor and Chair of the Department of Engineering and Technology at Southern University at Shreveport. He received his BSEE in 2008 from Southern University A&M and MSECE from Purdue University 2011 and his PhD in May 2019 in Instructi

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biography

Fred Lacy Southern University and A&M College

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Dr. Fred Lacy earned his B.S.E.E. from Howard University in Washington, DC in 1987, his M.S.E. from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD in 1989, and his Ph.D. from Howard University in 1993. Upon completion of his Ph.D., Dr. Lacy joined the Bioengineering Department at University of California, San Diego from 1994 – 1998 as a postdoctoral fellow. After completing his postdoctoral research, Dr. Lacy held a position as a medical device reviewer at the Food and Drug Administration. He joined the faculty at Southern University in 2002 and has been chair of the Electrical Engineering Department since 2014. Dr. Lacy specializes in developing, manufacturing, and characterizing electronics-based microsensors for various applications (such as temperature sensing and oxygen-free radical measurements) using integrated circuit fabrication and processing technology. He has also developed machine learning algorithms to process data from these sensors. These algorithms are capable of detecting sensor signals in noisy environments. Dr. Lacy also focuses on engineering education and developing methods to enhance learning opportunities for underrepresented minorities in engineering and STEM fields.

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Abstract

Over the last decade, the emergence of technician education has taken center stage at secondary and post-secondary educational institutions through the proliferation of industry needs and employer-partner engagement. Through employer-partner engagement, Southern University at Shreveport, Louisiana (SUSLA), a community college unit within the Southern University and A&M College System, conducted a systematic review, assessment, and revision of its curricula that addressed the needs of industry. SUSLA’s comprehensive assessment, guided by employer-partner input, community college and 4-year university collaborations, and published workforce data, identified a pressing need to develop an Engineering Technology program. To that end, SUSLA developed a 2+2+2 Matriculation Model within the Engineering Technology associate of applied science degree program designed as a gateway to enable early education, persistence to post-secondary credentials of value, and high-quality career outcomes. Programs with similar demographics may be able to use this as a model which aims to do four things: 1) facilitate the early engagement of students decreasing the number of academically underprepared learners entering college, 2) expand postsecondary educational opportunities to improve outcomes fostering economic opportunity 3) increase the enrollment, persistence and graduation of early education and underserved populations in STEM and, 4) facilitate a reduction in time to degree. SUSLA’s 2+2+2 Matriculation Model provides high school students with the opportunity to earn dual-enrollment post-secondary credentials through its certificate of technical offerings in Engineering and Engineering Technology. Additionally, the model facilitates an increase in the participation rate of students in STEM and provides more academic opportunities and career exploration through collaborative industry-academic networks. Furthermore, the model produces workforce-ready technicians which accelerates academic and technical skill attainment and, thereby addresses a) the shortage in moderate to middle-skill jobs that require some college, but less than a bachelor’s degree; and b) the ongoing need for highly skilled STEM graduates to maintain the nation’s competitiveness in productivity and innovation.

Citation
Format

Moses, K., & Lacy, F. (2025, March), Creating Pathways to Industry for Pre-College Students and Two-Year Undergraduates Paper presented at 2025 ASEE -GSW Annual Conference, Arlington, TX, Texas. 10.18260/1-2--55037

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Over the last decade, the emergence of technician education has taken center stage at secondary and post-secondary educational institutions through the proliferation of industry needs and employer-partner engagement. Through employer-partner engagement, Southern University at Shreveport, Louisiana (SUSLA), a community college unit within the Southern University and A&amp;amp;M College System, conducted a systematic review, assessment, and revision of its curricula that addressed the needs of industry. SUSLA’s comprehensive assessment, guided by employer-partner input, community college and 4-year university collaborations, and published workforce data, identified a pressing need to develop an Engineering Technology program. To that end, SUSLA developed a 2+2+2 Matriculation Model within the Engineering Technology associate of applied science degree program designed as a gateway to enable early education, persistence to post-secondary credentials of value, and high-quality career outcomes. Programs with similar demographics may be able to use this as a model which aims to do four things: 1) facilitate the early engagement of students decreasing the number of academically underprepared learners entering college, 2) expand postsecondary educational opportunities to improve outcomes fostering economic opportunity 3) increase the enrollment, persistence and graduation of early education and underserved populations in STEM and, 4) facilitate a reduction in time to degree. SUSLA’s 2+2+2 Matriculation Model provides high school students with the opportunity to earn dual-enrollment post-secondary credentials through its certificate of technical offerings in Engineering and Engineering Technology. Additionally, the model facilitates an increase in the participation rate of students in STEM and provides more academic opportunities and career exploration through collaborative industry-academic networks. Furthermore, the model produces workforce-ready technicians which accelerates academic and technical skill attainment and, thereby addresses a) the shortage in moderate to middle-skill jobs that require some college, but less than a bachelor’s degree; and b) the ongoing need for highly skilled STEM graduates to maintain the nation’s competitiveness in productivity and innovation.
AU  - Kenie Moses
AU  - Fred Lacy
CY  - Arlington, TX, Texas
DA  - 2025/03/09
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Creating Pathways to Industry for Pre-College Students and Two-Year Undergraduates
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/55037
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--55037
ER  -