INTRODUCTION
In November, 2015 I got to observe freshman students enrolled in North Carolina State University’s first year engineering program attending a program led by Power America, a company interested in conducting research with the help of NC State Students. This event held both a social aspect through pizza and drinks served an hour before as well as a more formal and informational part of the meeting as Power America presented to students introducing what their company is about and how they are looking forward to working together with students. Being able to observe this community of students in two different social settings was very beneficial to my research and allowed for me to view interactions among the same group of students in settings with varied social expectations allowing for a more complete look into their community.
All first year engineering students at NC State end up spending a lot of time together in class and studying together outside of class because all students “must successfully complete English, calculus, chemistry, physics and introductory engineering and computer courses” (“Freshman Admission”, n.d.). Before joining their desired department, they must also go through another application process and be admitted by their anticipated engineering specificity in order to advance in their degree. Engineering students are grouped together from the very beginning going through a separate application process and attending their own specific engineering freshman orientation dates. All of these different formal divisions, activities done together, and being in all of the same courses ensures that first year engineering students have shared experiences, communication with each other, and certain criteria they must meet forming the foundation of a community.
Many of these interactions and connections between first year engineering students can seem very institutionalized and forced but studies have shown that engineering students are also connected on a deeper level, beyond simply preforming the same tasks. In addition, first year engineering student Jin Gaochen (personal communication, November 10, 2015) reports feeling a sense of community between freshman engineering students after only three months of classes. First year engineers share many similarities that develop long before classes start through sharing largely similar values, life goals, and self perceptions. Self efficacy is defined as “a person’s judgment of his or her ability to perform a task within a specific domain” (Jones, Paretti, Hein, & Knott, 2010, p. 321) and is believed to be an important factor in predicting one’s educational and career success. While undergoing research relating self efficacy and undergraduate engineering students the results revealed that efficacy beliefs “varied little” (Jones et al., 2010, p. 321) and “demonstrated a strong link between self-efficacy and persistence for both men and women.” (Jones et al., 2010, p. 321) Showing that central ideas concerning education and self belief were largely consistent among undergraduate engineering students. While first year engineers are clearly connected to each other through their many distinct similarities in both formal experiences, as mandated by NC State, and personal ideologies, I will walk you through the definition and requirements of a discourse community to discover through my first hand observation and interview if first year engineers operate as their own unique discourse community.
