Work in Progress: Assessing the Impact of the First-year Summer Experience Program on Engineering Student Development and Transfer into Engineering

摘要

The First Year Summer Experience (FYSE) program is a three-week residential summer orientation program at the University Maryland College Park focused on the development and strengthening of math-intensive engineering problem-solving skills. Recruitment and selection of participants is targeted toward inclusion of women, underrepresented racial/ethnic minorities, first-generation college students, engineering admits with weak mathematics preparation, and students interested in engineering but who were not admitted. From 2012 to 2017, there have been 240 FYSE participants, including 106 students majoring in engineering and 134 students in the Letters & Sciences division. This paper will explore a work in progress in understanding participants' longitudinal progress to transfer into engineering majors and degree completion. This discussion will be supplemented with longitudinal and focus group data to explore the extent to which students were supported by the components of the FYSE program.