Gerhard,

We had outlined several key elements in our S-STEM grant/S-POWER including but not limited to.

 • Pre-enrollment: pre-transfer identification, two-way institutional visits, cross-institutional peer-to-peer student interactions, experiential learning opportunities such as REUs (Research Experiences for Undergraduates), student application, and financial aid support.

• Transition: participation in a Summer Bridge program (during the summer prior to the first-semester matriculation and designed specifically around identified needs of transfer students).

• During: course selection advising/support, academic advising, persistence advising, expanded mentoring (by faculty/senior administrator), peer-to-peer networking/support, supplemental instruction, providing research opportunities, workforce development, and preparation (including co-op opportunities).

These efforts have been institutionalized. 

*  We have also secured an institutional commitment of 20 transfer engineering scholarships each year, guided by the criteria used in the grant, and work directly with our Admissions office on this effort.

*  We have expanded REU opportunities for Community College students, securing a new NSF REU site, REU PATHWAYS.

*  Our Summer Bridge program was expanded university-wide through institutional support and is returning to a full on-campus experience this summer.  

* Elements of our Summer Bridge program are being replicated at the Community College level (Guaranteed 4.0) and through pending proposal efforts, expansion of cross-institutional peer mentoring is planned.

S-POWER has informed support by college leadership for key strategies outlined in addition to leading to expanded and more intentional collaboration between undergraduate leadership associated with this grant and our academic advising and required first-year/transfer teaching faculty.  Each of the key elements referenced, support all of our students, not just S-POWER scholars.  The need to remind students of resources available (formally and through PEER mentors) and to expand opportunities for both social and academic interactions informs our programming in the College of Engineering in addition to informing our partner community colleges now expanding efforts such as Summer Bridge.

See also the response to the next question, below.  We believe that the program is scalable at any university, but there are cost barriers for some of the mentoring programs.  At Northeastern University, the program is being expanded and institutionalized to broader students than the clean energy power students. 

1. There is diversity training for all S-POWER participants, including incoming students, faculty, staff.

2.  We have discovered through our surveys and scholar interviews that a critical feature to success is that the transferring student make a deep "connection" to the university.  However, each scholar may make different types of individual connections, but they may all lead to help mitigate the transfer shock. Some students have strong mentoring relationships with research faculty, other students have strong participation with STEM staff, other students build bonds with the more senior S-POWER scholars.  A multi-faceted approach is required, and it takes commitment from the university. But the near 100% retention rate to the PWI seems to demonstrate the value.

Other super-valuable programs include: (i) closely monitoring academic progress throughout semester by staff communication with teaching faculty and (ii) one-on-one mentoring with trained mentors and advisors bi-weekly.  The latter is the huge time commitment and could certainly be a barrier financially for institutions.

This is a scalable solution at any university if there is sufficient investment, but it also requires university investment.

Margie,

We do provide DEI workshops for students, faculty, and administrators.  All students enrolled in a required engineering course for first-year and transfer students participate in a workshop delivered by S-POWER leadership.  This workshop is planned to continue.  Two members of the leadership team also lead college-wide DEI efforts to ensure the sharing and institutionalization of best practices.

We also require all faculty and graduate student research mentors to attend DEI training.

These efforts in engineering are over and above university-wide DEI efforts.

Mentors have been also an essential component of our program efforts.  The College of Engineering has offered a Summer Bridge program for many years.  Alumnae of this program support not only the summer experience but continue to interact with mentees throughout the academic year.

Engagement with student organizations such as BESS (Black Engineering Student Society) has also further supported students’ transition to our institution.

Having a coordinated and collaborative approach to the implementation of critical elements (many outlined by ASEE Proven Policies and Practices https://diversityrecognition.asee.org/resources/  to support BIPOC and female students is essential. 

Thanks for sharing about this program. And I agree that a multi-faceted approach is required and the institutional support and investment is essential.  We have a few partnership programs and I can appreciated the thought and design that went into your program.  

Sounds great, Claire. 

When the S-POWER cohort meet together as a group, the interaction focuses on the shared experiences and the scholar difficulties at Northeastern.  There are so many shared barriers to the S-POWER marginalized students that we focus on these together in the group meetings.

Each student meets bi-weekly with senior mentoring staff and works on individual mentoring one-on-one.  So every student is different and has different educational plans, mentoring, and advising.  This is not the best answer to your question, but it is how we deal with the differences in race and background (case by case) that are not common to the majority cohort group. 

Finally, similar to answer to another question above, the success of the S-POWER scholar seems to be directly correlated to whether they make a strong "connection" to a part of the university. This could be with a faculty research mentor, the STEM staff, or  another senior S-POWER scholar, etc.  So, we put great effort assist in creating one or more of these connections.

Our recruitment effort is a bit different/unique.  The S-POWER first established grass-roots cooperation among the faculty between the different institutions.  For example, faculty from Northeastern would visit partner campuses to teach classes and host hands-on labs.  Especially unique to S-POWER was that faculty from the partner HBCUs would also come to Northeastern University and teach their classes as guest lecturers.  They would help run projects in sustainable energy class at NU.  In this way, the students at partner university knew the S-POWER Northeastern University faculty already, and the transferring became more of decision to continue their same program.  But it also has huge faculty support at the grass roots level from all the partnering institutions, which seems to help attract transfer students to NU.

However,  after a few years of the program, we would also include senior S-POWER students at NU and the S-POWER alumni to help recruit at the partnering institutions. This has been helpful.