Student Advancement and Internships in the Middle of a Computer Science Major

Cuny Hunter College, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI Program), this project aims to pilot a program for second-year students in the computer science (CS) major to address the problem of persistence among Hispanic and Black students, and female students of all ethnicities. Minority students who are underrepresented in their participation in STEM careers enter STEM majors at similar rates to the rest of the population but have much lower persistence to completing a degree. Increasing retention among these students is crucial to diversifying the technical workforce. This project will use supplementary instructional workshops to help students integrate their academic knowledge and technical interviewing skills. Technical interviewing is a key part of the screening process for achieving internships. The project's investigators will create communication pipelines that support the success of transfer students and develop institutional infrastructure to build sustainability. The project will improve course retention, grades, and internship achievement among underrepresented minority students. Successful outcomes of this project should provide the rationale for expansion of the program and more rigorous study of its impact. This project's specific objectives will be to increase retention in second-year computer science courses, increase fluency in programming and analytic reasoning, and improve students’ skills for technical interviewing. The project team will offer two series of workshops, each aligned to course content and different stages of the technical screening process for internships. Both workshop series will feature active learning and regular peer- and self-assessment in a non-evaluative and supportive environment to help students develop awareness of their personal learning needs and self-regulated learning. The evaluation plan will use quasi-experimental methods to generate high-quality information for making inferences about program outcomes. Research on the relationships between self-assessment, self-regulation, and achievement will add to a growing body of literature within and beyond STEM fields. The project's plan for communicating its activities and findings will include outreach to many audiences including faculty in computer science and adjacent departments throughout the City University of New York (CUNY) system, STEM-educational researchers, tech industry recruiters, and students. The dissemination plan will make use of regional seminars, conference presentations, peer-reviewed publications, and a program website. This project is funded by the HSI Program, which aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education, broaden participation in STEM, and build capacity for institutional transformation at HSIs. 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.