Growing the Community College Pipeline for Careers in Civil, Chemical, and Ocean Engineering through the FITS-STEM Program

Florida Institute Of Technology, Melbourne FL

Investigators

Abstract

The Florida Institute of Technology (FIT) is supporting 26 academically talented transfer students with financial need who are majoring in chemical, civil, and ocean engineering through this S-STEM project. Three cohorts of transfer students from community colleges and four-year state colleges that do not offer engineering degrees are supported through scholarships, early mentoring, and other academic and career support activities. FIT is leveraging partnerships with five colleges (Eastern Florida State College - formerly Brevard Community College, Indian River State College, Daytona State College, Hillsborough Community College, and Miami Dade College) to provide students opportunities to transfer to FIT and pursue engineering degrees to address workforce needs in the state of Florida. The project outcomes include increasing the number of transfer students from low income groups to enter STEM fields, improving opportunities for underrepresented minority students to obtain STEM degrees, helping partner schools recruit more students in STEM fields, and disseminating the lessons learned and evaluation results of the project. FIT is implementing a comprehensive set of evidence-based practices to support the successful transfer, retention, and graduation of its transfer students. The project includes a focused recruitment plan at the partner colleges. The early mentoring and transition support provided while students are at the community and state colleges aims to smooth the transition process. Established articulation agreements between FIT and the partner community colleges and four-year institutions are leveraged as well. While enrolled at FIT, students participate in multiple cohort building and professional development activities, including hands-on activities with student engineering professional organizations, sustainability-related design and research seminars, and also have opportunities to engage in regional and national student competitions and use services provided by the Enhanced Academic Support Center. In addition, career advising activities assist the students' transition into the engineering workforce. The project includes an evaluation plan with both formative and summative evaluation via mixed methods (such as surveys and interviews) to identify improvements to the FITS-STEM scholarship program, as well as multiple metrics to track success in meeting project outcomes.