Collaborative Research - Enabling Transfer Students Access to Engineering

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The NSF Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM) program supports the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need. This project, at Allan Hancock College, Cuesta College, and California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) will fund fifty 2-year scholarships at Allan Hancock and fifty 2-year scholarships at Cuesta College. The Scholars will be in cohorts of 25 students who are pursuing transfer to a BS-granting institution to study engineering. This project will also fund sixty-two scholarships at Cal Poly for transfer students from Allan Hancock and Cuesta, thus supporting the Scholars until their graduation with a BS degree in engineering. Allan Hancock and Cuesta are highly-ranked Hispanic-Serving Institutions. Cal Poly is one of only five comprehensive polytechnic universities in the nation, and is ranked as a one of the nation's top public masters-level institutions. This project will build on and strengthen collaborations to increase the number of low-income students who begin their engineering education at Allan Hancock or Cuesta, transfer to Cal Poly, are retained in and graduate with a BS degree, and enter a STEM graduate program or the STEM workforce.Specific program activities seek to remove or minimize economic barriers and support student development in five areas: 1) academic; 2) engineering transfer/career path; 3) personal, via Strengths and Growth Mindset training from a Social Justice perspective; 4) connection; and 5) professional. The project will also adopt essential evidence-based transfer practices, continuously assessing progress achieved in this area within and across each participating campus to institutionalize more robust transfer pathways and support the success of all future STEM transfer students at Allan Hancock, Cuesta, and Cal Poly. The project will include two research strands designed to advance understanding of strategies that enhance transfer student success in a career in engineering. The first research project will use social network analysis, survey methods, and qualitative interviews to advance understanding of how project activities contribute to a) growth of student social networks; b) increase in student resilience, confidence, sense of community, and sense of belonging; and c) whether growth in these areas is related to increased student retention, pre-transfer success, transfer, and post-transfer success. The second research project will integrate pre- and post-transfer Scholars into existing research to advance understanding of student motivations and perceptions when choosing to participate in (or leave) co-curricular team projects in engineering. The integration of Scholars allows for investigation of whether decision-making factors regarding participation in co-curricular team projects are consistent for student groups at community colleges and four-year institutions, and for students who are directly admitted or transfer to a 4-year institution.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.