Every university works extremely hard at recruiting exceptional students. At XXXX, the honors program has been doing that for over two decades. The program does not ensure a scholarship, but provides a curriculum that brings together the best students from programs across the university in honors courses. The program is supplemented with activities that strengthens the students connection to the community through diversity and mentorship leadership opportunities.
The current honors program data will be presented, analyzed, and best practices summarized. These best practices have been modified based on the individual program to execute the first year of a STEM fellows program that integrates mathematics, science, and engineering students into a cohort.
This program is being expanded to include fellows programs, small disciplinary cohorts, to assist in the recruitment and retention of exceptional students, especially females and minorities. The fellows program is new this year, but has so much potential for application of other schools that the authors wanted to present their lessons learned from the first year and provide in depth results in 2-3 years.
Ron Welch (P.E.) received his B.S. degree in Engineering Mechanics from the United States Military Academy in 1982. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana in 1990 and 1999, respectively. He taught at The United States Military Academy during his 25 year military career. After retiring form the military he has taught at the University of Texas at Tyler and The Citadel, where he was the Dean of Engineering for 10 years.
Dr. Kevin Bower is a Professor and Head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at The Citadel, Charleston, South Carolina. Dr. Bower’s teaching research interests are in improving active learning environments and the development of classroom pedagogy to improve moral development in engineering students.
Robert Rabb is the associate dean for education in the College of Engineering at Penn State. He previously served as a professor and the Mechanical Engineering Department Chair at The Citadel. He previously taught mechanical engineering at the United States Military Academy at West Point. He received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the United Military Academy and his M.S. and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. His research and teaching interests are in mechatronics, regenerative power, and multidisciplinary engineering.
Ally Kindel Martin is the Director of Student Engagement, Projects & Finance in the School of Engineering. In her position, she has worked with the Supplemental Instruction program, launched STEM Freshmen Outreach initiatives, created an Engineering Mentor Connection program, and revitalized the Engineering Career & Networking Expo. She holds a M.Ed. in Higher Education and Student Affairs from the University of South Carolina. Previously she worked as a Student Success Adviser and focused on early intervention initiatives. She has taught courses including First Year Seminar, Keys to Student Success and University 101.
Robert Barsanti is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at The Citadel where he teaches and does research in the area of target tracking and signal processing. Since 2015, Dr. Barsanti has served as the William States Lee
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