An Innovative Program To Support Undergraduate Engineering Students From Underrepresented Groups

In the Fall of 2002, the Graduate, Undergraduate Initiative for Development and Enhancement (GUIDE) program was started at Michigan Technological University. GUIDE’s major goal is to provide first year engineering students from underrepresented groups with skills to succeed academically. To meet this objective, the program provides first year students with: • Undergraduate and graduate mentors • Seminars with Engineering Faculty where various aspects of engineering career options are presented • Career development workshops to develop interviewing skills, resumés and cover letters • Academic scholarships to help with tuition expenses (Undergraduate scholars receive an annual scholarship of $2,500 for two years; graduate scholars are awarded a $3,125 scholarship.) In the Fall, the first year students are placed in teams with a second year student and a Masters student. The sophomore mentor is a person who participated in the GUIDE program the previous year and successfully completed their first year of engineering school. The graduate student mentor provides mentoring to both undergraduates and is the team leader. Throughout the year, these student/mentor teams meet weekly at the seminars and socially. The engineering seminars provide the GUIDE scholars with opportunities to meet faculty from different engineering departments. These contacts are a way for first year students to become acquainted with faculty in an informal setting. They also provide a contact person when students have questions regarding a given discipline. The topics for the seminars focus on different aspects of engineering careers (i.e.: engineering consulting, graduate school, undergraduate research opportunities, managing your career and personal life, working in industry, engineering for social change, engineering in your community). The seminars are informal and students are encouraged to ask questions and to give comments. The career development workshops are designed to give students skills they need to obtain summer internships or co-ops. The income from these jobs helps the students fund their education after they have completed the GUIDE program. This paper details the GUIDE program and outlines how the students have benefited from the program during its first year. P ge 981.1 Proceedings of the 2004 American Society for Engineering Educations Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2004, American Society for Engineering Education Introduction Going to college is a difficult transition for any first year student. For minorities and women engineering students, attending a university where there are few underrepresented students can cause additional problems and stress, as well as feelings of isolation. Difficulties with the transition to college, when coupled with financial worries, lead to attrition for many of these students. Michigan Technological University's College of Engineering has approximately 3700 students; minorities and women together represent less than 30% of this population. Nationally, there is a gap between the retention rates of minority and women students in engineering and non-minority male students. At Michigan Technological University (MTU), the first year retention rate was 76% for the 1999-2000 academic year for women, minorities and overall. However, women and minorities comprised only 23% and 6%, of the student body, respectively. The retention rates for women and minority engineering students from sophomore through senior year at MTU are lower than those for non-minority males, mirroring national trends. Since women and minorities make up only a fraction of the students in the College of Engineering, it is likely that they must deal with a myriad of social and personal issues such as isolation, campus climate, lack of role models, hesitation in seeking academic assistance, and inadequate financial resources in addition to the demands of a rigorous curriculum. In the Fall of 2002, the Graduate, Undergraduate Initiative for Development and Enhancement (GUIDE) program was established at MTU. The GUIDE program is funded by the National Science Foundation (DUE-0220500) and is intended to help underrepresented students succeed in engineering. To accomplish this, the GUIDE program provides academic scholarships, undergraduate and graduate mentors, engineering seminars, and career development workshops. These activities help counteract the “three sources of student departure: academic difficulties, the inability of individuals to resolve their educational and occupational goals, and their failure to become or remain incorporated in the intellectual and social life of the institution.” Ultimately the GUIDE program will increase the number of technologically prepared workers to meet the increasing demands of American industry.