Mapping Transfer into Undergraduate Engineering Programs in the Central New York State Region

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 Syracuse University. Over its one-year duration, this project will develop plans to create new pathways for recruitment of talented students into our programs and a cohort-based experience to recruit, retain, holistically support, and graduate academically talented, low-income students from central New York state (CNY) into the regional STEM workforce. A goal of this work is to build robust partnerships between community colleges, Syracuse University, and STEM employers in central New York state to improve the retention of diverse and skilled talent in the CNY region, meet the significantly growing demands of local industry, and improve the socioeconomic mobility of those who have been historically excluded from careers in STEM. The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. There are five specific aims: 1) build capacity and strengthen partnerships among Syracuse University, Onondaga Community College (OCC), Mohawk Valley Community College (MVCC), and other community colleges in the CNY region in support of a 2025 Track 3 S-STEM proposal; 2) conduct a comprehensive needs assessment across all partner institutions and utilize the outcomes to determine the best ways to support low-income engineering students at their two-year college, during their transition, and throughout their time at Syracuse; 3) formalize transfer articulation agreements with OCC, MVCC, and other CCs in the Central New York region directly into ECS programs at SU; 4) develop industry partnerships with Micron and other regional employers by working through the Manufacturers Association of Central New York (MACNY) and the Technology Alliance of Central New York (TACNY); and 5) develop an educational research plan for the Track 3 proposal that will contribute to understanding how a scholarship-based cohort model with a focus on workforce development can improve outcomes for low-income community college transfer students in engineering. Investigators will use an anti-deficit achievement framework to study the needs of community college and transfer students to learn about their lived experience, their attitudes related to persistence and degree completion, and to uncover perceived barriers to their success. 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.