Zip to Industry: A First-Year Corporate-STEM Connection Program

“Zip to Industry”项目的重要性在于，它提供了一个研究机会，研究工作见习如何影响学生在大学一年级时留在STEM领域。许多工程或STEM专业的新生对工程师或STEM专业毕业后的工作知之甚少。该项目将确定入学时可能与STEM职业联系较弱的学生，并在第一年为他们提供工作见习经验。这些一年级学生将获得这种探索经验的报酬，并可以在STEM或工程职位中进行广泛或狭隘的选择。这些学生将跟随阿克伦大学的在校学生进行合作教育或实习安排。如果成功，该项目将在其他学院和大学复制，这可以帮助提高STEM领域的学生保留率。可持续性计划有两个方面：1)如果通过项目达到保留目标，学校将资助项目协调员的职位来运行该项目；2)参与的区域行业合作伙伴同意成为财团的一部分，为一年级学生的参与提供资金支持。该项目的目标是确定并招募两组50名STEM专业学生（共100名学生），探索他们对STEM职业的看法和知识，以及他们从事STEM职业的动机。学生们在第一年将有10次工作见习经历。学生们将在前往工作地点之前接受相关专业发展技能的培训，并将有能力通过焦点小组讨论和个人反思来反思他们的经历。“Zip to Industry”项目的教育框架是社会认知职业理论，该理论认为一个人的目标和为实现这些目标所做的努力受到他们的兴趣、信心、结果预期和与目标相关的先前学习经历的影响。工作见习被认为是一种强大的学习经历，它将影响对坚持职业目标很重要的知识和态度。阿克伦大学（University of Akron）拥有美国第五大最古老的合作教育项目，去年有1000多名学生参加了合作教育/实习项目。有了这个广泛的雇主网络，亚利桑那大学就有了一个机制，来检查工作见习项目对一年级STEM学生的影响，并提高STEM领域的留用率。

The importance of the "Zip to Industry" project is that it provides an opportunity for research on how job shadowing impacts student retention in STEM during the first year of college. Many freshman students in engineering or STEM majors have little understanding of what an engineer or STEM major does upon graduation. The project will identify students who may have a weak connection to STEM careers upon entering and provide them with job shadowing experiences during their first year. These first-year students will be paid for this exploration experience and can choose broadly or narrowly within STEM or engineering positions. The students will shadow current University of Akron students on co-operative education or internship placements. If successful, the project will be replicated at other colleges and universities, which can help increase the retention of students within STEM fields. Sustainability plans are twofold: 1) should outcome goals on retention be reached through the project, the institution will fund the project coordinator position to run the program and 2) participating regional industry partners agree to be part of a consortium to support funding of the first-year students to participate.The project's goal is to identify and recruit 2 cohorts of 50 STEM majors (totaling 100 students), explore their perceptions and knowledge of STEM careers, as well as their motivation for STEM careers. The students will have 10 job shadowing experiences during their first year. The students will be trained in relevant professional development skills prior to leaving for their job sites and will have the ability to reflect on their experiences through focus group discussions and individual reflection. The educational framework for the "Zip to Industry" project is Social Cognitive Career Theory, which proposes that a person's goals and efforts towards realizing those goals, are impacted by their interest, confidence, outcome expectations and prior learning experiences related to the goal. Job shadowing is conceived as a powerful learning experience that will impact knowledge and attitudes important for persistence toward a career goal. The University of Akron, which has the 5th oldest co-operative education program in the US, placed more than 1000 students in co-operative education/internship programs this past year. With this extensive employer network, the mechanism exists at UA to examine the impact of a job shadowing program on first-year STEM students and improve retention in STEM fields.