Achieving Engagement and Success for Commuter Students in Engineering

在国家科学基金会科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金(S-STEM)计划的资助下，ACCESS：实现通勤者参与和成功计划为低收入学生提供支持，这些学生有经济需求，并有在韦恩州立大学STEM学科取得成功的学术承诺。该项目将在5年内为攻读工程学学士学位的学生提供84个奖学金。Access计划将侧重于解决通勤学生的独特需求，并寻求产生关于影响通勤者与校园社区互动的因素的知识。将实施暑期工程训练营、同行和教师指导、通过实习和合作进行体验式学习等计划要素，以支持学生的成功。ACCESS方案的目标是提高低收入社会经济地位通勤学生的留校率和六年毕业率。韦恩州立大学(WSU)位于密歇根州底特律市中心，为通勤上学的低收入学生群体提供服务。这些通勤族面临着退学和学业进展不佳的巨大风险，因为他们需要平衡学业和许多校外工作，尤其是工作。通过结合研究和教育活动，本研究将解决以下问题：1)通勤学生参与参与和学业支持活动的障碍是什么；2)与面对面活动相比，虚拟活动促进参与和学生成功的程度如何；3)对于社会经济地位较低的学生，参与虚拟活动是否存在障碍；以及4)这些参与障碍在不同种族之间是否有所不同？该项目将通过调查、在成功标志课程中的学业表现、保留率以及四年和六年毕业率进行评估。这项工作的成果将通过同行评议的出版物和在国家会议上的口头陈述向校园社区和更广泛的全球受众传播。这项工作的结果将被用来为新项目的发展提供信息，这些项目在促进通勤学生的参与度和学业成功方面具有更高的有效性。

With funding from the National Science Foundation's Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (S-STEM) program, the ACCESS: Achieving Commuter Engagement and Success program is providing support to low-income students with demonstrated financial need and academic promise to succeed in STEM disciplines at Wayne State University. The project is funding 84 scholarships over 5 years for students who are pursuing bachelor's degrees in Engineering. The ACCESS program will focus on addressing the unique needs of students who commute, and seeks to generate knowledge on the factors that affect the engagement of commuters with the campus community. Program elements such as a summer engineering boot camp, peer and faculty mentoring, experiential learning through internships and co-ops will be implemented to support student success. The goals of the ACCESS program are to increase the retention and six year graduation rates of commuter students with low-income socioeconomic status. Wayne State University (WSU) is located in downtown Detroit, Michigan, and serves a population of low-income students who commute to campus. These commuters are at great risk for withdrawal and poor academic progress due to their need to balance academics with many off-campus commitments, most notably work. Through combined research and educational activities, this work will address the following questions: 1) what are the barriers to commuter student participation in engagement and academic support activities, 2) how well do virtual activities promote the engagement and student success compared to in-person activities, 3) are there barriers to participation in virtual activities for students of low socioeconomic status, and 4) are these barriers to participation different among different ethnic groups? The project will be evaluated through surveys, academic performance in success marker courses, retention rates, and four- and six-year graduation rates. The results of this work will be disseminated to the campus community and to the wider global audience through peer reviewed publications and oral presentations at national meetings. The results of this work will be used to inform the development of new programs with increased effectiveness in promoting the engagement and academic success of students who commute.