From Cooperation to Alliance: Transforming a Transfer Partnership to Promote Engineering Degree Pathways for Underrepresented Students
- Conference
- Location
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Baltimore , Maryland
- Publication Date
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June 25, 2023
- Start Date
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June 25, 2023
- End Date
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June 28, 2023
- Conference Session
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Engineering and Engineering Technology Transfer and the Two-Year College Student Part 1
- Tagged Division
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Two-Year College Division (TYCD)
- Tagged Topic
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Diversity
- Page Count
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16
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--43748
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/43748
- Download Count
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122
Paper Authors
Matthew Ford
University of Washington, Tacoma
orcid.org/0000-0002-1053-7149
Matthew J. Ford (he/him) received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science from the University of California, Berkeley, and went on to complete his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at Northwestern University. After completing a postdoc with the Cornell Active Learning Initiative, he joined the School of Engineering and Technology at UW Tacoma to help establish its new mechanical engineering program. His teaching and research interests include solid mechanics, engineering design, and inquiry-guided learning. He has supervised undergraduate and master's student research projects and capstone design teams.
Aleya Dhanji Highline Community College
Physics faculty at Highline College with research interests in culturally responsive STEM education, inclusive advising and mentoring practices, and antiracist faculty development.
Kira Glynn King
Jie Sheng University of Washington
Jie Sheng received her Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering in 2002 from the University of Alberta, Canada. Since then, she has been an NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (2003-2004); a lecturer at the University of New South Wales, Australia (2004-2006); and an Assistant Professor at the DigiPen Institute of Technology (2006-2008). Jie Sheng joined the University of Washington, Tacoma in 2009, where she is currently a tenured Associate Professor at the School of Engineering and Technology. Dr. Sheng teaches engineering courses including Machine Organization and Architecture, Digital System Design using Verilog, and Devices and Control. Her research interests focus on Model Predictive Control, Embedded Systems Design, and Engineering Education.
Skyler Roth Highline Community College
Emese Hadnagy University of Washington
Emese Hadnagy is an associate professor and chair of the BS Civil Engineering program at the University of Washington Tacoma. Dr. Hadnagy received her Ph.D. at the University of New Hampshire. Her work falls in the broad areas of surface water quality assessment, physicochemical treatment technology development, and engineering education research.
Abstract
Students who transfer from one institution to another face a variety of challenges as they explore transfer pathways and acclimate themselves to their new institution’s policies and practices, including lack of sense of belonging, navigating degree requirements and developing engineering identity. These challenges represent significant barriers to students, negatively impact their retention, and disproportionately affect low-income and underrepresented minority students in STEM. We report on our initial efforts to establish a successful transfer partnership between a minority-serving 2-year college and a 4-year degree granting institution to promote engineering degree pathways that have a high potential for providing economic mobility opportunities to underserved student populations. Our effort is part of a larger initiative that aims to establish an engaged community of practice of 10 transfer partnerships between 2- and 4- year institutions state-wide. The goal of the broader STEM Transfer Partnership program is to increase bachelor’s degree completion of low-income transfer students.
Our initial efforts focused on identifying shared data needs around student success barriers, establishing inter-institutional data sharing protocols, and developing a framework to significantly increase, diversify, and enhance our existing outreach, recruitment and academic advising practices in support of these students. We present a holistic data model for transfer pathway (Academic Success, Career Preparation, College and Transfer Navigation, Basic Needs and Funding, and Psychological Factors) to build on the Transfer Student Capital model (Moser, 2014) to obtain a more complete understanding of educational barriers as they interplay with each other.
BIPOC, low-income, and older graduates are more likely to be transfer students than other students (Wootan, 2021). Thus two-year colleges provide a critical pathway for diversifying the engineering workforce. Highline is both an AANAPISI and an MSI, with over 70% BIPOC students. About three quarters of UWT’s undergraduate students population are transfer students, with 54% first generation learners and 34% underrepresented minorities, most from 2-year institutions. As such the practices that we establish in our partnership will have significant potential for institutional scale-up of DEI practices to positively impact the educational experience of underrepresented students in engineering.
Ford, M., & Dhanji, A., & King, K. G., & Sheng, J., & Roth, S., & Hadnagy, E. (2023, June), From Cooperation to Alliance: Transforming a Transfer Partnership to Promote Engineering Degree Pathways for Underrepresented Students Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--43748
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