The primary goal of the Scholarships for Academic Success (SAS) Program, funded through an NSF S-STEM grant, was to attract transfer students from regional community colleges and fouryear institutions without engineering and/or computer science programs into the fields of engineering and computer science through an academically competitive financial assistance program. The second goal of the SAS Program was to ensure the success of the scholarship recipients once they arrived on our campus. Because our institution historically enrolls a small percentage of transfer, older-than-average, and other non-traditional students, these students often experience difficulty connecting with their classmates and integrating into the university community. Special programs and events designed to build a cohort of SAS students were intended to provide the students with support services and resources to build a sense of community and to ensure retention through the completion of their degree. SAS Scholars were familiarized with campus resources that provide support, encourage success, and help students improve study skills. Mentoring activities included teaching life and career skills, providing faculty and industry mentors, encouraging students to seek summer internships, and providing them with services, resources, and events to assist them in the transition to engineering and computer science programs at a 4-year university. The introduction of SAS scholars to each other provided the students with an instant support network of classmates and student-mentors. Through career counseling and focused student/faculty interaction, this project was intended to help students complete their degree programs in the shortest time possible. SAS scholarships, totaling $458,600 over 5 years, were awarded to fifty-four academically talented students of limited financial means. Preliminary analysis of retention data indicates that SAS scholars were successful in their engineering and computer science (ECS) majors to a greater degree when compared to traditional students (i.e., students enrolling at our university as freshmen directly after high school graduation) and to transfer students who were not eligible for SAS scholarships (i.e., non-SAS transfer students): Percent retention of SAS scholars in ECS majors was 39% greater than traditional students and 103% greater than non-SAS transfer students. The percentage of SAS scholars who changed their major from ECS to another major at this university was 40% less than the percentage of traditional students and 57% less than the percentage of non-SAS transfer students who changed their major from ECS to another major. The percent drop-out rate for SAS scholars was 61% lower than traditional students and 73% lower than non-SAS transfer students. SAS scholars, regardless of major, graduate from this university at a rate that approaches the university-wide graduation rate, regardless of major.
