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1. Building a Sense of Community for Freshman Civil Engineering Students

   Marti, E. J; Khan, E; Gajurel, A; Tugadi, N. C. (July 2021, ASEE Annual Conference proceedings)

   null (Ed.)

   Across the country, less than two-thirds of engineering students persist and earn a degree in engineering. A considerable amount of research on the topic has been conducted, leading to a few key ideas on why students leave engineering. In particular, disinterest in the curriculum, a limited sense of belonging, perception of inadequate academic ability, and disconnect between learning style and instruction mode are some reasons that students depart engineering. Consequently, many first-year programs aim to address one or more of these issues. The ABC program at XXX seeks to improve undergraduate civil engineering and construction management education, as well as increase retention and graduation by specifically focusing on students and curriculum in the first two years of the civil & environmental engineering and construction management (CEEC/CM) programs. Retention and graduation rates are on the lower side of national averages; therefore, faculty at the institution are taking the lead and making changes within the department. One aspect of the program is community cohesion building (CCB), where first-year students create connections, engage in community and engineering design projects, and gain exposure to CEEC/CM professions. Specific objectives are to increase the sense of learning community among students and between students and faculty, as well as increase retention in the first two years. Through biweekly meetings, participants in CCB build connections with freshman CEEC/CM peers, upper level CEEC/CM undergraduate students, CEEC graduate students, and CEEC/CM faculty. Participants also engage in the engineering design process and compete in a national engineering design challenge geared toward freshman and sophomore students. This paper describes the first one-and-a-half years of CCB implementation of a five-year grant. We present the program structure, challenges, changes, and successes. This information should prove useful to other institutions who are in the process of implementing new first-year programs, especially for institutions who have similar characteristics (i.e., urban setting, commuter school, highly diverse, high proportion of first generation students). Program evaluation focuses on the following items related to CCB objectives: 1) increase in sense of belonging as measured by an increase in social networks (tool: student survey), and 2) increase in CEEC/CM retention between freshman/sophomore and sophomore/junior years (tool: institutional data). 

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2. Board 105: The Redshirt in Engineering Consortium: Progress and Early Insights

   Riskin, Eve; Milford, Jana; Callahan, Janet; Cosman, Pamela; Schneider, John; Pitts, Kevin; Knaphaus-Soran, Emily; Llewellyn, Donna; Delaney, Ann; Myers, Beth; et al (June 2018, ASEE annual conference & exposition proceedings)

   The NSF-funded Redshirt in Engineering Consortium was formed in 2016 with the goal of enhancing the ability of academically talented but underprepared students coming from low-income backgrounds to successfully graduate with engineering degrees. The Consortium takes its name from the practice of redshirting in college athletics, with the idea of providing an extra year and support to help promising engineering students complete a bachelor’s degree. The Consortium builds on the success of three existing “academic redshirt” programs and expands the model to three new schools. The Existing Redshirt Institutions (ERIs) help mentor and train the new Student Success Partners (SSP), and SSPs contribute their unique expertise to help ERIs improve existing redshirt programs. The redshirt model is comprised of seven main programmatic components aimed at improving the engagement, retention, and graduation of students underrepresented in engineering. These components include: “intrusive” academic advising and support services, an intensive first-year academic curriculum, community-building (including pre-matriculation summer programs), career awareness and vision, faculty mentorship, NSF S-STEM scholarships, and second-year support. Successful implementation of these activities is intended to produce two main long-term outcomes: a six-year graduation rate of 60%-75% for redshirt students, and increased rates of enrollment and graduation of Pell-eligible, URM, and women students in engineering at participating universities. In the first year of the grant (AY 16-17), SSPs developed their own redshirt programs, hired and trained staff, and got their programs off the ground. ERIs implemented faculty mentorship programs and expanded support to redshirt students into their sophomore year. In the second year (AY 17-18), redshirt programs were expanded at the ERIs while SSPs welcomed their first cohorts of redshirt students. This Work in Progress paper describes the redshirt programs at each of the six Consortium institutions, identifying distinctions between them in addition to highlighting common elements. First-year assessment results are presented for the ERIs based on student surveys, performance, and retention outcomes. Ongoing research into faculty experiences is investigating how participation as mentors for redshirt students changes faculty mindsets and instructional practices. Ongoing research into student experiences is investigating how the varied curricula, advising, and cohort models used across the six institutions influence student retention and sense of identity as engineering students. 

