Community colleges provide broad access to a college degree due to their less expensive tuition, greater course time offerings, and more open admission policies compared to four-year universities as reported (Juszkiewicz, 2015). These institutions have great potential to diversify who chooses STEM, such as engineering. Such diverse representation is important, because students from different backgrounds can contribute new perspectives that foster creative and innovative approaches to solving problems. However, approximately 40% of the students who enter community college in the U.S. leave before graduation (Xu & Jaggars, 2011). Harnessing the power of social media to reduce attrition, we tested a pilot intervention in which community college students in engineering courses completed a reflection exercise after watching YouTube videos of former engineering students from similar backgrounds who successfully transferred to a four-year college. Quasi-experimental analyses (N = 537) show that students in the intervention received higher engineering course grades and had greater odds of enrolling in an engineering course in the subsequent term compared to those who were not in the intervention. Additionally, we find support for the hypothesis that the intervention has larger benefits for women. Results suggest that hearing from other students about their engineering experience can be a useful tool for improving community college students’ choices and performance.

据报道，与四年制大学相比，社区学院提供了更广泛的获得大学学位的机会，因为它们的学费更便宜，课程时间更长，招生政策更开放（Juszkiewicz，2015）。这些机构具有巨大的潜力，可以使选择 STEM（例如工程学）的学生多样化。这种多样化的代表性很重要，因为来自不同背景的学生可以贡献新的视角，从而培养解决问题的创造性和创新性方法。然而，大约 40% 进入美国社区大学的学生在毕业前就离开了（Xu & Jaggars，2011）。利用社交媒体的力量来减少人员流失，我们测试了一项试点干预措施，其中工程课程的社区学院学生在观看来自类似背景的前工程学生成功转入四年制大学的 YouTube 视频后完成了反思练习。准实验分析（N  = 537）表明，与未参与干预的学生相比，参与干预的学生获得了更高的工程课程成绩，并且在下学期注册工程课程的几率更大。此外，我们发现干预措施对女性有更大益处的假设得到支持。结果表明，听取其他学生的工程经验可以成为改善社区学院学生的选择和表现的有用工具。