Since 2011, enrollment of first-generation college students in Arizona State University's Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering has grown more than 150 percent, bringing new ideas, perspectives and experiences into engineering education.

However, these laudable advances in enrollment are tempered by the significant drop off in persistence, especially compared to students whose parents have attained bachelor’s degrees. A study examining persistence rates of the class of 2011 found that first-generation students were 20 percent less likely to complete their bachelor’s in engineering than their continuing generation peers. Above: A group of first-generation students pose for a photo during their FSE-100 class. Enrollment of first generation-students has steadily increased in recent years, but retainment remains an issue, with first-gen students 20 percent less likely to complete their degrees in engineering compared to students whose parents attained degrees. But thanks to a recent investment by the National Science Foundation, Arizona State University has embarked on an ambitious project to develop mechanisms, systems and programs to increase persistence of these students as well as cast a wider net to attract underrepresented groups to engineering and STEM careers. Photo by Jessica Hochreiter/ASU   Download Full Image

With the support of a two-year, $300,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, the Fulton Schools is looking to change that pattern by developing and adapting a suite of support systems and introductory programs to not only ensure first-generation student success, but broaden participation of underrepresented groups in engineering.

Fulton Schools Dean and Professor Kyle Squires serves as the principal investigator on the effort, called Engineers from Day One: Fostering Engineering Identity and Support Structures to Promote Entry and Persistence in Engineering for First-Generation Students. Co-PIs include Vice President of Industry Partnerships at Maricopa Community Colleges Maria Reyes, Director of the Fulton Schools Career Center Robin Hammond, Vice Dean of Academic and Student Affairs and Professor Jim Collofello and Tooker Professor and Assistant Dean of Engineering Education Tirupalavanam Ganesh.

“Inclusion is inherent to the DNA of ASU, and we’re very pleased to receive support from the National Science Foundation to continue the important work of drawing engineers from all backgrounds,” Squires said. “Diversity not only builds a healthy, vibrant community, but is an essential ingredient for innovative solutions and impactful change.”

ASU is one of 27 institutions to receive such an award — part of the Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science, known as the INCLUDES program — alongside Boston University, the University of Pittsburgh, Clemson University, the Georgia Department of Education and others. This is the second year of INCLUDES awards, designated one of the “10 Big Ideas for Future NSF Investments.”

ASU is not embarking on this ambitious program alone. Engineers from Day One involves a range of partners, including the Maricopa Community Colleges, K–12 school districts of Chandler, Mesa, Phoenix, Tempe and Tolleson, as well as industry partners Honeywell, Intel and Texas Instruments. The Helios Education Foundation, a philanthropic organization committed to aiding students from underserved populations in Arizona and Florida complete post-secondary education, will serve an advisory role.

“Maricopa Community Colleges are built on a foundation of providing access to higher education for diverse students and we are proud of this alliance with Arizona State University's Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering to expand our efforts to attract more students to engineering programs,” said Maria Harper-Marinick, chancellor of the Maricopa Community Colleges. “We are committed to developing institutionalized responses that will support entry and persistence in engineering of first generation students, women, underrepresented ethnic minorities, and those with socio-economic need.”

Engineers from Day One will involve 500 high school students, 100 community college students working toward associate’s degrees and 200 ASU students enrolled in a four-year engineering program. The project will focus on developing engineering awareness and an identity tied to the discipline, as well as contextualizing engineering’s personal and social relevance.

“What if students don’t even know what an engineer does? What if you don’t know that people like you are engineers, and you too can aspire to become one?” Ganesh asked. “You’ve never even thought about it or explored engineering, and if you have, it doesn’t have any connection to people like you or people in your neighborhood. How do you make that change?”

Engineers from Day One seeks to catalyze that change through four different programs: Hermanas: Diseña Tu Futuro Conference, Young Engineers Shape the World, Engineering Projects in Community Service and Engineering Futures. Each program is designed to develop awareness and interest in engineering, as well as building systems that can respond to the unique needs of first-generation students at various educational junctures.

