Student Success through Service: Creating Connections with the Community Dr. Waded Cruzado

1. Student Success through Service: Creating Connections with the Community Dr. Waded Cruzado President Campus Compact Presidents Leadership Summit 2010 October 13, 2010

2. Montana State University One University • 4 campuses Bozeman Billings Great Falls Havre • 7 Experimental Agricultural Centers • 55 Extension County Offices

3. American Indian Communities

4. Student Success 74.2% FTFTFTF, 2009 cohort 47.1% 6-year grad for 2004 cohort 2122 Students in 2010 cohort (up from 1801 last year)

6. “Designing Our Community” Program Goals • Goal 1: Recruitment • Increase the motivation and pre-entry academic preparation of Native American students. • Goal 2:Retention • Help shape the engineering, engineering technology, and computer science workforce by increasing the number of Native American students graduating from the College of Engineering. • Goal 3: Professional Development • Improve access to quality engineering and technology to rural and underserved populations by returning highly educated professionals to these communities.

7. “Designing Our Community”Seminar Background • 1-credit seminar • Building community (same place and time/week) • Encouraging mentoring • Highlighting support programs • Engaging in professional development Problem: redundancy for upper classmen

8. “Designing Our Communities”Seminar Objectives • Utilize the skills of each team member to deliver a one-of-a-kind product. • Refine the ability to communicate, plan, execute, and resolve conflict in a team. • Have a better understanding of how engineering/computer science can meet society’s needs. • Network with peers, professionals and mentors. • Evaluate professional/personal strengths and weaknesses.

9. Why American Indians and service learning in engineering? • Service learning • encourages responsibility • engages students with their community • provides leadership development • promotes further education • Service learning in engineering • enhances motivation • develops meaningful connections with peers, faculty, staff • broadens citizenship • fosters design experience, teamwork, communication skills

13. Service Learning Projects • Spring ‘06 - Develop an engineering related activity for 8th grade math • Spring ‘07 - Participate as a project team in one of four community projects • Spring ‘08 – Research and write unfunded, undone Indian Health Service Projects for senior design capstone courses • Spring ‘09 – Feasibility study for new reservation high school on alternative energy investment • Spring ‘10 – Boys and Girls club energy and utility assessment on Northern Cheyenne reservation

14. Persistence for American Indian students in service learning • Persistence: American Indian students retained in engineering from Fall to Fall semester. • Service Learning (SL): students successfully passing a service learning course. • No SL: students not taking or not passing a SL course.

18. Engineers Without Borders at MSU

22. Next steps: Better tracking of student service service learning how these activities impact retention rates of students in all demographics