Improving The Transition Success Of Engineering Community College Students To A University

Maricopa Engineering Transition Scholars (METS), funded by the National Science Foundation, is a collaborative project between the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering at Arizona State University and five community colleges in the Maricopa County Community College District. The project has two main goals. The first is to increase the interest in engineering and computer science by students (especially women and underrepresented minorities) at the community colleges, to ease the transition of such students from the community college to the university, and to retain and to graduate engineering community college transfer students through events on all six campuses. The second goal is to build a model collaboration between a university and a community college system for engineering students. This paper will describe the activities that have been implemented, including lessons learned to improve the programs. The programs include introductory “Be An Engineer” events at the community college, follow-on workshops at the University, a compact bridge/transition workshop, an orientation presentation for transition students, a mentoring program for recent and future transfers, and the establishment of a METS Center in the Fulton School of Engineering to support Fulton community college transfer students with a place to find support, to study, and to network. Additional activities at the community colleges include working with the faculty and going into the upper level math, chemistry, biology, and physics classes to talk with students and encourage them to consider engineering. Modules have been developed and are being pilot tested in these classrooms as another tool to encourage students to learn about engineering and increase interest in engineering as a career. Lessons have been learned in how to contact students for events, how to get information from the students who attend, and how to be flexible with student schedules. The paper will also discuss the joint administration of the program with different management systems and styles in each of the six institutions in the program. Lessons have been learned in constructing a functional management structure, in scheduling faculty and staff from the institutions to participate in the activities, and in scheduling professional engineers for panels.