Hermanas is a Maricopa Community Colleges event that promotes STEM educational pathways to young women historically underrepresented in these fields. The project aims to adapt the long-running conference from a one-day event into a series of experiences to encourage Latinas to explore attending college and financial aid while breaking down stereotypes about STEM careers. ASU will provide mentors for the program, which plans to serve 100 high school students a year.

Young Engineers Shape the World, or YESW, is newly developed program designed to serve 150 high school girls over the course of two years. Eight ASU undergraduate mentors will guide high schoolers through planned exploratory activities, stereotype confrontation, industry mentorship and ASU site visits for 60 contact hours per year.

“Basically, it’s a way to get high school women to explore engineering by interacting with undergraduate students in an informal setting,” Ganesh said. “By the end of it, our desired outcome is that students make the choice to enter engineering, because they’ve explored the various majors we offer and have a better idea what those majors could lead to.”

Engineering Projects in Community Service, a popular social engagement program within ASU and area high schools, will be further expanded to more high schools as well as Maricopa County community colleges.

“It’s a way to show the social relevance of engineering, because you’re solving problems for the greater good,” Ganesh said. “How can you serve your community, be it your school, your neighborhood or even the global community?”

EPICS pairs student teams with local partners in need of an engineering design solution and is already supported by ASU in the Chandler, Mesa, Phoenix and Tolleson school districts. It will expand to Tempe as well as Maricopa Community Colleges, with the support of ASU undergraduate and community college mentors.

EPICS will be integrated into introductory engineering courses in community colleges, designed to present engineering as a socially relevant and beneficial discipline from the start.

“If we could show the social relevance in those early courses, it could possibly drive some students to transfer to ASU and continue their engineering education,” Ganesh said.

However, simply opening up engineering pathways and aiding the pursuit of a bachelor’s degree is only part of the equation. Once underserved, first-generation students arrive at four-year university, aforementioned persistence rates steadily decline.

To combat this, the fourth program, Engineering Futures, is specifically designed to support first-gen students navigating the university. Through the creation of student cohorts, the program constructs support systems with first-generation junior and senior counselors aiding in the development of engineering identity as well retention advisors to monitor progress.

“Inclusion and access are the two hallmarks of what ASU does,” Ganesh said. “We pride ourselves on how many students we include and how we help them be successful with high-quality education. But it’s not enough to include them, we also have to help them become successful. This is a small investment to test out these ideas on how we can build supportive networks and resources.”

Through advancing the success and persistence of first-generation students, researchers engaged in the study hope to create a model for use elsewhere. The combined effort of the Fulton Schools, Maricopa Community Colleges, partnered K–12 school districts, industry collaborators and the Helios Foundation could serve as a resource for the expansion of the programs, systems and mechanisms of Engineers from Day One to include individuals from all walks of life in engineering.

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1744539. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

A recent $1 million investment from Intel Products Vietnam helped Arizona State University to sponsor six Vietnamese scholars for one-year master’s fellowships to speed the transformation of Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) into an innovative Smart City by 2025.

Facilitated by Arizona State University's Higher Engineering Education Alliance Program known as HEEAP, the Intel Grand Challenge Master’s Fellows began their studies within graduate engineering programs at ASU’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering in August 2017. Six Vietnamese scholars arrived at Arizona State University in August to study in Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering master’s programs as part of the Intel Grand Challenge Master’s Fellowship program facilitated by ASU’s Higher Engineering Education Alliance Program. Pictured are five of the students arriving at Phoenix International Airport on August 7. Photo courtesy of Angela Harguess Download Full Image

Nguyen Quang Hung is studying chemical engineering, Dao Doan Duy is studying environmental resource management, Hoang Thi Khanh Ha and Ho Hoang Hai Nam are studying materials science and engineering, Le Phuoc Tri is studying solar energy engineering and commercialization, and Pham Quoc Thai is studying civil, environmental and sustainable engineering.

