Sophomore Fast-Forward: A Summer Bridge Program to Support Retention in Engineering

路易斯安那理工大学的国家科学基金会（NSF）科学、技术、工程和数学（S-STEM）项目奖学金将提高机械、生物医学和土木工程专业学生的及时学士学位完成率。该计划的总体目标是提高工程师的保留率，从而增加STEM毕业生准备进入劳动力市场并取得成功的人数。该项目为表现出学术天赋和经济需求的高二学生提供奖学金。支持包括参加全日制夏季课程，学生将学习通常在秋季学期学习的一些必需的工程和数学课程。这种方法将为这个有风险的群体提供一个更平稳的过渡到更困难的工程课程。该计划将包括专业和学生发展活动，以及教师的指导。为那些可能无法获得工程学位的低收入和有学术天赋的学生提供奖学金和支持，将有助于培养训练有素的STEM劳动力，为国家的经济福祉做出贡献。该项目是基于确定本科工程课程中的一个关键摩擦点。路易斯安那理工大学已经确定工程静力学课程是许多其他有前途的学生由于表现不佳而离开工程的原因。然而，学生在夏季学期的不合格率要比秋季学期低得多。该项目将调查这样一种假设，即鼓励有才能但有风险的学生在全日制暑期课程中学习统计学，将有助于这些有风险的学生克服本科工程课程中这个已确定的摩擦点。在关键的二年级过渡阶段留住更多的学生将带来更多的STEM毕业生。S-STEM学者将由教师团队指导，并参加其他支持性活动，包括行业实地考察、专业发展培训和团队建设活动。该项目的研究结果将广泛传播到STEM教育界，并将有助于增进对成功的学生奖学金和支持项目的属性和实践的理解，这些项目面向有学术天赋的低收入工程专业学生。

This National Science Foundation (NSF) Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM) project at Louisiana Technological University will increase the timely baccalaureate degree completion rate among students majoring in mechanical, biomedical, and civil engineering. The overall objective of the program is to increase engineering retention, leading to an increase in the number of STEM graduates prepared to enter the workforce and be successful. The program offers scholarships for rising sophomores who demonstrate academic talent and financial need. Support includes attendance in a full-time summer session in which students will take some of the required engineering and mathematics courses normally taken during the Fall semester. This approach will provide a smoother transition into more difficult engineering coursework for this at-risk group. This program will include professional and student development activities, as well as mentoring from faculty. Scholarships and support for low-income and academically talented students, who may not otherwise be able to obtain engineering degrees, will help to produce a well-trained STEM workforce that will contribute to the economic well being of the nation.The project is based on the identification of a critical attrition point in the undergraduate engineering curriculum. Louisiana Tech has identified the engineering statics course as the point at which many otherwise promising students leave engineering due to poor performance. However, the failure rate for students taking statics during the summer session is substantially lower than for the Fall semester. The project will investigate the hypothesis that encouraging talented but at-risk students to pursue statics during a full-time summer session will facilitate these at-risk students in overcoming this identified attrition point in the undergraduate engineering curriculum. Retaining more students in the critical sophomore transition will result in more STEM graduates. The cohorts of S-STEM Scholars will be mentored by a faculty team and participate in other support activities including industry field trips, professional development training and team-building activities. The findings from the program will be disseminated widely to the STEM education community and will help to increase understanding of the attributes and practices of successful student scholarship and support programs for academically talented, low-income engineering students.