Enhancing the Transfer Experience through a Collaborative Cohort Program for Engineering Scholars

这个为期五年的项目旨在满足国家对受过良好教育的工程师的需求。它将支持至少30名低收入、成绩优异的STEM本科学生在弗雷斯诺城市学院（Fresno City College）获得成功，这是一所两年制大学。具体来说，该项目将为在弗雷斯诺城市学院攻读副学士学位或工程证书的五组学生提供为期两年的奖学金。弗雷斯诺城市学院将支持至少30名学生，其中两人将获得额外的两年奖学金，以完成加州州立大学弗雷斯诺分校的工程学士学位。在弗雷斯诺城市学院，这些学者将在每个秋季学期开始时参加项目介绍，学习旨在将学生过渡到四年制大学工程项目的转学途径课程，参加每两周一次的研讨会活动，与教师导师和同伴导师举行月度会议，担任后续学者的同伴导师，并参与与加州州立大学弗雷斯诺分校合作的本科生研究项目。弗雷斯诺城市学院是一所为西班牙裔学生服务的机构，招聘将重点放在女性和残疾学生上，从而增加了该项目扩大工程参与的潜力。该项目的目标是提高低收入、成绩优异的工程本科生的学位完成率。该项目包括一个研究计划，以确定影响学生身份和归属感的因素。研究人员将测试这样一个假设，即让弗雷斯诺城市学院的学生参与一种合作的、队列的体验，将支持学生从学习的边缘走向社区的中心，在这个社区中，学习是一种由社区成员指导的集体体验。该项目有可能创造新的知识，了解来自集中贫困地区（如弗雷斯诺）的学生如何在社会文化背景下体验社区并发展STEM身份。该项目由美国国家科学基金会科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金项目资助，该项目旨在增加低收入、学业成绩优异、有经济需求的学生在STEM领域获得学位的人数。它还旨在改善未来科学家、工程师和技术人员的教育，并为低收入学生提供有关学业成功、留校、转学、毕业和学术/职业道路的知识。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 five-year project aims to contribute to the national need for well-educated engineers. It will support the success of at least thirty low-income, high-achieving STEM undergraduate students with demonstrated financial need at Fresno City College, a two-year institution. Specifically, the project will provide two-year scholarships to five cohorts of students who are pursuing an associate's degree or certificate in engineering at Fresno City College. At least thirty students will be supported at Fresno City College, two of whom will receive an additional two-year scholarship to complete a bachelor's degree in engineering at California State-Fresno. At Fresno City College, the Scholars will participate in program orientation at the beginning of each fall semester, pursue a transfer pathway curriculum designed to transition students to a four-year university engineering program, attend bi-weekly seminar events and monthly meetings with faculty mentors and peer mentors, serve as peer mentors for succeeding cohorts of Scholars, and participate in undergraduate research projects in collaboration with California State-Fresno. Fresno City College is a Hispanic-serving institution and recruiting will focus on women and students with disabilities, thus increasing the potential of the project to broaden participation in engineering. The goal of the project is to increase degree completion of low-income, high-achieving engineering undergraduates. The project includes a research plan to determine factors that influence student identity and sense of belonging. The researchers will test the hypothesis that engaging Fresno City College students in a collaborative, cohort experience will support students' movement from the periphery of learning to the center of a community in which learning is a collective experience guided by community membership. This project has the potential to create new knowledge about how the socio-cultural context of students from an area of concentrated poverty, such as Fresno, experience community and develop a STEM identity. This project is funded by the NSF Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics program, which seeks to increase the number of low-income, academically high-achieving students with demonstrated financial need who earn degrees in STEM fields. It also aims to improve the education of future scientists, engineers, and technicians, and to generate knowledge about academic success, retention, transfer, graduation, and academic/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.