“I chose chemical engineering to dig deeper into the industry and learn more about using chemistry to solve environmental and energy problems,” said Hung, who studied analytical chemistry at Vietnam National University Hanoi University of Science prior to this fellowship. “I hope that I can manage to help Ho Chi Minh City to build modern systems regarding wastewater treatment, air quality control and food quality control.”

As part of their efforts to advance Ho Chi Minh City to become a Smart City, fellows will work on an applied project to develop their skills. After they finish the program by August 2018, fellows will return to Vietnam and begin work on Smart City projects for the HCMC government for at least three years.

Editor's note: This summer, Arizona State University School of International Letters and Cultures Professor Oana Almasan participated in an event in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, to share her experience as an expert in designing participatory processes, and help youth workers from seven European cities better understand what it takes to design and implement successful participatory projects for involving youth in local governance, and build stronger and more self-reliant communities. Here she reflects on the event.

The workshop I attended shows an increased interest in building strong, self-reliant youth communities across Europe, able to further the democratic principles of EU. It was part of a EU-financed project meant to develop a platform for youth participation at the EU level. Members of the youth workshop to encourage participatory policy-making. Download Full Image

My role there as a trainer was to help youth workers from 9 European countries (10 cities) to understand how participatory mechanisms could benefit their communities and how to plan and design such processes adapted to their specific cultural and societal needs, in such a way that they would actually increase their chances of success.

Studying how culture impacts societies helps you understand how promoting some specific practices enables the development of democratic behaviors. This is the field of public participation. I studied, in the beginning, the specific culture and cultural processes in Romania, right after the fall of communism, when the main preoccupations in the public discourse was to get super-fast to the state of established democracy, so that everybody's life would be better off.

Despite such great hopes and expectations, if you do not take culture into account in designing public policies and local/national strategic development plans, those plans and policies have really high chances of failure. I designed the first collaborative-based participatory budgeting process in a former communist country, eventually drawing the interest of the World Bank. Then, I got to share my experience with countries with similar cultures, with other European countries, and even with students here at ASU.

The summer workshop was the first step in giving 10 European cities spread over 9 countries a better chance in having their youth heard and actively involved in local/central European policy. This would also mean that more and more local/central governments would actually start recognizing the need of employing culturally-specific tools in public decision-making for reaching common goals such as democracy and economic development.

Every two years or so, ASU organizes a conference on participatory democracy. Listening to the stories of European youth, I realized how great it would be to have them shared with our SILC students as well. So, while telling them about the participatory democracy conference that could help them advance their plans in the public sector, I was inviting them to consider a humanities approach to their quest through a potential round table event at SILC. They can share their stories and hear others' stories of resolve and identity. There is interest in it, maybe we can make it work.

This profile is part of a series highlighting the personal stories and achievements of Thunderbird students. Want to read more? Subscribe to the Knowledge Network newsletter.

When the twin towers fell on Sept. 11, 2001, millions of people watched in horror from living rooms, offices, airports or anywhere a TV could be found. Among those watching: a schoolgirl in Iran named Fatima Heravy. That day would change the course of her life. Fatima Heravy '17, Afghanistan, Thunderbird Master of Arts in Global Affairs and Management. Download Full Image

Heravy's parents had fled Afghanistan amid the Soviet invasion and war that dragged on from 1979 to 1989 and led to the Taliban takeover in 1996. She was born and raised in Iran as a refugee, but that was never home.

“We always had a very strong attachment to Afghanistan,” said Heravy, who graduated this May with a Master of Arts in Global Affairs and Management from Thunderbird Global School of Management. “Being a refugee, you never have the peace of mind that you are in a safe situation. You always think, ‘This is not my home.’”

