2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

In this paper, we explore issues related to student transfer from two-year technical colleges to four-year institutions in the context of SPECTRA, an NSF Scholarships in STEM (S-STEM) project (Award#1834081) led by Clemson University in Upstate South Carolina. The program's purpose is to provide financial support to low-income transfer students who intend to transfer from South Carolina's two-year technical colleges into a four-year computing or engineering degree at Clemson. The program is currently in its fourth year of implementation. In the first two years, we suffered setbacks in student recruitment due partly to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic; however, our current participant numbers are increasing. We collected data from the existing participants regarding their experiences with the transfer process, which helped us better understand how the SPECTRA program has impacted them academically, socially, and financially. The initial findings from the SPECTRA cohorts suggest that students' main struggles in their transition to Clemson revolve around poor time management tactics and feeling unprepared for some of the courses they are taking within their degree program. Their difficulties may be due either to a lack of preparedness for previous classes (stemming from their technical college or from Clemson itself) or to not fully understanding what would be asked of them within the course before registration. In addition, they share struggles relating to their Clemson professors. Positive impacts come from their experience at Clemson and their direct SPECTRA involvement. Examples of these benefits include building skills, participating in undergraduate research, creating and having a community with fellow students, and developing their identities as engineers and computer scientists. Undergraduate research is a highly valued aspect of the SPECTRA program. The students work closely with graduate students, known as the ACE Fellows, for their research. The students believe these ACE Fellows act as mentors, who they find more approachable than professors, and valuable resources to them in their education journey and development as engineers. Another value of the program is the scholarship opportunity that SPECTRA provides. Students believe the funding they receive has significantly impacted their education. Some state that they would not be able to attend Clemson had they not been provided scholarships. Others have avoided picking up second jobs, allowing them to focus more energy on succeeding in their programs. In our ongoing work, we explore these initial findings and assess changes implemented from student feedback to improve the program. We seek to understand better the long-term effects the program may have on their students, including graduation rates and pathways to future careers.