Abstract:

There is an increased need globally for students in engineering and computer science majors to enter into, persist, and matriculate toward undergraduate degrees in colleges and universities. Increasing the diversity in science technology, engineering and mathematics has become a common goal of colleges and universities world-wide. Two-year colleges have been a place where the most diverse students enroll for decades. Students enrolled in are often the least prepared to persist to transfer to four year universities and moreover, to reach degree completion. Such students often come from non-traditional college going backgrounds and they require targeted support to assist them toward degree completion. Accordingly, this research examined cohorts of non-traditional college students enrolled in STEM undergraduate programs in two-year colleges programs in urban community and regional colleges to determine what role student support practices played in their persistence toward degree completion. The study determined that while there were diverse practices designed to support students from non-traditional backgrounds, the most successful support practices were those that were academically oriented, and especially those that were directly tied to their courses and course taking patterns. This paper articulates the particularity of such student supports and describes the degree to which they were successful in supporting students toward their undergraduate STEM degrees.

Keywords:

2-year colleges, persistence, STEM degrees, underrepresented groups.