Browsing by Author "Waller, Tremayne"

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    A Mixed Method Approach for Assessing the Adjustment of Incoming First-Year Engineering Students in a Summer Bridge Program
    Waller, Tremayne (Virginia Tech, 2009-07-20)
    For nearly half a century, institutions of higher education have implemented bridge programs in order to increase the retention and graduation rates of at-risk students (Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005). In fact, summer bridge programs (SBPs), which typically occur prior to a student's freshman fall term, are among the oldest strategies used to improve college retention rates (Garcia, 1991). Surprisingly, even though SBPs are widely acknowledged by both students and program administrators to be beneficial, there is very little empirical evidence assessing their effectiveness (Garcia, 1991; Kluepfel,1994; Pascarella & Terenzini; Rita and Bacote,1997; Ackerman 1990; Gandara & Maxwell-Jolly, 1999). This study, therefore, used a mixed methods approach to investigate the various adjustment issues of participants versus non-participants in a summer bridge program for engineering students at a predominantly White institution (PWI) in the mid-southeastern region of the United States. Specifically, the Academic, Social, Personal-Emotional, and Goal Commitment/Institutional Attachment subscales of the Student Adaptation to College Questionnaire (SACQ) were utilized (Baker & Siryk, 1999) for this purpose. One important finding that the SACQ revealed was that the personal-emotional scale was significant for gender since scores for men were higher than for females. The Summer Bridge Inventory (SBI) that was employed in this research also revealed that summer bridge participants and the director of support programs shared similar opinions about the strengths and weaknesses of the program and its related activities. In conclusion, college administrators and directors of summer support programs should carefully assess programmatic outcomes to ensure that their institutions' SBPs provided the needed supports that will enhance the retention and graduation rates of at-risk students in engineering.
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    The Pact: A framework for retaining 1st year African American Engineering Men
    Waller, Tremayne; Artis, Sharnnia; Watford, Bevlee A. (American Society for Engineering Education, 2007)
    In 2001, the National Science Foundation (NSF) reported that 8.1% of the total science and engineering degrees offered at the baccalaureate level were awarded to African-Americans. In 2004, Caucasian men composed of 69.3% of the science and engineering degrees whereas African-American men accounted for 5.9%.1 African-American men are still disproportionately represented in the engineering and science fields. In order to address this need, Virginia Tech’s College of Engineering has developed The VT PACT, a retention program for first-year African- American men in engineering. The purpose of this paper is two-fold: 1) to discuss how the book titled, The Pact, written by Drs. Sampson Davis, George Jenkins, and Rameck Hunt was used as a framework to develop the The VT PACT and 2) to discuss the impact of The VT PACT for the 2005-2006 academic year and the 2006 fall semester.2 The researchers provide brief background on statistics for African-American men pursuing degrees in engineering, an overview of retention programs geared toward African-American men and an overview of the book, The Pact. Following the overview of The Pact, this paper explains the process used to align The Pact as a framework to set a pact among first-year African-American men in engineering. Then the paper concludes with how The VT PACT impacted the first-year African American males in engineering for the 2005-2006 academic year and the 2006 fall semester and recommendations for future VT PACT cohorts.