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The Impact of Federally Funded Scholarship Programs on the Success of Transfer Students at a Public Engineering College

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Conference

2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Seattle, Washington

Publication Date

June 14, 2015

Start Date

June 14, 2015

End Date

June 17, 2015

ISBN

978-0-692-50180-1

ISSN

2153-5965

Conference Session

Cultivating Engineering Scholarship and Research Mindsets Among URM Students

Tagged Division

Minorities in Engineering

Tagged Topic

Diversity

Page Count

9

Page Numbers

26.1543.1 - 26.1543.9

DOI

10.18260/p.24880

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/24880

Download Count

543

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Paper Authors

biography

David M. Ford University of Massachusetts, Amherst

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David M. Ford is a Professor of Chemical Engineering and the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the College of Engineering at UMass Amherst. He is also on the Faculty Advisory Board for the Diversity Programs Office (DPO) in the College. The DPO provides academic and non-academic support to increase enrollment, retention, and graduation among under-represented minorities and women.

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biography

Paula Rees University of Massachusetts, Amherst

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Paula L. Sturdevant Rees is Director of the Massachusetts Water Resources Research Center (WRRC). In addition, she is the Director of Diversity Programs for the College of Engineering at UMass Amherst. As Director of Diversity Programs, Dr. Rees works with students, faculty and staff to provide exceptional education and professional growth opportunities for under-represented students in engineering. She is dedicated to increasing and maintaining student interest in engineering and related science and technology and works with several regional K12 programs to help increase the pipeline of students interested in pursuing careers in these fields.

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Kathleen G. Rubin University of Massachusetts Amherst

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Kathleen Rubin is the Associate Dean for Student Affairs in the UMass Amherst College of Engineering. She has over 30 years experience in recruiting, retaining and graduating engineering students. From 2003 through 2007, she also served as Director of Education, Outreach and Diversity for CASA - an NSF Engineering Research Center. She has been a Co-PI and Program Director for several previous CSEM and S-STEM awards.

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Abstract

The Impact of Federally Funded Scholarship Programs on the Success   of Transfer Students at a Public Engineering College  Nationally almost half of the students receiving baccalaureate degrees in science and engineeringcomplete part of their education at a community college, and this statistic is expected to increasewith the rising costs of attending a four-year public institution. The demographics of almost allfour-year engineering programs fail to align with U.S. Census data for women and under-represented minorities. Community colleges, on the other hand, serve a high number of thesestudents. Programs designed to support community college student transition and graduationfrom four-year engineering programs will naturally increase the pipeline of diverse studentsentering the workforce.This paper will review the impacts of two National Science Foundation S-STEM (Scholarshipsin Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) grants on undergraduate minorityengineering transfer student retention and development during the period 2007-13. The programswere designed to overcome known barriers to persistence of transfer students from communitycollege, including lack of engagement on campus, underdeveloped professional work ethic andgoals, deficient study habits, fewer opportunities to gain practical competence/reflection onlearning, and working for pay. The elements of the programs included cohorting, team-building,mentoring, tutoring, and advising, as well as monetary support in the form of scholarships.Compared to control groups, the cohorts participating in these programs showed significantlyhigher retention rates, a shorter time-to-degree, and higher placement rates in industry orgraduate school. The College also experienced an increase in diversity and an expanded pipelineof students continuing on to graduate school. Key elements of the programs that lead to successwill be highlighted and the challenges for attaining sustainability discussed.

Ford, D. M., & Rees, P., & Rubin, K. G. (2015, June), The Impact of Federally Funded Scholarship Programs on the Success of Transfer Students at a Public Engineering College Paper presented at 2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Seattle, Washington. 10.18260/p.24880

ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2015 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015