College of Engineering • College of Human Sciences • College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

The STEM Student Enrollment and Engagement through Connections (SEEC) project seeks to increase the number of engineering graduates at Iowa State University by approximately 120 per year. The means to that end are connections rooted in community: learning communities, community colleges, and Iowa communities. The project is collaborative between Iowa State University (ISU) and Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC). The cornerstone of SEEC is the success of learning communities for recruitment and retention, and the project builds upon Iowa State’s established learning community infrastructure, leadership, and expertise. Retention at DMACC and ISU will be increased by a new learning community model, called a learning village or meta-community. First-year and gateway engineering courses are being reviewed to better engage students, to provide flexibility, and to support transfer students. Working with DMACC and the STEM Pathway project, student-centered advising is being coordinated to broaden the diversity of students enrolled in engineering and to make students aware of the various paths to successfully completing an engineering degree, including transfer from a community college. Students are advised on the range of STEM disciplines. With ISU Extension, we seek to improve the public awareness and understanding of engineering, especially among students and their parents. The methods of the project serve ISU and DMACC in several contexts and will also be adaptable to other institutions.

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This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0653236.
Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.