The METS project-Maricopa Engineering Transition Scholars -is a two-year pilot collaboration between Arizona State University (ASU) and MaricopaCounty Community College District (MCCCD) funded by the National Science Foundation. The project is designed to 1) recruit, 2) retain and 3) graduate engineering transfer students. The project targets MCCCD women and underrepresented minority students.The research-grounded project activities were designed based on analysis of best practices piloted over many years at both MCCCD and ASU. Three of the METS activities include: Be an Engineer event designed to interest students in engineering by allowing them to participate in "hands-on" engineering activities at local community colleges, Pizza with a Professor to allow students to interact with an ASU professor, and METS workshops on survival strategies for students who have transferred from a community college to the ASU Fulton School of Engineering.The paper discusses what we have learned to date about the METS activities which are the most effective to assist community college students who transition into engineering.METS activities also assist community college students transferring from a two-year community college to a 4-year engineering program at ASU. In addition, the paper provides an analysis of community college students seeking engineering degrees by demographics, motivation, and needs and provides trends in enrollment, retention, and graduation.

Maricopa Engineering Transition Scholars (METS), funded by NSF, is a collaborative project between Arizona State University and five Maricopa Community Colleges. The project aims to increase the recruitment and retention from untapped labor pools in community colleges into university engineering programs. This paper describes the formation and early work of a two-year pilot collaboration between Arizona State University and Maricopa Community Colleges to build a seamless system that interests, enrolls, retains, and graduates women and underrepresented minorities in engineering degree programs.

Maricopa Engineering Transition Scholars (METS), funded by the National Science Foundation, is a collaborative project between the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering at Arizona State University and five community colleges in the Maricopa County Community College District. The project has two main goals. The first is to increase the interest in engineering and computer science by students (especially women and underrepresented minorities) at the community colleges, to ease the transition of such students from the community college to the university, and to retain and to graduate engineering community college transfer students through events on all six campuses. The second goal is to build a model collaboration between a university and a community college system for engineering students. This paper will describe the activities that have been implemented, including lessons learned to improve the programs. The programs include introductory "Be An Engineer" events at the community college, follow-on workshops at the University, a compact bridge/transition workshop, an orientation presentation for transition students, a mentoring program for recent and future transfers, and the establishment of a METS Center in the Fulton School of Engineering to support Fulton community college transfer students with a place to find support, to study, and to network. Additional activities at the community colleges include working with the faculty and going into the upper level math, chemistry, biology, and physics classes to talk with students and encourage them to consider engineering. Modules have been developed and are being pilot tested in these classrooms as another tool to encourage students to learn about engineering and increase interest in engineering as a career. Lessons have been learned in how to contact students for events, how to get information from the students who attend, and how to be flexible with student schedules. The paper will also discuss the joint administration of the program with different management systems and styles in each of the six institutions in the program. Lessons have been learned in constructing a functional management structure, in scheduling faculty and staff from the institutions to participate in the activities, and in scheduling professional engineers for panels.