Mary R. Anderson-Rowland

A first year engineering student survey to assist recruitment and retention

In recent years the recruitment and retention of engineering students, especially underrepresented minorities and women have received increased attention in the United States. Underrepresented minorities and women are the largest untapped resources available to help maintain and/or increase engineering enrollments and to ensure a diverse engineering working force. In order to understand better and to serve their first-year students in the School of Engineering, a survey is administered to these students each semester at Arizona State University (ASU). In addition to basic demographics, the survey asks for information on when and why students chose to study engineering at ASU, what recruitment events they attended and which were most effective, how many contacts the student had with ASU, how many hours per week they work, and predictions of success in graduating from ASU with an engineering degree. The data is analyzed to give direction for more successful recruitment and retention efforts, including advisement about course and work loads. The results are further analyzed to determine if recruitment efforts have differential success when the target population is men, women, underrepresented minorities, students who considered another university, local residents, traditional-age, or community college transfer students. The results of this analysis are being used to guide recruitment and retention efforts of our engineering students, especially women and underrepresented minorities. While not exhaustive, this paper contains a discussion on several of the survey items. The survey, although developed at ASU, can be customized for any individual institution.

Freshman introductory engineering seminar course: coupled with bridge program equals academic success and retention

Arizona State Universitys (ASU) Office of Minority Engineering Programs (OMEP) has hosted the Minority Engineering Program (MEP) Summer Bridge Program. The purpose of the program is to promote greater awareness of and recruit potential candidates to the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences (CEAS) at ASU. The program content and curriculum were designed to prepare underrepresented ethnic minority students for success in the College at ASU. The program focused on building community and utilized undergraduate student role models as instructors, while the curriculum focused on engineering design, technical communications, and a design project. Academic scholarships were awarded to all participants based on a team design project competition. The Summer 96 program saw only 12 out of 43 participate. The Summer 97 program participants were required to participate in the course as a stipulation to receive their scholarship. As a result, all 38 participants chose to register for the seminar course or the Foundation Coalition Match program at ASU. The academic success of these students during their first semester is evaluated, compared, and correlated with several measures including (1) a comparative analysis of seminar course success between the students who participated in the bridge program and those who did not; (2) students scores on the university mathematics placement examination and the students class grade earned in their beginning mathematics class; and (3) the students use of the MEP support system (i.e. tutoring program, academic excellence program).

Workshops vs. tutoring: how ASU's minority engineering program is changing the way engineering students learn

For the past five years, the Minority Engineering Program in the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Arizona State University (ASU) has channeled retention efforts through their Academic Excellence Program. This program housed two components: peer tutoring and mentoring and group workshops. While both produced successful retention rates among minority students within the College, both students and faculty strongly expressed a need for a more structured anti intensive program to assist engineering students with the more challenging courses. In fall of 2000, ASUs MEP remodeled their efforts at retention and created the Academic Excellence Workshop program. The workshop program replaces tutoring and mentoring programs with weekly workshop sessions. This nontraditional approach to academic support has necessitated a change in paradigm for staff faculty, and students. The response to this change has been promising. This paper discusses the AEW program structure and how the workshop concept has been promoted to students and faculty.

Student success: what factors influence persistence?

Arizona State Universitys (ASU) Office of Minority Engineering Programs (OMEP) has hosted the Minority Engineering Program (MEP) Summer Bridge Program for the past three years. The purpose of the program is to promote greater awareness of and to recruit potential candidates to the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences (CEAS) at ASU as well as to increase the retention rate of these students. In general, the students who participate in the bridge program and the seminar course do much better that those students who participated in neither. By far, the most successful students are those that also participate in tutoring and an integrated curriculum cluster class program. There are many factors that affect whether a student is successful or not. This paper attempts to discover the factors affecting retention through a series of focus group evaluations of the usefulness of the bridge program or the seminar course.

