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

该项目将通过支持在斯塔克维尔和海岸校区的密西西比州立大学留住和毕业有经济需求的高成就低收入学生，来促进全国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。在六年的时间里，这个项目将为50名正在攻读计算机、电气、工业和机械工程学士学位的独特的全日制转学学生提供奖学金。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行指导联系起来，加强对过渡到密西西比州立大学的建议，以及为转学学生建立一个新的工程学学生组织，来改善工科学生的成绩。通过增加新转学学生、现有转学学生和教职员工之间的互动，该项目将帮助学生学习如何驾驭学术政策和访问学生资源。学生与学生之间以及学生与教职员工之间增加的互动也将创建一个社区，教职员工和管理人员可以从中了解并开始解决转学学生的体制障碍。由于在密西西比州社区学院入学并转学到密西西比州立大学的第一代学生人数很少，该项目有可能扩大对工程学的参与。该项目将产生关于财政支持、队列建设、早期建议以及关注转学学生成功的学生组织如何支持工程转学学生留校和毕业的新知识。该项目的总体目标是提高低收入、高成就、有经济需求的本科生的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学生的建议实践，3)改善对密西西比州立大学学生社区的归属感和融入。对工程转学学生的支持将包括一个新的在线、自我进度课程，重点是早期建议，以及一个新的大学注册学生组织，帮助转学学生过渡到大学。已知的工程转学学生的具体障碍包括经济困难、不熟悉学术程序、难以平衡学业和个人责任，以及社会孤立。这个项目将调查一个在线早期咨询课程和一个由实践共同体原则构建的注册学生组织如何增加与其他学生和教职员工的互动，并减少已知的成功障碍。此外，该项目还将产生有关形成和维护实践社区以支持工程转学学生的新知识。项目评估将评估项目活动对转学学生成功和体制做法的影响。将进行学生和导师访谈，通过主题分析来检验项目活动的效果。有关学生留校率和毕业进度的机构数据将被分析，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文稿与工程教育界共享。该项目由NSF的科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金项目资助，该项目旨在增加在STEM领域获得学位的低收入学术天才学生的数量。它还旨在改善未来STEM工作者的教育，并产生关于低收入学生的学业成功、留住、转移、毕业和教育/职业道路的知识。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 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.