RedShirt Transitional Program: Creating Engineering Capacity and Expanding Diversity through Strategic Partnerships

这个名为红衫计划的项目将直接录取处于不利地位、准备不足的高中毕业生，这些毕业生证明有潜力成为成功的工程师，但没有达到工程学的标准录取标准。这些学生将在红衫年作为真正的工程专业学生受到欢迎和支持；这是一个项目的开始，该项目可能会在五年内完成理工科学位。为期两周的夏桥项目将专注于建立社区和发展领导技能。在第一学年，学生将在以分组为基础的小班中学习，在红衫年达到预定义指标的学生将继续留在学院，遵循标准课程，并通过各种支持性机会和活动丰富。课程由学习科学提供信息，红衫试点项目的每一个组成部分都将得到研究和衡量。该项目将挖掘成就差距和多样性障碍根源的关键概念问题，以确定适当的研究战略，这些战略有可能使大多数工程学院的多样性翻一番。S工程学院与两所高中现有的合作伙伴关系及其为高三新生举办的以多样性为中心的暑期研讨会为招聘提供了途径。增加代表不足的群体对工程项目的参与，对于满足对多样化工程劳动力的经济需求至关重要。这项计划将利用大学/高中伙伴关系，造福于第一代上大学的学生、经济背景较差的学生、代表性不足的少数族裔、妇女和农村学生。需要大胆、可复制的战略，以增加高潜力、代表性不足的学生的准备，以便工程学院能够更广泛地服务于该专业和国家。红衫军的课程和编程策略一旦试行和完善，几乎可以出口到美国任何一所工程学院，增加了克服增加工程学多样性的棘手障碍的潜力，并为该职业提供了一种战略，为各行各业的学生提供了丰富的潜力。

This project, called the RedShirt Program, will directly admit disadvantaged, under-prepared high school graduates who demonstrate potential to be successful engineers, but fall short of meeting standard admissions criteria to engineering. The students will be welcomed and supported as real engineering students during their RedShirt year; which is the beginning of a program that can lead to completion of B.S. degrees in five years. A two week Summer Bridge program will focus on building community and developing leadership skills. During the first academic year, students will learn in small, cohort-based classes, and students who achieve pre-defined metrics in their RedShirt year continue in the college, following the standard curriculum enriched by a variety of supportive opportunities and activities. The curricula are informed by the science of learning, and every component of the pilot RedShirt project will be researched and measured. This project will unearth the key conceptual issues at the root of achievement gap and diversity barriers to determine appropriate research strategies which have the potential to double the diversity of most engineering colleges. The College of Engineering?s existing partnerships with two high schools and its summer diversity-centered workshops for rising high school seniors provide avenues for recruitment. Increasing the participation of underrepresented groups in engineering programs is vital to meeting the economic demands for a diverse engineering workforce. This program will leverage university/high school partnerships for the benefit of first-generation college-bound students, students from disadvantaged economic backgrounds, underrepresented minorities, women and rural students. Bold, replicable strategies are needed to augment the preparation of high-potential, underrepresented students so engineering colleges can serve the profession and nation more broadly. The RedShirt curriculum and programming strategies, once piloted and refined, are exportable to virtually any U.S. engineering college, increasing the potential that the intractable barriers for increasing diversity within engineering can be overcome, and providing a strategy for supplying the profession with a rich potential of students from all walks of life.