Preparing Underrepresented Students for Success in Engineering: Results and Lessons Learned from Four Years of the Summer Engineering Institute

Over the last decade, there has been increasingly urgent calls for investment in science and technology education to meet current and future demands for more engineers needed to retain economic competitiveness and innovation capacity of the United States. However, trends in engineering enrollment show that, over the last decade, undergraduate degrees awarded in the fields of engineering have declined from 6.3 to 5.4 percent of the total degrees conferred. An important strategy for increasing the number of future engineers is to engage students from traditionally underrepresented groups in engineering, including women and ethnic minorities. To be successful in expanding the pool of potential engineers, the needs of these underrepresented students have to be addressed. A majority of these students have low-levels of preparation for college-level course work, especially in math and science, and most have little or no pre-college exposure to the engineering profession. In 2009, a small Hispanic-serving community college in the San Francisco Bay Area and a large comprehensive urban university collaborated to develop the Summer Engineering Institute ( SEI), which targets female students and underrepresented ethnic minorities. Funded by a grant from the US Department of Education, the SEI is a two-week residential summer camp that offers students the opportunity to gain insight into the engineering profession and the engineering educational system through a combination of lectures, hands-on laboratory activities, field trips, workshops, panels, and projects. The program also aims to provide students with the skills and resources needed to be successful college students. This paper presents the results and lessons learned from four years of implementation of the SEI, and how the program has succeeded in enhancing interest in engineering among program participants, and in improving persistence and retention among those who have decided to pursue an engineering degree.