Supporting Undergraduates for Careers in Computing and Engineering with Scholarships and Supervision II

Texas A&M University Corpus Christi, Corpus Christi TX

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 with demonstrated financial need at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi (TAMUCC). TAMUCC is a Hispanic-Serving and a minority-serving institution in South Texas that serves a large proportion of Pell eligible and transfer students. Over its 6-year duration, this project will provide scholarships to 24 first-year and transfer undergraduate students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in Engineering and Computer Science and will receive up to four-years of scholarship support. Building on a prior S-STEM award, the project aims to increase student retention and graduation of scholars through effective co-curricular and extra-curricular activities, such as mentoring, academic counselling, first-year learning communities, undergraduate research, internships, professional development seminars, graduate school preparation and scientific conferences. The project will retain scholars through a cohort-based learning community augmented by support services tailored for freshmen and transfer students. With the support of a team of faculty, industry, and peer mentors, students will progress towards graduation and prepare to enter graduate school or the workforce. Because TAMUCC has a high population of underrepresented Hispanic students, this project has the potential to broaden participation in STEM fields and to learn how mentoring, first-year learning communities, and research, support retention and graduation of this student population. The overall goal of the project is to increase degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates in STEM fields. There are three specific aims. First is to recruit 24 low-income, talented undergraduates, including incoming freshmen and community college transfer students majoring in the nation’s critical fields of engineering and computer science. Second is to retain scholars to degree achievement in designated fields. The third objective is to increase the graduation rates of the scholars. The project will examine impacts of participating in co-curricular activities such as, the first-year learning community, mentoring, internships, research experiences and professional development activities on retention and graduation rates. Project results will be compared to the prior S-STEM cohorts as well as to non-scholars in the same majors. In particular, the project has the potential to advance understanding of how a first-year learning community in engineering and computer science increases retention of first-year students. The project’s evaluation strategies include both internal and external processes to determine programmatic adjustments to project strategies and summative information to determine the project's impact. The results will be shared with the campus community through seminars and disseminated more broadly at national engineering conferences and publications in education journals. 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.