Her family dreamed of returning to Afghanistan. “It’s so funny because my parents would work so hard to buy things to take to Afghanistan,” she said. “‘We need this door, we need this window, we need this frame.’ That was the big activity, just thinking about what they needed for building a house in Afghanistan.”

‘Dream big, achieve big’

During her childhood in Iran, Heravy absorbed the values of her parents. “Living that hard life and seeing my parents working super hard to make better lives and a future for their four children — that has always pushed me forward, made me a stronger girl,” she says. “I wanted to be independent. I wanted to make a difference. I wanted to be someone who is useful.”

Despite their struggles, Heravy's parents promised she could achieve those goals.

“My parents taught us that education is the only thing that can put you at same level as others,” she explained. “So I always studied so hard that I was always among the top five in my class.” 

“Being a refugee, you never have the peace of mind that you are in a safe situation. You always think, ‘This is not my home.’” 

Heravy gives much of the credit to her mother.

“My mom is my role model and probably the best leader I’ve ever known,” she said. “I remember once she told me years ago — and this is from someone who lived in an isolated area of Afghanistan, lived the refugee life and never went to school — ‘If you don’t dream big, you’re not going to achieve big.’”

Today, Heravy and her siblings are the family’s first generation to attain college degrees. 

‘The Taliban were gone’

Even after the Soviet invasion had ended, Heravy's family remained discouraged by the situation in Afghanistan, especially when the Taliban came to power in the late 1990s.

“Every day, I would come home from school, and the first thing I did was watch the TV news to see what was happening in Afghanistan,” she said. “I didn’t live in Afghanistan during the Taliban, but I felt it.”

“There was no hope for going back,” she said. “Nothing was getting better; the Taliban were getting stronger every day.”

But 9/11 changed everything. “I remember I went home from school and I was just standing there watching TV, and I saw the twin towers — they went down. I said, ‘What’s happening?’”

In the turbulent days that followed, the United States set its military sights on Afghanistan to find and destroy al-Qaeda training hubs and hideouts. The U.S.-led coalition targeted the Taliban regime for harboring terrorists, and the regime collapsed.

“The Taliban were gone,” she said. “In just three months, everything had changed. There was hope for us to go back, finally.”

To be sure the country was safe and stable, Heravy's father decided the family should wait a few years before returning. Her brother returned first after being accepted into an engineering college (today, he is a civil engineer). And in 2006, the rest of her family finally packed up to leave Iran.

It was time to go home.

First taste of Thunderbird: Project Artemis

By 2008, Heravy was working with USAID in Afghanistan and had her first encounter with Thunderbird.

“I received a mass email about this project. It said, ‘If you have a business, if you are an entrepreneur, this is an educational program for Afghan businesswomen you can apply to.’”

It was Project Artemis, a Thunderbird initiative that trains Afghan women entrepreneurs in business skills. Since 2005, more than 75 women have graduated. They run successful businesses, creating more than 2,500 jobs and mentoring more than 15,000 fellow Afghans.

“I had no idea even how to start a business,” she said. “This program put that idea in my mind, so I applied.” She was not accepted but was encouraged to seek more experience.

“That pushed me toward leaving Afghanistan and going after an education,” she said. Heravy began applying for schools and scholarships in the United States. “I got the results and my letter said ‘Congratulations’ — I read it but I could not believe I got admission.” 

“Education is the only power that you have.”

“My mom was so happy, but at the same time, I knew that inside she was sad,” Heravy remembered. The moment was bittersweet, but there was no question her parents would let her go to the United States. “My parents knew how valuable education is. Especially since my country was going through many decades of war. Education is the only power that you can have.”

‘My heart is happy’

In 2011, Heravy was on her way to the U.S. to pursue undergraduate studies in business administration. But she struggled to adjust during freshman year.

“I thought, ‘I can’t wait to finish these four years and go back home. It’s so hard to live here by myself.’”

She noticed a divide between international students and American students, and it bothered her. “We never felt included. No one ever tried to connect.”

