Engineering Scholars Program

Highline Community College, Des Moines WA

Investigators

Abstract

The project serves to create the Engineering Scholars Program (ESP). This program provides support for academically talented, financially needy students, enabling them to enter a university to pursue a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) Degree in engineering, following completion of an Associate of Science (A.S.) degree in engineering. The ESP has three main objectives: To establish and promote a strong scholarship program, the ESP awards scholarships to financially disadvantaged, academically talented students, including those from underrepresented groups, enrolled in engineering. To help these scholars be successful, educational opportunities and student support programs have been designed to increase retention. Cohort courses and activities have been designed to connect the scholars with their peers, the institution and the engineering community. To strengthen partnerships, there is assistance from area school districts, institutions of higher education and employers in the high technology industry to support students in their pursuit of a B.S. degree. The strength of the program is the management team's interdepartmental and campus-wide collaboration. A wide web of academic and student support systems exist in this project, with ten departments committing customized programming for the scholars. The ESP Advisory Committee is a subcommittee of the existing Engineering Advisory Committee. The role of these external partners is to connect the scholars to the engineering community and assist their transition to four-year institutions. The intellectual merit of this activity is the integration of the math, engineering and physics curriculum. Faculty are expanding their pedagogical understanding - math faculty can see the application of their subject, while the engineering and physics faculty can learn how to use math more effectively in their courses. It becomes an interrelated approach to teaching and learning, benefiting the student and faculty. The ESP has broad impact. Highline serves a large financially disadvantaged population that is very diverse (44 percent students of color) and predominantly female (62 percent), while maintaining strong retention and transfer performance rates. ESP broadens the participation rates of underrepresented groups by providing financial, academic and support service assistance. Dissemination of the results is through the Washington Council of Engineering and Related Technology Education and with the Washington Team of the National Collaboration for Engineering Education to improve student learning and create additional opportunities for scholars.