Supporting Transportation Scholars through Scholarships, Mentoring, and Cohort Building

Pennsylvania College Of Technology, Williamsport PA

Investigators

Abstract

This project will contribute to the national need for well-educated scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students (Transportation Scholars) with demonstrated financial need at Pennsylvania College of Technology (Penn College). Penn College is an open-enrollment, public, four-year college affiliated with Pennsylvania State University. The college offers an array of academic programs with a strong emphasis on applied technology. Over its 6-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 45 unique full-time students who are pursuing Associate’s degrees in Aviation Maintenance, Automotive, Collision Repair, and Diesel Technologies. Transportation Scholars will benefit from numerous academic and social supports, including a three-day pre-orientation bridge program before their first day of class; co-seating in a common First-Year Experience course taught by the PI; a monthly Career Seminar; dedicated advising, mentoring, and career coaching by faculty throughout their college experience, including the summer months; and a video series that will contextualize mathematics for these fields. The intellectual merit of this project comes from measuring the success of the Transportation Scholars Program in comparison to similar student populations at Penn College that do not benefit from the same financial, academic, and social supports. Penn College will attract, educate, retain, and graduate 45 low-income, high-achieving students to join the workforce of the future in critical areas surrounding the transportation industry. The Transportation Scholars program also seeks to diversify the student population in these critical fields and, by extension, contribute to the development of a diverse workforce in the transportation industry. The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. Over the course of the project period, the project will meet the following five specific aims: 1) 50% of the Transportation Scholars will complete the required math sequences with a grade of B or better; 2) 90% of Transportation Scholars entering as freshmen will be retained until their second year; 3) 75% of Transportation Scholars will complete an AAS degree within three years; 4) 95% of graduating scholars will be employed full-time in their field or continue their education within six months of completion of the AAS degree; and 5) 33% of scholarship applications will be from females and/or underrepresented students in STEM. Project evaluation will examine both program implementation and student outcomes to determine how well each component meets participant expectations and helps achieve program outcomes. Input to the evaluation will be collected through surveys and interviews of students, faculty, and administrators, as well as through extant data on course grades, and retention and graduation rates. Project findings will be prepared for publication in peer-reviewed and trade magazines, as well as business and industry magazines. Penn College will offer professional development workshops to disseminate knowledge to the campus, peer institutions, and the community at large. The curated contextualizing mathematics videos and associated curricular materials, along with the evaluation of their effectiveness, will be made available for dissemination beyond Penn College via hosting on a publicly available platform (YouTube, SlideShare, etc.). The PIs, project team, and mathematics faculty will present these results at relevant conferences and workshops and will announce the availability of these videos through their professional and social network. This project is funded by NSF’s Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics program, which seeks to increase the number of low-income academically talented students with demonstrated financial need who earn degrees in STEM fields. It also aims to improve the education of future STEM workers, and to generate knowledge about academic success, retention, transfer, graduation, and academic/career pathways of low-income students. 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.