Student Support Services

Focused Engineering 101 Course:  All engineering majors at USD take ENGR 101 Introduction to Engineering.  For first-year students, this is part of the USD Preceptorial program where students have their academic advisor as the instructor for the course.  In this course, students explore the different majors in engineering offered at USD as well as the engineering design process, fundamentals of engineering graphics, and spreadsheet analysis.  Typically the course is project based.  For example in Fall 2007, LEGO NXT robots are used for the laboratory.  This course has multiple sections of about 20 students.  Transfer students often take this course.  For this project, however, we propose to put all 6 of our S-STEM Scholars into a single section of the course during their first semester at USD for each cohort.  This accomplishes two goals:  1) the Scholars will begin to get to know each other and work together forming relationships that can be built upon in their career at USD and 2) this section of the course could be tailored for these students’ specific needs.  The Director of Engineering Programs has indicated her support for this effort. 

Faculty Mentoring:  Each S-STEM Scholar will be assigned to a faculty mentor upon enrolling at USD.  This mentor will keep in close contact with the student and provide academic advising as well as necessary support.  If possible, the mentor will be in the student’s major.

Peer tutoring/mentor workshop and program:  Students will have the opportunity to serve in mentoring and tutoring roles to other engineering students.  First priority for these positions will be given to students within the S-STEM Scholar transfer student cohorts.  Otherwise, the positions will be filled by scholars from previous grant or other engineering students.

Professional Society Support: This scholar program will encourage students to actively participate in a student chapter of a professional engineering society.  Specifically, the S-STEM Scholar program will pay the fees for each Scholar to become a national member of one of the societies available at USD: Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE), American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), and Society of Women Engineers (SWE).  In addition, the costs for each S-STEM Scholar to attend one national or regional conference will be covered.  These activities are designed to support the professional development of the S-STEM scholars and help integrate them into the USD Engineering community and the larger engineering community.

S-STEM Website: The S-STEM Scholar program will have a dedicated website that will help disseminate to a broader audience worldwide.  The website will serve as the main point of contact between the scholar program, academic institutions, and educational researchers interested in the progress and content of this program.  The website will include ongoing activities, scholar experiences, pictures, assessment and evaluation results, and other information as the program progresses.

S-STEM WebCT Cohort Session:  A dedicated WebCT session will be created each semester for the cohort of scholars.  This session will serve as a main communication tool among Scholars including tools such as: bulletin board, chat room, private e-mail, and calendar in one place, to facilitate interaction between the program team and the Scholars.  In addition, this session could serve as a depository for information related to development workshops and other useful information to enhance the learning and personal development of the cohort. 

S-STEM Scholar Workshops: At least once per semester, we will hold an S-STEM Scholar Workshop.  The workshops will focus on issues of interest and importance for the S-STEM Scholars.  These might include topics such as resume writing, mock-interviews, or how to work a career fair.  The professional staff at USD Career Services will provide assistance with these activities. These activities will also support our Scholars obtaining industry internships.  In addition, we will get suggestions of topics from the Scholars themselves to insure that we are meeting their needs as transfer students.

S-STEM Scholar Social Events:  At least once per semester, we will hold an S-STEM Scholar Social event.  These activities will include food and be designed to build community among the Scholars and faculty mentors. 

S-STEM Scholar Computer Support:  At the beginning of their USD career, each S-STEM Scholar will be given a computer (estimated at $600 per Scholar).  Given the nature of the Engineering curriculum, having a personal computer is essential for academic success.  Providing the S-STEM Scholars with the necessary hardware and guidance about choices of software will help them succeed.