Linking Community College Students to Engineering

国家科学基金科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金(S-STEM)项目支持南阿拉巴马大学留校和毕业的高成就、低收入、有经济需求的学生。在整个五年中，该项目将资助48名独特的学生，他们正在攻读化学、土木、电气、机械或计算机工程的学士学位，最长可达三年。获得奖学金的学生将是地区社区学院的转校生，并将实施支持他们过渡、学业成功和专业发展的计划。该项目还将努力加强与支线大学的合作，既能更好地为学生服务，又能为未来的招生和支持工作奠定基础。有经济需要的学生被社区大学吸引是因为它的教育成本相对较低，而且离家近。这些学生往往因为经济困难而没有完成副学士学位或转到大学完成专业学位。如果他们真的转学了，适应大学课程和环境是具有挑战性的，可能会抑制学业成功。此外，没有完成入门课程可能会延长毕业时间。为了应对这些挑战，该项目将包括以下内容：i)利用最近南阿拉巴马大学和地区社区学院之间的反向转学协议，缩短工程专业转学学生毕业的时间；ii)使教师和同行指导活动正规化，并报告实施咨询和指导的标准化；iii)共同努力与目标地区社区学院建立沟通和合作能力，包括招生访问、学生建议和年度教师研讨会。项目团队将实施战略，包括与教员和同行导师举行队列建设研讨会和以团队为基础的建议，以促进转学学生融入工程学院社区。此外，研究小组将调查以证据为基础的、但背景新颖的方法对学生学术和职业成功提供建议的效果。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This NSF Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (S-STEM) project supports the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at the University of South Alabama. Throughout its five years, this project will fund 48 unique students who are pursuing bachelor's degrees in chemical, civil, electrical, mechanical, or computer engineering for up to three years. The students receiving the scholarships will be transfer students from regional community colleges, and programs will be implemented to support their transition, academic success, and professional development. The project will also include efforts to strengthen collaboration with feeder colleges that will both better serve students and build foundations for future recruitment and support efforts.Students with financial need are attracted to community colleges because of the relatively low cost of education and proximity to home. Frequently, these students do not complete associate's degrees or transfer to a university to complete professional degrees because of financial obstacles. If they do transfer, adjusting to the university curriculum and environment is challenging and can inhibit academic success. Furthermore, not having completed gateway courses can extend time to graduation. To address these challenges, this project will incorporate the following: i) academic pathways to reduce the time to graduation for engineering transfer students, taking advantage of recent reverse-transfer agreements between the University of South Alabama and regional community colleges, ii) formalization of faculty and peer mentoring activities and reporting for standardization of implementation of advising and mentoring, and iii) concerted efforts to build communication and collaboration capacity with targeted regional community colleges, including recruitment visits, student advising, and annual faculty workshops. The project team will implement strategies, including a cohort-building seminar and team-based advising with faculty and peer mentors, to facilitate transfer student integration into the College of Engineering community. Further, the research team will investigate the effect of the evidence-based, yet contextually novel approach to advising on student academic and professional success.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.