VTAB: Vertical Transfers' Access to the Baccalaureate in Engineering & Engineering Technology

罗彻斯特理工学院（RIT）的科学、技术、工程和数学项目（S-STEM） NSF奖学金将支持78名有才华的低收入学生（三年内每年26名学生）从纽约社区大学转学到工程和工程技术专业。项目团队将利用RIT现有的几个项目，包括与社区学院网络的衔接协议。与此一致，项目团队将结合积极的招聘和支持策略。同样，S-STEM学者的劳动力准备将通过强制性合作教育计划得到加强，通过该计划，这些转学生将在毕业前获得一年或更多的带薪实习经验。该项目将重点关注垂直转学生经常遇到的挑战，为学者增加一个扩展的方向，并通过定制个人干预和支持，例如在四个关键类别中分别有针对性的指导和建议：学术；社会;金融;和个人。研究人员将收集关键证据，以更好地理解学生在垂直转学计划中取得成功的基本要素，并寻求回答两个基本研究问题：(1)四年制私立院校如何利用垂直转学途径吸引成绩优异的低收入学生，并让他们获得工程或工程技术学士学位？(2)垂直转学项目要在四年制私立院校取得成功，必须具备哪些要素？研究人员将收集每个队列的数据，并将使用混合方法，定性和定量的方法来产生关于他们的转移计划的每个组成部分的知识，以便做出适当的调整来改进它，并确定哪些因素对其成功至关重要。成功的活动和组成部分将在RIT制度化并持续下去，该计划将成为一个典范，特别是其他四年制私立院校，以帮助未来工程和技术STEM劳动力的扩大和多样化。

This NSF Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Program (S-STEM) project at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) will support 78 talented low income students (26 students per year over three years) transferring to engineering and engineering technology programs from community colleges in New York. The project team will leverage several extant programs at RIT, including articulation agreements in place with a network of community colleges. In line with this, the project team will incorporate proactive recruiting and support strategies. Likewise, the S-STEM scholars' workforce preparation will be enhanced by a mandatory cooperative education program through which these transfer students will acquire a year or more of paid internship experience in industry before graduation. The project will focus on challenges often encountered by vertical transfer students by adding an extended orientation for the scholars and by customizing individual interventions and support such as targeted mentoring and advising in each of four crucial categories: academic; social; financial; and personal. The investigators will gather critical evidence to better understand essential elements for student success in a vertical transfer program, and will seek to answer two fundamental research questions: (1) How can 4-year private institutions use the vertical transfer pathway to attract high-achieving low-income students, and graduate them with a baccalaureate degree in engineering or engineering technology? and (2) What elements must a vertical transfer program have to be successful at a 4-year private institution? The researchers will collect data for each cohort and will use a mixed methods qualitative and quantitative approach to generate knowledge about each component of their transfer program in order to make appropriate adjustments to improve it as well as to determine which elements are essential to its success. The successful activities and components will be institutionalized and sustained at RIT, and the program will serve as a model, especially for other 4-year private institutions, to aid the expansion and diversification of the engineering and technology STEM workforce of the future.