Improving Engineering Transfer Student Success through Early Advising and Purposeful Community-Building

该项目将通过支持密西西比州立大学斯塔克维尔校区和海岸校区中表现出经济需求的高成就低收入学生的保留和毕业，为国家对受过良好教育的科学家、数学家、工程师和技术人员的需求做出贡献。在为期六年的时间里，该项目将为50名攻读计算机、电气、工业和机械工程理学学士学位的全日制转校生提供奖学金。学生将获得最多六个学期的奖学金支持。该项目旨在通过将奖学金与教师和同伴指导联系起来，提高向密西西比州立大学过渡的建议，以及为转学生建立一个新的工程学生组织，来改善工程专业学生的学习成果。通过增加新转学生，现有转学生和教师之间的互动，该项目将帮助学生了解如何浏览学术政策和获取学生资源。增加的学生与学生和学生与教师的互动也将创造一个社区，教师和管理人员可以从中了解并开始解决转学生的制度障碍。由于大量未被充分代表的第一代学生在密西西比社区学院注册并转入密西西比州立大学，该项目具有扩大工程参与的潜力。该项目将产生新的知识，了解财政支持、队伍建设、早期建议和一个专注于转学生成功的学生组织如何支持工程转学生的保留和毕业。该项目的总体目标是提高有经济需求的低收入、高成就本科生的STEM学位完成率。该项目的目标是1)为符合条件的低收入学生提供奖学金、教师指导和同伴指导，2)加强对所有即将入学的工程转学生的建议实践，以及3)提高对密西西比州立大学学生社区的归属感和融入程度。对工程专业转学生的支持将包括一个新的在线自学课程，侧重于早期建议和一个新的大学注册学生组织，以帮助转学生过渡到大学。具体已知的障碍工程转学生包括经济困难，不熟悉学术程序，难以平衡学术和个人责任，和社会孤立。该项目将调查在线早期指导课程和注册学生组织如何在实践社区原则的框架下增加与其他学生和教师的互动，减少已知的成功障碍。此外，该项目将产生关于形成和维护实践社区的新知识，以支持工程转学生。项目评估将评估项目活动对转学生成功以及机构实践的影响。将对学生和导师进行面谈，通过专题分析检查项目活动的效果。将分析有关学生留存率和毕业进度的机构数据，以检验该项目如何影响学生的成功。项目成果将通过传单、项目网站、社交媒体、电子邮件分发列表和技术会议上的演示与工程教育界共享。该项目由美国国家科学基金会的科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金项目资助，旨在增加有经济需求的低收入学术天才学生在STEM领域获得学位的人数。它还旨在改善未来STEM工作者的教育，并为低收入学生提供有关学业成功、留校、转学、毕业和教育/职业途径的知识。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project will contribute to the national need for well-educated scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at Mississippi State University on both the Starkville and Coast campuses. Over its six-year duration, this project will fund scholarships for 50 unique full-time transfer students who are pursuing Bachelor of Science degrees in computer, electrical, industrial, and mechanical engineering. Students will receive up to six semesters of scholarship support. This project aims to improve student outcomes for engineering students by linking scholarships with faculty and peer mentoring, enhanced advising for the transition to Mississippi State University, and a new engineering student organization for transfer students. By increasing interaction between new transfer students, existing transfer students, and faculty, this project will help students learn how to navigate academic policies and access student resources. The increased student-to-student and student-to-faculty interaction will also create a community from which faculty and administrators can learn about and begin to address institutional barriers for transfer students. Due to the large population of underrepresented and first-generation students enrolled in Mississippi community colleges and transferring to Mississippi State University, this project has the potential to broaden participation in engineering. The project will generate new knowledge about how financial support, cohort building, early advising, and a student organization focused on transfer student success can support retention and graduation for engineering transfer students.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. The project objectives are to 1) provide scholarships, faculty mentoring, and peer mentoring to eligible low-income students, 2) strengthen advising practices for all incoming engineering transfer students, and 3) improve belonging and integration into Mississippi State University student communities. Support for engineering transfer students will include a new online, self-paced course focused on early-advising and a new university-registered student organization to help transfer students transition to the university. Specific known barriers for engineering transfer students include financial difficulties, being unfamiliar with academic procedures, difficulty balancing academic and personal responsibilities, and social isolation. This project will investigate how an online early-advising course and a registered student organization that is framed by Community of Practice principles can increase interaction with other students and faculty and reduce known barriers to success. Additionally, the project will generate new knowledge about forming and maintaining Communities of Practice to support engineering transfer students. The project evaluation will assess the impact of project activities on transfer student success as well as institutional practices. Student and mentor interviews will be conducted to examine the effects of the project activities through thematic analysis. Institutional data on student retention and progress toward graduation will be analyzed to examine how the project affects student success. Project results will be shared with the engineering education community via flyers, a project website, social media, email distribution lists, and presentations at technical meetings. This project is funded by NSF’s Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics program, which seeks to increase the number of low-income academically talented students with demonstrated financial need who earn degrees in STEM fields. It also aims to improve the education of future STEM workers, and to generate knowledge about academic success, retention, transfer, graduation, and educational/career pathways of low-income students.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.