The Hostos Community College Joint Dual Engineering Degree Program with The City College of New York's Grove School of Engineering

Institution
CUNY Hostos Community College
State
New York
Academic Level
Associate
Issue Area
Academic Program
Key Personnel
Program Focus
Dual Degree/Dual Credit/Early College High School

Overview

Hostos Community College (HCC), a Hispanic-Serving Institution located in the South Bronx, established a successful Joint Dual (JD) Engineering Degree Program with The City College of New York’s Grove School of Engineering (GSoE) of CUNY. The primary mission of the program is to provide a strong foundation of knowledge in science and mathematics for their multicultural and underrepresented student population as well as provide them with a high-quality general education needed for the training of future engineers. The Program goals are to better prepare students to earn advanced degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields, and to increase the number of underrepresented students, particularly Latinos and Black, who earn associate and baccalaureate degrees in STEM fields, especially in engineering.

Program Description

One of HCC-GSoE partnership’s major achievements has been the creation of a viable pipeline from the South Bronx to Engineering Programs of leading four-year institutions and graduate schools. Key interventions that promote high transfer/graduation rates of JD engineering students include a robust HCC-GSoE curriculum alignment, excellent HCC-GSoE communication, well-organized network of tutoring, mentoring, STEM Boot Camps, and undergraduate research programs, and requirements to take engineering classes at GSoE (ePermit) before transferring. The Engineering Program also provides a series of quality curricular and co-extra-curricular activities, as well as an advisement/mentoring model that nurtures the transition from a community college to a four-year institution.

Outcome

  • The current three-year graduation rate for students in the JD Engineering Program per major is higher or similar than the institutional average for STEM majors of 25%. For students starting out at Calculus I or higher the rate is closer to ~40%.
  • Over the last five years, the number of graduates has increased significantly, with fewer than 10 graduates in the early years of the program (2004-2007) to well over 20 graduates per year in the last 5 years. As of AY2019-20, 267 students have graduated with an AS in Engineering. (~48% Latinos)