Implementing and Examining the Impact of an Enhanced Transfer Scholars Program for Inclusive Computing and Engineering Education

This project will contribute to the national need for well-educated scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). UMBC is a minority serving institution with high transfer enrollment, including transfer students from six key Maryland community colleges who will serve as partners in this project.

Over its five year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 28 unique full-time students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in five technical majors: Chemical Engineering, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Information Systems, and Mechanical Engineering. Transfer Scholars will receive two-year scholarships in addition to a holistic model of support including a new scholars retreat; faculty, peer, and industry mentoring; academic and professional development activities; and a transfer student seminar in their first semester.

This project advances the importance of understanding and applying transfer success frameworks in STEM fields that have seen the least traction in broadening participation efforts (computing and engineering). This project develops students’ capacity for self-awareness and practical strategies to act as allies to their peers and mitigate issues of bias and exclusion in computing and engineering.

It also enhances the infrastructure to improve learning, retention, and success of transfer students in computing and engineering majors and serves as a model for other regions to consider adapting.

The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. It will achieve the following specific aims: 1. Apply and enhance the evidence-based Center for Women in Technology (CWIT) program model at UMBC to support academic and social integration, retention, graduation, and post-baccalaureate success of transfer students in computing and engineering majors with financial need. 2.

Deepen and expand collaborations with campus partners (i.e. in both Academic Affairs and Student Affairs) and community college partners to better address pre- and post- transfer needs in computing and engineering across the 2- to 4-year pathway. 3. Examine the impact of the enhanced CWIT program model and transfer success supports on the academic and social integration of transfer students in computing and engineering majors.

It will also address the following research question: What is the impact of the enhanced CWIT program model and transfer success supports on the academic and social integration of transfer students in computing and engineering majors? The project will employ quasi-experimental research methods and include a matched samples analysis. The investigators anticipate that this research will produce evidence of which, when, and why academic and social interventions matter, as well as feedback on how to refine and improve them for future student success.

An external evaluation will be conducted, centered on the project aims and activities, and will include formative and summative components. Results of this project will be made available by presentations and publications to the computing and engineering education and educational research communities. This project is funded by NSF’s Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics program, which seeks to increase the number of low-income academically talented students with demonstrated financial need who earn degrees in STEM fields.

It also aims to improve the education of future STEM workers, and to generate knowledge about academic success, retention, transfer, graduation, and academic/career pathways of low-income students.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.