Evaluating a collaborative program to increase the enrollment and retention of community college transfer students

In 2003, NSF awarded a joint two-year grant to Arizona State University's Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering (FSE) and the Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD). The purpose of the grant project was to create an interest in engineering at the community college level, to encourage and support potential engineering students (particularly women and minorities) in community colleges, to mentor and support community college transfer students enrolled in FSE programs, and to build a collaborative model between FSE and MCCCD that would become institutionalized within both institutions. This paper evaluates the Maricopa Engineering Transition Scholars (METS) project's events and student outcomes after one and a half years of activity. The paper provides descriptions of METS events and METS supporting events and the FSE-METS Center by the number of students attending. It also analyzes students' desires and outcomes by quantitative and qualitative analyses from surveys, interviews, and student enrollment, retention, and graduation data. The METS events outcomes suggest that there is a high-level of interest in engineering among community college students, especially with women and minorities. The student outcome data on enrollments and retention and graduation are still debatable given that this project needs one more year of data analysis.