“I had a couple of friends who were thinking of a PhD or master’s degree. And I was like, ‘Are you crazy? Go home.’ But by my sophomore year, I was thinking about a master’s degree. I don’t know how that happened,” she said with a laugh.

Aiming to combine international affairs and business, her online research led right to Thunderbird’s Master of Arts in Global Affairs and Management and the SHARE Fellowship, a Thunderbird alumni-funded program that provides full-tuition scholarships for high-potential students from emerging markets.

Heravy had come full circle. Thanks to Project Artemis, she already knew of Thunderbird as a positive force back home.

“I thought, ‘This is exactly what I want.’ I had no idea back in 2008 that one day I would be here studying for my master’s.”

“My heart is happy. I’m thousands of miles away from home, and I can still do something for my country.”

“Now that I’m here, I know personally three Artemis graduates. I am proud of them, and they are proud of me. And they are all successful. It is a very good program. And I really appreciate that someone here in the U.S. does things for women in Afghanistan. It means a lot. My heart is happy. I’m thousands of miles away from home, and I can still do something for my country.”

During her degree studies, Heravy supported Project Artemis and other programs like it as a student worker in the Thunderbird for Good division.

‘Included and appreciated’

Heravy's experience at Thunderbird started off on a perfect note.

“I remember walking toward my room. A couple of guys and girls were making BBQ, and they were like, ‘Oh hi — come join us. And I did not know them, but they were so warm and welcoming that I felt, ‘I’m in heaven.’”

“I always feel included. I always feel appreciated,” Heravy said of Thunderbird. “Being from Afghanistan, a refugee, coming from a war-torn country, it’s not embarrassing here. This is not something I should be ashamed of.”

 “There are no borders. We are all human beings.”

“Before, I was just different from others. But here, I’m actually appreciated for being different. Not only do I love the diversity of the students, I love the diversity of the staff and faculty. I’m so happy I have professors from France, India, Korea, Nigeria, U.S., Australia — it’s just awesome,” she said. “It’s not only the numbers that make it international, it’s the actual people — the life here.”

“I am learning here and seeing the world differently. Going back, I can transfer that knowledge, I can encourage my people to learn and see the world through a different lens. Thunderbird gave me that lens.”

Hopes and fears

Heravy would love to return to Afghanistan but worries about her country’s dangerous decline.

“When we went back in 2006, I was really hopeful that everything was getting better — we had a government, people were out and about, we had businesses and an economy. But it’s kind of slowed down, and now it’s getting worse.”

As she considers her family’s future, Heravy's voice cracks with emotion: “It’s scary, and I’m sad for my nephews and nieces there. My sister moved to Germany last year. This is hard,” she said. “And I’m here, and I don’t know when I’ll go back.”

At the very time her sister’s family was migrating, one of Heravy's classes was discussing the Syrian refugee crisis.

“It was super hard when my sister moved to Germany — she went through the refugee journey that you see in the media. It took them a month,” she said. “So I was going through that but just not sharing it in class.”

“It was so sad, but I am happy that my nephews can see the world now,” she said. “I’m happy they can play soccer with other children their age, that they can understand that there are oceans — they see things that they would never have seen inside Afghanistan.” 

“There are many Afghans who have big dreams, but mostly we want just a peaceful life.”

“Back home, we always have tension, anxiety, war. We struggle between life and death. Nothing in between,” she said. “There are many who definitely have big dreams, but mostly we want just a peaceful life.”

“I have a big dream. I want to work for a president’s office. I’ve always wanted to be a policy adviser,” she said. “Maybe I’ll get to Parliament. I want to work for the government. I can do a lot more for my home country. Hopefully one day.”

As for her time at Thunderbird, Heravy made “the most out of these differences and the diversity.”  

“Just being kind and open to other people and cultures," she said. "Because at the end, the whole world is like one thing. It’s our planet. There are no borders. We are all human beings.” 

