2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Developing strategic STEM pathways to increase the number of underrepresented students achieving STEM degrees may be an essential ingredient for achieving goals of large numbers of STEM graduates entering the profession. Several studies have shown that two-year college students represent 42% of undergraduate enrollment and are historically over-represented in populations underrepresented in engineering. In fact, recruiting and retaining 2-year college students has been discussed an important avenue to help meet the challenge of increasing the number of STEM graduates. It has been noted that students who start in the community college system face many challenges. In one particular study, the author found “over 90% of students enrolled in a 2-year college expect to earn a bachelor’s degree, yet less than 40% of students transfer to a 4-year institution within five years of their initial 2-year college enrollment.” In another study, the authors discovered with a “recent cohort of first-time beginning community college students who initially intended to transfer to a 4-year institution, only 15% had successfully transferred to a 4-year institution within three years of beginning college.” Even more, they revealed after six semesters of attending a community college, “just 9 percent [of Hispanic students] had reached a set of criteria (including academic course requirements) to be ready to transfer to a 4-year institution, and just one-third had met at least one of these criteria.”

The work in this grant looked at enhancing systemic support between 2-year colleges and 4-year institutions by providing an avenue for Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) from across the state to address barriers and challenges for 2-year students transferring to 4-year engineering institutions. Faculty, instructors, staff, and administrators from both 2-year and 4-year HSIs worked together to gain a better understanding of factors contributing to student success and retention to help facilitate the transition from a 2-year to a 4-year institution. In addition, this work provided opportunities to learn about successful strategies for retaining HSI students, to hear from Hispanic/Latino students who have made the transition from 2-year to 4-year institutions, and to meet individuals from other HSI 2-year and 4-year institutions.