Collaborative Research: Student Pathways in Engineering and Computing for Transfer Success

Spartanburg Community College, Spartanburg SC

Investigators

Abstract

With funding from the NSF Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics program, this project will support high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at Spartanburg Community College, Trident Community College, and Clemson University. This project aims to increase the recruitment, retention, academic success, and graduation rates of these students who begin their academic path at community colleges and transfer into engineering and computing degree programs at four-year institutions.Over a five-year period, this project will provide scholarships to 316 transfer students to pursue bachelor's degrees in engineering or computing. A national challenge in STEM education is the low graduation rate of engineering students who transfer from community colleges to four-year institutions. One driver of this low success rate is the insufficient preparation of community college students for the cultural differences they will face at the four-year institution. In addition, the four-year institution often lacks social and academic support to help bridge this gap. The project components include: 1) a scholarship program to financially support low-income, high-achieving transfer students; 2) an evidence-based mentorship and cohort building program that supports transfer success; and 3) a Ph.D. student traineeship program that includes training in teaching, mentoring, and education research. It is expected that the program will contribute to the quality and diversity of the national STEM workforce and increase understanding of what works to support success of transfer students. In addition to providing scholarships to low-income, academically high-achieving transfer students, this project addresses the well-known hurdles for transfer students by implementing and assessing a cohort mentoring model based on evidence-based strategies including communities of practice and cognitive mentorship. The program elements are designed to support transfer student enculturation in the university, as well as degree completion and placement in the industrial workforce. The program will recruit and train ten Clemson STEM PhD students for careers in academia by engaging them in immersive experiences in teaching, mentoring, and applied educational research. This training will include a residency at the community college sites where they will: 1) co-teach engineering courses with community college faculty; 2) develop and lead a cohort of low-income community college students in a project-based Creative Inquiry course that will be a focus of applied educational research; and 3) return to Clemson with the developed cohort, thus helping to bridge the institutional gap. The program will conduct rigorous internal and external educational assessment and program evaluation to identify key indicators of student success and to provide information that can be used to improve STEM education at other institutions. Results from this work will be broadly disseminated through digital outlets (e.g., e-newsletters; listservs), presentations at national conferences, and publications in peer-reviewed and trade journals to reach audiences ranging from higher education to low-income students with aspirations of excellence. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.