A qualitative evaluation of an Academic Scholarship Program

Since fall 2002 Academic Scholarship Programs have been conducted in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University. The purpose of the programs is to retain and to graduate the participants, to expand their understanding of the engineering profession, and to have the students go right on to graduate school full-time. The Academic Scholarship Programs are open to upper division students who have at least a 3.0 GPA and have unmet financial need. An emphasis is placed on including women and underrepresented minority students. Six meetings are held each semester for the students with assignments designed to make them better students and to have them learn about research and graduate school. One of the assignments for the Spring 09 students was an essay on how the program did or did not help them. In particular they were asked to describe what in the program helped them the most. The students responded with many aspects of the program including: the money, the Guaranteed 4.0 Plan for study skills, the time management schedule, updating their resume with a check list each semester, graduate school encouragement, and the exposure to and interaction with industry representatives. A few students also talked about parts of the program that were not helpful to them. The assignment shows that the program plan is useful to the students and should be continued.