Spokane Falls Community College Engineering Scholarship Project

Spokane Falls Community College, Spokane WA

Investigators

Abstract

Spokane Falls Community College (SFCC) will pursue the "Engineering Scholarship Project" to provide 36 undergraduate engineering students with scholarships and supporting activities that promote academic success. The project includes a collaboration with Eastern Washington University, which will recruit upper-class engineering students to serve as peer mentors for first-year community college students within the context of a year-long robotics design activity. Targeted scholarships integrated with a program of structured mentoring and student support activities aim to increase the number of students who persist and complete an engineering transfer degree at SFCC, and successfully transfer to a four-year institution. The project has the potential increase the diversity and availability of qualified engineers to meet regional workforce needs. The project will generate new knowledge regarding evidence-based approaches to improving outcomes in community college engineering student persistence, completion, and transfer to baccalaureate-granting institutions. The Engineering Scholarship Project will develop and apply methods of systematic outreach to high schools to recruit academically motivated students and encourage them to enter undergraduate engineering programs at SFCC. Student cohorts will be supported for four years: they will complete their two-year engineering degree at SFCC and transfer to a four-year institution, where they will complete the additional requirements needed to earn a baccalaureate engineering degree. Student success will be supported through curriculum pathways, faculty advising, peer student mentors, and supportive co-curricular activities. Evaluation results will be used to drive changes in practice and institutional culture that improve SFCC's future success in recruiting student in STEM, as well as support successful two-year degree completion and transfer.