The "California Alliance for the Long-term Strengthening of Transfer Engineering Programs" (CALSTEP) program is a collaboration between Cañada College, San Francisco State University School of Engineering, and Los Angeles Pierce College. The project is sponsored by the US Department of Education through the Hispanic-Serving Institution Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (HSI-STEM) program, Award No. P031C110159.
The CALSTEP project promotes an understanding and appreciation of STEM careers through outreach activities for middle school, high school, and community college students. It addresses the main barriers to the retention and success of students in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) through a combination of intensive preparation for college-level work, multiple entry points and accelerated pathways for students into STEM education, and previously proven academic support strategies. The project will strengthen California community college engineering programs through innovative initiatives like the Summer Engineering Teaching Institute that will assist engineering programs in improving teaching effectiveness and efficiency using technology, and through the Joint Engineering Programs that will promote collaboration among community college engineering programs all over the State to better serve their students.
The project builds upon the success of three prior federally funded programs at Cañada: a three-year US Department of Education Minority Science and Engineering Program (MSEIP) cooperative grant, a two-year NSF Innovations in Engineering Education and Curriculum Infrastructure (IEECI) grant, and a three-year NASA Curriculum Improvements Partnership Award for the Integration of Research (CIPAIR) cooperative grant.
