The Look College of Engineering Connects Program

德克萨斯农工大学的Connects项目招收了96名高成就、低收入、第一代进入大学的工程专业学生。有32名Connects学生获得了NSF CSEMS奖学金。这些学生表现出最高的经济需求。为经济需要较少的学生提供的其他奖学金来自基金会、行业和个人捐赠者。该项目的更广泛影响是，该项目如何通过提供与上大学的第一代低收入家庭学生通常无法获得的信息的联系，为学生建立社会资本。将他们集中在相同的工程、数学和科学课程中，并将高级同级教师安排在数学和工程课程中，提供了这些联系。这些Connects的参与者也聚集在同一个宿舍里，这样他们就可以学习，并与有共同学术目标的学生建立友谊。此外，教职员工和行业导师也加强了联系。这些导师提供卓越的学术成就和领导力研讨会。他们还不断地从学生那里向援助来源提供反馈。工程学课程侧重于数学推理、学习策略、反思和理解工程学的价值。提高记忆力和增加学习是证明成功的决定性因素。该项目的智力价值在于该项目如何结合德克萨斯州LS AMP、基金会联盟、女性和代表性不足的少数民族的学习风格的研究，并利用研究提供一个包含STEM中未得到充分服务的人口的保留和毕业的所有问题的模型。综合干预措施是未来的模式，而不是单一的干预措施。

The Texas A&M University CONNECTS Program hosts 96 incoming engineering students who are high achieving, low income, first generation to college. There are 32 CONNECTS students who receive NSF CSEMS scholarships. These students demonstrated the highest financial need. Other scholarships for students with less financial need come from foundations, industry, and personal donors. The broader impact in this project is how the program builds social capital for the students by providing connections to information not typically available to first generation, low income students attending college. Clustering them in the same engineering, math, and science courses and placing upper division peer teachers in the math and engineering courses provide these connections. These CONNECTS participants are also clustered in the same residence halls so they can study and form friendships with students with common academic goals. Additionally, connections are enhanced by faculty and industry mentors. These mentors provide academic excellence and leadership workshops. They also provide continuous feedback from the students to sources of assistance. The engineering course focuses on math reasoning, learning strategies, reflection, and understanding the value of engineering. Raised retention and learning increases are the determining factors that demonstrate success. The intellectual merit of this project is in how the program combines research from the TX LS AMP, Foundation Coalition, learning styles of females and under represented minorities, and uses the research to provide a model that is inclusive of all issues surrounding the retention and graduation of under served populations in STEM. The combination of interventions is the model of the future instead of single interventions.