2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

An interinstitutional team of researchers at a Southwest HSI Land-Grant University and its affiliated local community college embarked on managing an NSF-supported Track III S-STEM scholarship project called STAR (“Successful Transfer and Retention”) project. This project is a synergistic effort between the University’s College of Engineering (CoE) and a neighboring 2-year Community College (CC). The project addresses an institutionally identified need of increasing recruitment of financially challenged, academically talented, 2-year CC transfer engineering students as well as retaining and graduating them. Major elements o this effort are: provide need-based financial assistance to academically talented engineering students; enhance transfer engineering students’ math proficiency through a Summer Math Boot Camp (SMBC); enhance Students’ Self-Efficacy, Growth Mindset, and Engineering Identity through metacognition- and cohort-based activities; and assess students’ academic performance using data analytics. The program began recruitment of scholars in Fall 2020 and continuing. As of now, it has 57 scholars at various stages of their education. The cognitive and noncognitive activities of the program support students’ academic preparation through SMBC, Self-Efficacy and Growth Mindset through metacognition-based workshops, Engineering Identity through cohort-based activities in Engineering Learning Communities (ELCs), time management skills, one-on-one relationships with near-peer and faculty mentors, and a cohort model. The program conducts yearly SMBC and monthly meetings comprising presentations, workshops, and cohort-building activities. The key preliminary findings indicate S-STEM financial support is the top-rated element of the program followed by professional preparation and community building. These scholars have seen progressive growth in their various aspects of engineering identity.