2024 Collaborative Network for Engineering & Computing Diversity (CoNECD)

S-STEM Partnerships Supporting Low-Income Engineering Students: A Descriptive Case Study

Presented at Track 1: Technical Session 4: S-STEM Partnerships Supporting Low-Income Engineering Students: A Descriptive Case Study

Our research team is building a Research Hub focused on understanding organizational partnerships associated with the NSF Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Program (S-STEM) program, which aims to support the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need. The goal of this Research Hub is addressing the overarching question: How can intra- and inter-institutional partnerships be designed, built, and sustained to systematically support low-income engineering student success? We refer to partnerships as any relationship that involves sharing power, work, support, or information for the achievement of joint goals and/or mutual benefits. By focusing on partnerships, our goal is to reframe the many challenges faced by low-income students to be “organizational” challenges as opposed to “student-related” challenges. More specifically, we aim to advance understanding of the efficacy of S-STEM partnership designs, processes, and structures. Illuminating how the complex web of student supports can work better will identify new efficiencies in the STEM education system so that limited resources can be more wisely spent and benefits can be extended.

The purpose of this CoNECD presentation is to report on a single study towards this effort. Towards this purpose, we describe a multi-stakeholder partnership between a large research-intensive university and two Virginia community colleges. Funded through the NSF S-STEM program, the partnership was established to create a stronger engineering transfer pathway for low-income students who started their engineering education at a community college in Virginia by providing financial support and high-touch engagement with students. Our primary data sources were interviews with the principal and co-principal investigators, staff members, and supporting partners. In total, we interviewed nine people to explore how they individually and collectively conceptualized the design and impact of this S-STEM partnership. These interviews were semi-structured with open-ended responses and conducted in 45 to 90-minute virtual sessions. The findings from this case study include implications for improving transfer and enrollment policies and procedures at the sending and receiving institutions, leveraging the role of senior administrators to advocate for institutional enhancements, improving scholarship opportunities, improving engineering curricula and course sequencing, and increasing opportunities for community college students. Ultimately, the insights from this work and subsequent research will generate new knowledge regarding the kinds of partnership processes and collaborations that colleges and universities may want to institutionalize to best support low-income engineering students.

Authors

Dr. Walter C. Lee http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5082-1411 Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University [biography]

Dr. Walter Lee is an associate professor in the Department of Engineering Education and the director for research at the Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Diversity (CEED), both at Virginia Tech.
Dr. David B Knight http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4576-2490 Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University [biography]

David Knight is a Professor in the Department of Engineering Education at Virginia Tech and also serves as Chief of Strategy in the College of Engineering and Special Assistant to the Provost. His research tends to be at the macro-scale, focused on a systems-level perspective of how engineering education can become more effective, efficient, and inclusive, and considers the intersection between policy and organizational contexts. Knight currently serves as the co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Engineering Education.
Dr. Sarah Rodriguez http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3409-7096 Virginia Tech [biography]

Sarah L. Rodriguez is an Associate Professor of Engineering Education and an affiliate faculty member with the Higher Education Program at Virginia Tech. Her engineering education research agenda centers upon engineering and computing identity development of historically marginalized populations at higher education institutions. Currently, Dr. Rodriguez is involved with several large-scale interdisciplinary research projects focused on institutional environments and STEM identity development are sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Kapor Center. In recent years, she was selected as an Early Career Awardee and Faculty Fellow with the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (AAHHE) and a NASPA Emerging Faculty Leader. She also received the Barbara Townsend Early Career Scholar Award by the Council for the Study of Community Colleges (CSCC) and gave the distinguished ASHE-CAHEP Barbara Townsend Lecture. To learn more about her current projects, visit http://sarahlrodriguez.com/
Dr. Saundra Johnson Austin http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6432-0896 Virginia Tech [biography]

Dr. Saundra Johnson Austin has dedicated her career to promoting diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging of elementary, middle, and high school students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and careers. Her research is grounded in the effective implementation of STEM curricula in urban middle schools. She has published and presented on STEM education and organizational change. Dr. Johnson Austin earned a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from The Pennsylvania State University, a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Notre Dame, and Doctor of Education in Organizational Change and Leadership from the University of Southern California.

