Leveraging students to help students succeed

This paper discusses a unique effort to help students succeed by bringing together the entire spectrum of engineering interest from pre-college students aspiring to enroll in an engineering program, to undergraduate and graduate engineering students, to practising engineers functioning as "engineers-in-residence". The physical facility provides laboratory space for freshman as well as senior design projects. Pre-college students have the opportunity to interact and participate with freshmen on their projects. Freshmen have the opportunity to interact with seniors on their design projects. Seniors have the opportunity to seek help from graduate students or, in turn, give help to undergraduate students in their projects. The engineer-in-residence provides practical input to all student efforts. This creates a sense of community for students where they are also assigned a group of engineering and technology faculty and counselors who provide advising and mentoring to ensure their success, as well as help them to make the right choices for their careers. Another piece of this effort is the engineering career management center that provides placement services for full time, part time and coop students. This paper describes the resources and programs implemented to foster student success at Old Dominion University; and outlines the assessment plan the authors have designed to evaluate their effectiveness.