2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

PEEPS: Cultivating a Cohort of Supportive Engineering Students and Building a Support Team for Institutional Change

Presented at NSF Grantees Poster Session I

A National Science Foundation (NSF) S-STEM (Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Program) scholarship program entitled, “PEEPS” - Program for Engineering Excellence for Partner Schools is a holistic, institutional approach towards recruiting, retaining, and graduating engineering students from disadvantaged backgrounds. The Partner Schools are those that have been identified to have large percentages of students who qualify for the National School Lunch Program. Data suggests that these students are not only more likely to have low socioeconomic status, but also be first generation college students and/or underrepresented minorities (URM). Adopting a cohort or “posse” model, the PEEPS cohorts form learning-communities to support one another and create a sense of belonging at our university.

The PEEPS program is designed to remove obstacles and to integrate several proven student success strategies in order to help PEEPS students develop and achieve their personal academic and professional goals. Partnerships with Admissions, Financial Aid, and the Multicultural Engineering Program have been developed expressly for this project. The PEEPS program components not only include financial support, but also include several interventions and social activities. These components are designed to help strengthen student identities as an engineer and to increase self-efficacy.

Data reveals that the PEEPS scholarship program has been an effective recruiting tool. By targeting the Partner Schools and First Generation engineering students, the scholarship program is aiding and supporting more diverse students with high financial need. Retention analysis is ongoing through periodic check-ins, interviews and focus groups. Many of the PEEPS components are also being developed to reach a greater number of students beyond the scholarship recipients, such as the Engineering Student Success course and cohort scheduling of gateway engineering courses.

Assessment by interviews and a focus group of the PEEPS has revealed that the cohort scheduling of courses together has helped the students form a community and has assisted with studying for courses. PEEPS also integrates periodic reflections that aid in student development, and provide ample academic and personal support. Some preliminary quantitative comparisons are made between the PEEPS and other students in the Engineering Student Success course, but the numbers of students and time elapsed are small.

Authors

Dr. Katherine C. Chen http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5428-7196 California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo [biography]

Dr. Katherine C. Chen is the Executive Director of the STEM Education Center at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). Her degrees in Materials Science and Engineering are from Michigan State University and MIT. Her research interests include pre-colleg
Dr. Lizabeth T Schlemer California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo [biography]

Lizabeth is a professor at Cal Poly, SLO in Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering. She has been teaching for 22 years and has continued to develop innovative pedagogy such as project based, flipped classroom and competency grading. Through the SUSTAIN
Dr. Jane L. Lehr California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo [biography]

Jane Lehr is Chair of the Women's & Gender Studies Department at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. She is also an Associate Professor in Ethnic Studies, Director of the Science, Technology & Society Minor Programs, and Faculty Director of the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority and Underrepresented Student Participation in STEM Program at Cal Poly. She previously served as elected co-chair of the Science & Technology Taskforce of the National Women's Studies Association, and as a Postdoctoral Research Officer at the Centre for Informal Learning and Schools (CILS) at King's College, University of London. Her graduate training is in Science & Technology Studies and Women's Studies at Virginia Tech.
Ms. Emily E Liptow California Polytechnic State University [biography]

Emily Liptow is an AmeriCorps VISTA member at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. She is involved with a variety of diversity and inclusion efforts in the College of Engineering ranging from student support programs, faculty bias awareness trainings, and inclusive cultural change. She is a recent Industrial and Systems Engineering graduate from Ohio State University, where she was also very involved with social justice initiatives.
Ms. Jaclyn Duerr California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo [biography]

Jaclyn Duerr works as a Coordinator for the Multicultural Engineering Program at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Teaching experience includes Engineering Student Success and Multicultural Counseling courses. Research interests encompass advocacy, recruitment, retention, and graduation for under-served students in STEM, with a special interest in first generation and transfer student experiences.
Ms. Helene Finger P.E. California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo [biography]

Helene Finger has been a faculty member in the Civil/Environmental Engineering Department at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo since 1997, with a break from 2007-2010 to pursue her PhD in Mechanical Engineering focusing on computational science and engineering an
Jeffrey Boncan Cabanez California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo [biography]

Jeffrey earned a bachelor’s degree in Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies, with concentrations in industrial engineering and film, from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. He spent the last two years working for an AmeriCorps national service program, CSU STEM VISTA. Here, he implemented programming for an NSF S-STEM grant for an academic learning community of underrepresented students in mechanical engineering and conducted outreach to K-5 students. Currently, he is one of two CSU STEM VISTA Leaders implementing hands-on learning experiences in STEM throughout the CSU system and supporting a cohort of 15 VISTAs across 11 CSU campuses.

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