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At San Francisco State University, a Hispanic Serving Institute and a Primarily Undergraduate Institution, 67% of engineering students are from ethnic minority groups, with only 27% of Hispanic students retained and graduated in their senior year. Additionally, only 14% of students reported full-time employment secured at the time of graduation. Of these secured jobs, only 54% were full-time positions (40+ hours a week). To improve the situation, San Francisco State University, in collaboration with two local community colleges, Skyline and Cañada Colleges, was recently funded by the National Science Foundation through a Hispanic Serving Institute Improving Undergraduate STEM Education Strengthening Student Motivation and Resilience through Research and Advising program to enhance undergraduate engineering education and build capacity for student success. This project will use a data-driven and evidence-based approach to identify the barriers to the success of underrepresented minority students and to generate new knowledge on the best practices for increasing students’ retention and graduation rates, self- efficacy, professional development, and workforce preparedness. Three objectives underpin this overall goal. The first is to develop and implement a Summer Research Internship Program together with community college partners. The second is to establish an HSI Engineering Success Center to provide students with academic resources, networking opportunities with industry, and career development tools. The third is to develop resources for the professional development of faculty members, including Summer Faculty Teaching Workshops, an Inclusive Teaching and Mentoring Seminar Series, and an Engineering Faculty Learning Community. Qualitative and quantitative approaches are used to assess the project outcomes using a survey instrument and interview protocols developed by an external evaluator. This paper discusses an overview of the project and its first-year implementation. The focus is placed on the introduction and implementation of the several main project components, namely the Engineering Success Center, Summer Research Internship Program, and Faculty Summer Teaching Workshop. The preliminary evaluation results, demonstrating the great success of these strategies, are also discussed.
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WIP: Hands-On Learning in a Summer Bridge Program Targeting Underclassmen and Transfer Students at an HSI
In summer 2020, faculty in the College of Engineering at Texas A&M University-Kingsville developed and implemented a virtual Summer Bridge Program (SBP) as part of an NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) grant. Texas A&M University-Kingsville is a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI). The primary objective of the SBP was to improve academic motivation, retention, and success of underclassmen and transfer students in the college by implementing a co-curricular summer program that included several high-impact enrichment activities. The aim of this work is to share the approach developed for this SBP to obtain feedback from other undergraduate engineering education experts. Many universities have identified bridging programs for STEM students as a means of ensuring greater success and retention of freshman and sophomores majoring in STEM fields [1,2,3], and this was one impetus for the SBP.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1928611
- PAR ID:
- 10283292
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- 2021 ASEE Annual Conference
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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