Newswise — When Willy Chu attended Massachusetts Bay Community College and lived at home, he felt constantly distracted from studying and stressed by having to work up to 30 hours a week to pay for books, gas, car insurance and parking. But that all changed when he was recruited by the University of Massachusetts Amherst and offered a $6,000-per-year scholarship to fulfill his dream of becoming a mechanical engineer.
Chu is not unique. He is one of 22 transfer students who have completed their first year as part of the UMass Amherst College of Engineering's response to an area of national need to train more scientists and engineers, as identified by the National Science Foundation. "Getting the scholarship means I don't have to work," Chu says. "I can just focus on my studies. It's been great because it will help me improve my grade point average. I'll learn more, and I can actually have a social life for once."
With a five-year, $598,000 NSF grant to support scholarships, the college has dramatically increased the odds of attracting bright, motivated transfer students from community colleges and other programs who will graduate as well-rounded engineers. Known as the Scholarship in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, or S-STEM, the NSF program provides $3,000 per semester, renewable until graduation, to qualified undergraduates to help them achieve a university education.
Experience has taught the UMass Amherst educators that success involves far more than money, says Kathleen Rubin, assistant dean of student affairs for the engineering college. "We offer a range of support programs including a transfer residence hall floor for them to live on, dinners, meetings with faculty, supported travel to professional conferences, and more," she notes. Sarina Ergas, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering and principal investigator for the S-STEM engineering scholarship grant, agrees. "The money is very, very helpful to many of these students, but it's not just the money," Ergas points out.
Living with other engineering transfer students in the dorm, Chu says, is a huge benefit for him. "Basically whenever I need help, even at one o'clock in the morning, I just go next door, knock and ask my friend." Roya Fahandezsaadi, who transferred from Bunker Hill Community College and hopes to graduate in civil engineering degree in 2011, also appreciates the space. "It feels good," she says. "Everybody is coming from a different background."
Transfer students are typically older and they've missed the opportunity to form study groups and social cliques as freshmen. It's harder for them to adjust, say Ergas and recruitment director Greg Brown. Since 2001, they and Rubin have been carefully building a holistic program to meet such challenges and proactively support the transfer students, most of who come from Massachusetts community colleges.
As Rubin notes, "All students need to belong to something." The UMass Amherst engineering S-STEM program gives these 22 transfer students "an immediate way to make connections and make friends." This has benefitted every student in the relatively intimate college of about 1,300, she adds. "We try in many, many areas to provide a cohort experience to all of our students in one way or another."
Max Rome, an S-STEM scholar in civil engineering who transferred from UMass Boston, says being accepted here meant "I wasn't just going to be an anonymous participant in this education, but that it was really expected of me that I was going to be really participating and engaging with the faculty and with the department." Rome, who could graduate in May 2010, is thinking of staying an extra semester, which would give him two summers to do research or an internship. "I'm just really beginning to get a sense of what's going on in the field, and by the time I graduate I hope that I really know something about what I'm really excited about," he says.
As Brown points out, other S-STEM activities offer students the chance to take part in "dress for success" and "business etiquette" workshops, field trips and student chapters of professional societies, which all contribute to the university experience. Chu recalls a pool tournament and a field trip where he met and really connected with a UMass Amherst engineering grad who works in a manufacturing plant.
Brown says many S-STEM scholars join one of the 18 student societies on campus, which provide rich opportunities for professional networking and leadership practice outside the classroom. In addition to the national engineering honor society, these include the National Society of Black Engineers, the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, the Society of Women Engineers and Engineers Without Borders. S-STEM funds can help students attend regional and national conferences.
Fahandezsaadi says, "I'm part of the Engineers Without Borders club and I really love it." Her goal is to go on the 2009 summer trip to the Amazon, where students help local people build water purification units. She adds, "I feel this is my place and I need to be here." Overall, Ergas summarizes, "We're just really thrilled with the group we recruited." As these first 22 scholars graduate, others will take their places, "and so we're just going to keep rolling more students into the program."
Videotaped clips of these students discussing their experiences as S-STEM engineering scholars at UMass Amherst are available at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1VPez_k53U&feature=channel_page
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