At the University of South Florida (USF) she leads the project coordination for the National Science Foundation Florida Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (FL-AGEP), a $2.4M award to Florida A&M University (with a subaward to USF and Virginia Tech), Bethune-Cookman University, Florida International, and Florida Memorial University. Also, Dr. Johnson Austin is the project coordinator and Co-Principal Investigator for the USF Project Racism In School Exclusionary Suspensions (RISES), a $30k grant awarded to explore the suspensions of African American middle and high school students in Hillsborough and Pinellas County Florida.

Dr. Johnson Austin held positions as: math faculty at Academy Prep Center of Tampa; executive director of Curated PathwaysTM to Innovation; senior vice president for operations at the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering, Inc.; president and CEO of St. Michael’s High School; executive vice president of the Community Partnership for Lifelong Learning; executive director of the National Consortium for Graduate Degrees for Minorities in Engineering and Science; and Minority Engineering Program director at The Pennsylvania State University. She began her career as a cost engineering at Bechtel Power Corporation. In 2007 she founded Charis Consulting Group, LLC.

Dr. Johnson Austin was recognized by numerous organizations for her work in promoting equity and access to STEM education. Her most notable award is the 2015 Outstanding Engineering Alumnus in Civil and Environmental Engineering from The Pennsylvania State University. In addition, she was awarded the 2004-2005 Selected Professions Fellowship by the American Association of University Women (AAUW). Dr. Johnson Austin was awarded in 2007 the Strengthening Our Communities Inaugural Community Educational Leadership Award at the 2nd Annual Celebrate Literacy Conference. In 1998, she was recognized with the National Society of Black Engineers’ (NSBE) Inaugural Golden Torch Award for Minority Engineering Program Director of the Year and the Outstanding Contribution by a Minority Engineering Program Administrator Award by the National Association of Multicultural Engineering Program Advocates (NAMEPA).

She is a member of various STEM organizations including the United States White House endorsed initiative under the Obama Administration, Algebra by 7th Grade, and advisory committee member for the Smithsonian Science Education Center’s ‘Zero Barriers in STEM Education.’ Dr. Johnson Austin is currently the President of the American Association of University Women Tampa, Inc., consultant to the board for the Caribbean Community Association of Tampa, and Treasurer for the Northeast STEM Starter Academy of Mount Vernon, NY.

Dr. Johnson Austin is a member of the editorial review board for the Caribbean Educational Research Journal (CERJ). She also served as a reviewer for the National Science Foundation’s CS for All Pathways, HBCU-Up, INCLUDES Conference and INCLUDES Launch Pilot.

She enjoys doing yoga, spending time on the beach, and mentoring young girls and women in STEM studies and careers.
Mr. Joseph Ronald Sturgess Virginia Tech [biography]

Joseph Sturgess is a PhD student in the Department of Engineering Education at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, where he also serves as a graduate research assistant contributing to various projects supporting low-income STEM students and minority-serving institutions. His research interests include community college-minority serving institution partnerships, transfer students, post-traditional students and broadening participation in engineering education. He received his B.S. in electrical engineering from Tuskegee University, a M.S in journalism from the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign, a M.S. in physics from Fisk University, a M.S. in industrial engineering from the University of Central Florida and a M.Ed. in educational leadership from Texas Christian University.
Dr. Michelle D Klopfer Virginia Tech Department of Engineering Education
Dr. Jacob R Grohs Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University [biography]

Jacob Grohs is an Assistant Professor in Engineering Education at Virginia Tech with Affiliate Faculty status in Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics and the Learning Sciences and Technologies at Virginia Tech. He holds degrees in Engineering Mechanics (
Dr. Amy Richardson Virginia Tech Department of Engineering Education [biography]

Amy Richardson is a Postdoc researcher at Virginia Tech in the Department of Engineering Education studying engineering transfer students and inter-institutional partnerships. Amy has 15 years of experience at community colleges, including faculty and administrative positions. She is a licensed civil engineer with a Ph.D. in Engineering Education from Virginia Tech.
Dr. Dustin Grote http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9189-2424 Weber State University [biography]

Dustin currently serves as an Assistant Professor in Teacher Education at Weber State University and leads the higher education leadership program. He holds a PhD from Virginia Tech in Higher Education.
James Nathaniel Newcomer Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University [biography]

Former mechatronics engineer and STEM educator who now works with first-year engineering students to help them establish academic trajectories to develop and meet their career goals.

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