Evaluation of a ten year life planning assignment for an Academic Scholarship Success Class

In Fall 2010, 98 students in a one-credit Academic Scholarship Success Class were given an assignment to write a life plan for the ten years after their Bachelor of Science or Bachelor of Science in Engineering degree. The students in this class were either NSF S-STEM Scholarship students (engineering or computer science majors), transfer students who would receive a

A qualitative evaluation of an Academic Scholarship Program

300 scholarship after successful completion of the class, or other upper division students who had heard that the course was very helpful. The programs supporting the class have an emphasis on women and underrepresented minority students. The students were to address a summary of goals and professional objectives, current status in education and personal life, education goals and planned coursework, research importance, industrial importance, community service importance, personal mentoring plan, graduate school, professional goals, lifelong learning, family planning, travel plans, contingency plans, and their philosophy of life. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the reaction of the students to this assignment. The students were asked at a later time for their evaluation: was the assignment helpful, what did they learn doing the assignment, was the assignment thorough enough, and what changes would they make in the assignment. A summary of these findings is presented. Some students were surprised at how much their goals and plans in some areas changed in just a semester. The conclusion of the study is that this is a very helpful, important, and interesting assignment that should be given in mentoring situations and academic success classes.

CIRC/METS: a scholarship program to assist engineering transfer students to graduate and attain a graduate degree

Since fall 2002 Academic Scholarship Programs have been conducted in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University. The purpose of the programs is to retain and to graduate the participants, to expand their understanding of the engineering profession, and to have the students go right on to graduate school full-time. The Academic Scholarship Programs are open to upper division students who have at least a 3.0 GPA and have unmet financial need. An emphasis is placed on including women and underrepresented minority students. Six meetings are held each semester for the students with assignments designed to make them better students and to have them learn about research and graduate school. One of the assignments for the Spring 09 students was an essay on how the program did or did not help them. In particular they were asked to describe what in the program helped them the most. The students responded with many aspects of the program including: the money, the Guaranteed 4.0 Plan for study skills, the time management schedule, updating their resume with a check list each semester, graduate school encouragement, and the exposure to and interaction with industry representatives. A few students also talked about parts of the program that were not helpful to them. The assignment shows that the program plan is useful to the students and should be continued.

Helping students (and ultimately faculty) write an effective recommendation letter

The CIRC/METS project - collaborative interdisciplinary research community/maricopa engineering transition scholars is an academic scholarship program funded by the National Science Foundation to retain students in engineering degree programs and to create interest in pursuing an advanced degree in engineering. This pilot program targets women and underrepresented students who transferred from community colleges to four-year engineering degree programs to address their unique needs as transfer students. Many engineering schools have developed retention programs to assist entering engineering freshmen adjust to college life. However, little attention has been given to the community college transfer student entering a four-year engineering school. The goal of CIRC/METS is to provide students encouragement and support to complete an undergraduate degree in engineering with the goal that the students aspire to attain an advanced degree in engineering. The paper reports on the recruiting process for the program and on the CIRC/METS workshops (five per semester). The workshops concentrated on connecting students with ASU faculty to get research experience and on strategies for how to best present themselves when applying to graduate programs. The paper also reports on student feedback and what we have learned about strategies to motivate CIRC/METS students to pursue an advanced degree in engineering.

The Women in Applied Science and Engineering Summer Bridge Program: easing the transition for first-time female engineering students

Both undergraduate and graduate students need recommendation letters to help them reach various educational and career objectives. Professors sometimes have difficulty getting sufficient information from students to make each letter unique and persuasive. Students often have trouble writing specific details to substantiate their claims. Without this information, writing a recommendation letter can place unnecessary time demands on the professor. This pilot project is designed to help students provide sufficient specifics for an excellent letter of recommendation and to improve writing skills. The authors have devised a checklist to help students write a recommendation letter. The checklist can also serve as a useful career planning tool, establishing a framework on which to build and a guideline for analyzing the gap between school and work. The authors also suggest a handout to generate the first draft. Using the checklist can empower any student to develop an effective letter of recommendation.

Engineering recruitment and retention: a successful bridge

The Women in Applied Science and Engineering (WISE) Summer Bridge Program is designed to prepare incoming female students for the transition from high school to the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences (CEAS) at Arizona State University (ASU). This program offers academic reviews in courses such as mathematics, physics, and chemistry. Computer programming tutorials are also offered in Excel and HTML to better prepare students for their freshman introductory engineering course. Participants acclimate to the campus by receiving general information concerning the university, financial aid, and departmental advising. Students attending the program become familiar with the campus, have a head start on their freshman engineering classes, and have a chance to meet other female students. An overview of the WISE Summer Bridge Program is presented as well as retention data for 1998 and 1999 program participants. In addition, the paper discusses the need for and impact of bridge programs specifically geared toward female students. Further, the paper investigates other life circumstances, such as level of involvement in student activities, living situation, and employment that impact retention of these students. Finally, future projections of implementation and direction of student retention programs are explored.