Summer is a great time for students to get out of the classroom and explore new things. For K-12 students who spend a week of their summer with Arizona State University’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering, that means exploring science and engineering fields and life on a college campus.

The Fulton Schools Summer Academy actively engages participants in hands-on STEM activities and empowers them to seek out other STEM opportunities beyond their summer experience at ASU. Two students have fun while learning the importance of developing renewable technologies at one of 18 camps offered by Arizona State University’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering in summer 2017. Hundreds of students from elementary school through high school learned technical skills and got a glimpse into the life of an engineer and a college student. Photographer: Marco-Alexis Chaira/ASU Download Full Image

“Fulton Schools Summer Academy provides a unique opportunity for students to come to campus and see themselves as an ASU student and explore a wide variety of camps, from robots to apps to solar energy to physics to coding,” said Hope Parker, associate director of engineering K-12 outreach. “It really gives them a chance to dive into something they’re interested in, whether they know a lot about it or not.”

In 2017, the program offered 18 total camps with 33 sections that vary from half-day camps to full-day camps to overnight camps.

These camps are split between sessions created and taught by Fulton Schools faculty, and camps created by Parker’s K-12 Engineering Education Department team and taught by Phoenix-area elementary, middle and high school teachers.

This year’s 33 Summer Academy camp sections were nearly full — some with wait lists — and attendance nearly doubled since last year. More than 850 students attended camp, up from 500 students in 2016.

“I think we’re starting to build a brand around our camps and our department,” Parker said. “A lot of people didn’t know we existed and now that we have all these programs and people have heard of us through various channels our camp attendance has grown.”

Bringing a diverse group of students together to learn

Inclusion and access are an important missions for the university, so Parker’s team strives to bring a wide range of students together at Summer Academy camps.

“There’s something to be said about having students from all different backgrounds learning from, working with and teaching each other,” Parker said.

One way they help bring in underrepresented students — including those from rural or low-income families as well as female and minority groups — is through scholarships. The Summer Academy gives back a third of its revenue to scholarships to help students be able to attend summer camps run by the K-12 Engineering Education team.

“We make a big push to ensure all students, regardless of their backgrounds and financial need, are able to come to camp,” Parker said.

The Fulton Schools Summer Academy partners with school districts to bring students to camp for a reduced rate from these scholarships. This year they partnered with the Isaac School District, Mesa School District and Creighton Elementary School District in Phoenix, and in the past Alhambra Elementary School District, to help sponsor students to attend camps.

Camps provide hands-on engineering introductions

One notable camp offered by the Summer Academy is the National Summer Transportation Institute (NSTI), a free, residential camp sponsored by the Federal Highway Authority Civil Rights Division and the Arizona Department of Transportation. As part of the week-long NSTI camps, aimed toward rural, first-generation and underrepresented student groups, high schoolers get an experience of being a student on campus as they live in a dorm at ASU’s Polytechnic campus and explore engineering disciplines with faculty and industry mentors.

“I think NSTI really does a lot for our community because it doesn’t allow cost to be an issue,” Parker said. “It really focuses on helping those students in 10th to 12th grade see what engineering really looks like.”

Jennifer Velez, NSTI coordinator, emphasizes the collaborative efforts to make this experience possible for these students.

“NSTI is one of those programs that is a truly collaborative effort,” Velez said. “The success relies on donations of not only funds, but also time and expertise from so many partners around the valley – all in an effort to bring meaningful learning experiences to Arizona high school students.”

Daniel Hood, an earth and space science teacher at Mesa High School and NSTI instructor, says the camp emphasizes meeting professionals at their workplaces, whether that’s at ASU, Mesa Gateway Airport or out on a civil engineering construction site — a unique opportunity for him and the students.

“It gives students a hands-on chance to meet professionals in the field who are doing the work currently,” Hood said. “These opportunities are sometimes tough to find on a classroom because you can only go on so many field trips in a year, and we take them on 10 or 11 in the course of a week.”