Helping Underserved Students Succeed in Engineering

Great article from UW's College of Engineering about their STARS program.
"It is a social justice issue that economically and educationally-disadvantaged students be given every opportunity to pursue high-value UW degrees, such as those offered by the College of Engineering."

Eve Riskin, professor of electrical engineering and the College's associate dean for diversity and access
STARS is a program designed to increase the number of students from economically- and educationally-disadvantaged backgrounds who graduate with UW engineering degrees by providing a strong foundation through extra academic support, mentoring and funding.

Historically, fewer than half of the students who enter the UW intending to study engineering complete engineering degrees. The success rate is nearly 20% lower for students from low-income and underserved communities. Often, these students have difficulty gaining admission to engineering departments due to inadequate high school preparation.
How it Works
To think in terms of college athletics, STARS offers participating students a "redshirt year:" students spend five years at the UW, using the first year to develop the skills they'll need to succeed in engineering.

At the UW, 32 incoming freshmen are invited to participate annually. Entry into the program isn’t based solely on academic performance, as STARS program director Sonya Cunningham explains, "It's not just about how smart you are but how hard you're willing to work." Students must tackle a workload drastically different than high school.
Students develop study skills through regular meetings with STARS advisers, participation in study groups and by spending time at the UW's Engineering Academic Center. They take classes together as a cohort and look to each other for support. STARS students are required to live on-campus their first two years and are placed in the same residence halls. 

Comments

old salt said…
Dr Riskin is an amazing woman destroying barriers, supporting under served students & staff, & holding the old guard accountable. It is hard to imagine how first gen students or those with weak high school experience could compete in the weed out pre-engineering classes at UW without support. I hope the STARS program finds funds to expand and that continuing evolution makes those classes more accessible to diverse students.
5/18/16, 6:52 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tuesday Open Thread

The speaker list is up for the Board meeting tomorrow; not as packed as I thought with just four people on the waitlist. The majority of the speakers are speaking on high school boundaries (with several wanting to talk about Ballard High). There are only three of us speaking about the Green Dot resolution asking the City to not grant the zoning departures that Green Dot has requested.  It's me, long-time watchdog, Chris Jackins, and the head of the Washington State Charter Schools Association, Patrick D'Amelio.  (I knew Mr. D'Amelio when he headed the Alliance for Education and Big Brothers and Big Sisters; he's a stand-up guy.)
Read more

Breaking It Down: Where the District Might Close Schools

Update 2: an absolutely fabulous interactive map made by parent Beth Day (@thebethocracy on Twitter - she covers Board meetings and is fun to read).   end of update    Update 1: Mea culpa, I did indeed get Decatur and Thornton Creek mixed up. Thanks to all for the correction. end of update   I suspect some who read this post will be irate. Why do this? Because the district seems very hellbent on this effort with no oversight skid marks from the Board.    To clearly state - I do not believe that closing 20 schools is a good idea. I think they hit on 20 because they thought it might bring in the most savings. But the jury is still out on the savings because the district has not shown its work nor its data. I suspect closing schools and THEN leasing/renting them is the big plan but that means the district really has to keep the buildings up.   But this district, with its happy talk about "well-resourced schools" is NOT acknowledging the pain and yes, grief, that is to come fro
Read more

MEETING CANCELED - Hey Kids, A Meeting with Three(!) Seattle Schools Board Directors

 Update 2: So I have seen a message from President Liza Rankin on why she, Director Evan Briggs, and Director Michelle Sarju backed out of this meeting.  In a nutshell: - She says there was no organization to the meeting which is just not true. They had a moderator lined up and naturally the board members could have set parameters for what to discuss, length of meeting, etc. All that was fleshed out. - She also claimed that if the meeting was PTA sponsored, they needed to have liability insurance to use the school space. Hello? PTAs use school space all the time and know they have to have this insurance.  - She seems to be worried about the Open Public Meetings law. Look, if she has a meeting in a school building on a non-personnel topic, it should be an open meeting. It appears that Rankin is trying, over and over, to narrow the window of access that parents have to Board members. She even says in her message - "...with decisions made in public." Hmmm - She also says that th
Read more