2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Much has changed in the seven years since 2016 – in society, in education, and in our NSF S-STEM Program. The goal, however, of the West Virginia University (WVU) Academy of Engineering Success (AcES), which received NSF S-STEM funding beginning in 2016, has remained constant: to increase the number of graduating engineers and contribute to the diversification of the engineering workforce [1], [2]. AcES has endeavored to attract, support and retain through graduation talented, but underprepared (non-calculus-ready) first-time, full-time engineering and computing undergraduate students from underrepresented populations by implementing established, research-based student success and retention strategies. During the seven (7) years of NSF funding, this program has served 71 students and supported 28 students with renewable S-STEM scholarships.

Past research used surveys and individual and focus group interviews to measure AcES scholars’ feelings of institutional inclusion, engineering self-efficacy and identity, and assessment of their own development of academic and professional success skills [1], [2]. Results supported the Kruger-Dunning Effect, “a cognitive bias in which unskilled people do not recognize their incompetence in specific areas and often overestimate their abilities” [3], [4], [5]. Specifically, students who did not retain to the second year tended to enter college with unrealistic expectations regarding: (1) the time and effort required to succeed in a challenging major and (2) their ability to succeed with little effort. Students tended to underestimate the challenges and overestimate their ability to meet the challenges. [2], [3], [5].

Instead of focusing on those who left the program, this work focuses on AcES scholars who have completed or nearly completed an engineering or computing degree even through the additional complications and challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. From these successful graduates, we hope to learn what elements of the AcES program were the most impactful and supportive to their journey. The lessons learned are shared to inform other, future engineering education programs.