A Successful Four-year Academic Scholarship Program for Upper Division Engineering and Computer Science Non-transfer Students and Graduate Students

Mary R. Anderson-Rowland

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Conference: 2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: San Antonio, Texas
Publication Date: June 10, 2012
Start Date: June 10, 2012
End Date: June 13, 2012
ISSN: 2153-5965
Conference Session: NSF Grantees' Poster Session
Tagged Topic: NSF Grantees Poster Session
Page Count: 10
Page Numbers: 25.110.1 - 25.110.10
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--20870
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/20870
Download Count: 409

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Paper Authors

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Mary R. Anderson-Rowland Arizona State University

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Mary Anderson-Rowland is the PI of an NSF STEP grant to work with five
non-metropolitan community colleges to produce more engineers, especially female and underrepresented minority engineers. She also directs two academic scholarship programs, including one for transfer students. An Associate Professor in computing, informatics, and systems design engineering, she was the Associate Dean of Student Affairs in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at ASU from 1993-2004. Anderson-Rowland was named a top 5% teacher in the Fulton Schools of Engineering for 2009-10. She received the WEPAN Engineering Educator Award 2009, ASEE Minorities Award 2006, the SHPE Educator of the Year 2005, and the National Engineering Award in 2003, the highest honor given by AAES. In 2002, she was named the Distinguished Engineering Educator by the Society of Women Engineers. She has more than 175 publications primarily in the areas of recruitment and retention of women and underrepresented minority engineering and computer science students. Her awards are based on her mentoring of students, especially women and underrepresented minority students, and her research in the areas of recruitment and retention. A SWE and ASEE Fellow, she is a frequent speaker on career opportunities and diversity in engineering.

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Abstract

A Successful 4-Year Academic Scholarship Program for Upper Division Engineering and Computer Science Non-Transfer Students and Graduate StudentsAbstract.This paper describes a successful four-year academic scholarship program for upper divisionengineering and computer science students funded by the National Science S-STEM grant #0631189 that ran from Fall 2007 through Spring 2011. Scholarships of $2,000 per semester weregiven to 72 upper division and graduate students. The upper division students were all non-transfer students, while the graduate students (after the first year) were both transfer students andnon-transfer students who had graduated from an upper division S-STEM grant. The programwas designed to especially encourage females and under-represented minority students to studyengineering and computer science. Over 65% (47/72) of the students were either female orminority students.The students in this program entered in four ways: through a lower-division NSF S-STEMprogram grant #0807134, as a new upper division applicant to this program, as a qualifiedgraduate student who had just graduated from this program as an undergraduate, and as aqualified graduate student who had just graduated from an NSF S-STEM program grant#0728695 for transfer students.Of the 59 undergraduate students given scholarships, only one student left ASY without anengineering degree giving a retention rate of 98.3%. Only one of graduate students in theprogram left without completing a Master’s degree (student left after three semesters). Of the 59students, 25 have graduated with a BSE in engineering or a BS in computer science. Of these 25graduated students, 14 (56%) have gone right on to graduate school full-time. Six of the 14students are in PhD programs and three of the other 8 students have already completed theirMaster’s degree. Two additional students are completing their Master’s degree part-time. Manyof these students had not thought about graduate school until they became a part of this program.The programming has changed every semester. The paper will describe the AcademicScholarship Class that goes with this program and the changes that have been made over the fouryears of the program including a paper on career plans after they graduate. The students wereencouraged to do research and to take internship positions. Twenty-one of the 30 students in theprogram during Spring 2011 worked.Challenges that still remain will be discussed including: convincing students that 18 hours is toolarge a load of classes if they are also working; convincing students that it is highly desirable forthem to go to a Career Fair to practice interviews and to obtain an internship or job; convincingstudents that reading the material before class and doing “bullet point notes” is a good use oftheir time; and convincing students that right after the undergraduate degree is an excellent timeto go to graduate school full-time.

Citation
Format

Anderson-Rowland, M. R. (2012, June), A Successful Four-year Academic Scholarship Program for Upper Division Engineering and Computer Science Non-transfer Students and Graduate Students Paper presented at 2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, San Antonio, Texas. 10.18260/1-2--20870

TY  - CPAPER
AB  -     A Successful 4-Year Academic Scholarship Program for Upper Division                     Engineering and Computer Science                Non-Transfer Students and Graduate StudentsAbstract.This paper describes a successful four-year academic scholarship program for upper divisionengineering and computer science students funded by the National Science S-STEM grant #0631189 that ran from Fall 2007 through Spring 2011. Scholarships of $2,000 per semester weregiven to 72 upper division and graduate students. The upper division students were all non-transfer students, while the graduate students (after the first year) were both transfer students andnon-transfer students who had graduated from an upper division S-STEM grant. The programwas designed to especially encourage females and under-represented minority students to studyengineering and computer science. Over 65% (47/72) of the students were either female orminority students.The students in this program entered in four ways: through a lower-division NSF S-STEMprogram grant #0807134, as a new upper division applicant to this program, as a qualifiedgraduate student who had just graduated from this program as an undergraduate, and as aqualified graduate student who had just graduated from an NSF S-STEM program grant#0728695 for transfer students.Of the 59 undergraduate students given scholarships, only one student left ASY without anengineering degree giving a retention rate of 98.3%. Only one of graduate students in theprogram left without completing a Master’s degree (student left after three semesters). Of the 59students, 25 have graduated with a BSE in engineering or a BS in computer science. Of these 25graduated students, 14 (56%) have gone right on to graduate school full-time. Six of the 14students are in PhD programs and three of the other 8 students have already completed theirMaster’s degree. Two additional students are completing their Master’s degree part-time. Manyof these students had not thought about graduate school until they became a part of this program.The programming has changed every semester. The paper will describe the AcademicScholarship Class that goes with this program and the changes that have been made over the fouryears of the program including a paper on career plans after they graduate. The students wereencouraged to do research and to take internship positions. Twenty-one of the 30 students in theprogram during Spring 2011 worked.Challenges that still remain will be discussed including: convincing students that 18 hours is toolarge a load of classes if they are also working; convincing students that it is highly desirable forthem to go to a Career Fair to practice interviews and to obtain an internship or job; convincingstudents that reading the material before class and doing “bullet point notes” is a good use oftheir time; and convincing students that right after the undergraduate degree is an excellent timeto go to graduate school full-time.
AU  - Mary R. Anderson-Rowland
CY  - San Antonio, Texas
DA  - 2012/06/10
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - A Successful Four-year Academic Scholarship Program for Upper Division Engineering and Computer Science Non-transfer Students and Graduate Students 
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/20870
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--20870
ER  -