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3. BOARD # 447: Sowing the SEEDs (Scholars of Excellence in Engineering Design): Starting the SEED NSF S-STEM Program at Texas State University

   https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--55827  

   Talley, Kimberly; Muci-Kuchler, Karim; Valles, Damian; Gutierrez, Felipe; Tate, Jitendra (June 2025, ASEE Conferences)

   Texas State University received an NSF S-STEM award to support two cohorts of talented, low-income engineering majors, with the first cohort starting their freshman year in Fall 2024. In addition to the scholarships awarded, this program aims to increase students’ engineering design self-efficacy, engineering identity, and improve persistence to graduation. The program includes unique strategies for achieving these goals, emphasizing mentoring and building a sense of community among participants. The SEED scholars were paired with a faculty mentor in their engineering major prior to their arrival on campus for their freshman year. This early contact was intended to open lines of communication with a faculty member, so the students felt they had a trustworthy source of information from someone who cared about them. As Texas State University has a high number of first-generation college students, there was an expectation that this program would likely attract a fair number of first-generation students. Without another family member’s experience about how to be a college student, having this faculty mentor gave these students a person who could help them answer questions and navigate the process leading to their first semester on campus. For instance, mentors were able to talk with students about dorm selection, mathematics course placement (including strategies for placing into a higher-level mathematics course), and what to expect in their engineering coursework. Student participation in an Engineering Living Learning Community (LLC) is another unique program feature to enhance community among the SEED scholars. A general description of the program and preliminary results from the students’ self-reported sense of belonging in engineering, engineering design self-efficacy, and engineering identity are presented in this paper. 

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4. Engineering BRIDGE Program to Enhance Transfer Students’ Sense of Belonging

   https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--46829  

   Woo, Jeyoung; Cho, Jinsung (June 2024, ASEE Conferences)

   The State of California, which has the largest four-year public university system in the United States, does not have an associate degree for transfer (ADT) in Engineering. Therefore, most engineering students who transfer from community colleges do not take lower-division engineering courses and, on average, transfer students must attend two to three additional years of college to obtain a degree at four-year institutions. To identify the gaps in engineering education for transfer students and to increase their success, the research team will focus on a “transfer-ready” curriculum and a faculty learning community. The BRIDGE team, including three partnering institutions, collaborates on identifying the critical success factors (CSFs) for the transfer student’s success, the development of the transfer pathway program, and the Engineering BRIDGE Program to enhance academic preparations for transfer students. This paper summarizes the findings from the Engineering BRIDGE Program during the Summer of 2023 from August 7 - 11, 2023 (five days). A total of 22 incoming transfer students (to Civil Engineering and Mechanical Engineering) participated in this program, assisting in the transition and ensuring academic/career success by enhancing transfer students’ sense of belonging, and addressing course content gaps between institutions. From the analysis of the pre-/post-surveys of the Engineering BRIDGE Program, the program significantly improved—in terms of transfer readiness—students’ conceptual understanding, technical communication, and higher-order cognition. 

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5. Evaluation of STEM Engagement Activities on the Attitudes and Perceptions of Mechanical Engineering S-STEM Scholars

   https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4051715  

   Zhu, Liang; Sun, Shuyan; Timmie Topoleski, L. D.; Eggleton, Charles; Ma, Ronghui; Madan, Deepa (December 2021, Journal of Biomechanical Engineering)

   null (Ed.)

   Abstract Since 2009, the mechanical engineering (ME) scholarship-science technology engineering and mathematics (S-STEM) Program at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) has provided financial support and program activities to ME undergraduate students aiming at improving their retention and graduation rates. The objective of this study is to identify program activities that were most effective to help students for improvements. Current ME S-STEM scholars were asked to complete a survey that measures their scientific efficacy, engineering identity, expectations, integration, and sense of belonging, as well as how program activities impact their attitudes and perceptions. Analyses of 36 collected surveys showed that scholars reported high levels of engineering identity, expectations, and sense of belonging. However, further improvements were needed to help students in achieving scientific efficacy and academic integration into the program. Results demonstrated that pro-active mentoring was the most effective method contributing to positive attitudes and perceptions. The implemented S-STEM research-related activities and internship were viewed favorably by the scholars in helping them establish their scientific efficacy and engineering identity, and understand their expectations and goals. Community building activities were considered helpful for them to integrate into campus life and improve their sense of belonging to the campus and program. Scholars identified mentoring, research related activities, internships, and social interaction with faculty and their peers as important factors for their retention and graduation. Although the sample size was small in the study, we believe that the cost-effective activities identified could be adopted by other institutions to further improve students' retention and graduation rates in engineering programs. 

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