Sindia M. Rivera-Jimenez, Ph.D., knows a thing or two about transfer students.
A former community college professor who now teaches at the University of Florida’s Department of Engineering Education (EEd), she has helped many students — including her son — transition into universities and overcome what experts call “transfer shock.”
Now, thanks to a grant and a national best-paper award, she and her team will dig deeper into those challenges. Their three-year research project ultimately will recommend stronger support systems for engineering transfer students.
Rivera-Jimenez recently received a $536,000 National Science Foundation award for her project “An Exploration of Challenges and Self-Adjustment Experiences of Community College Transfer Students in Engineering.”