Technical Outreach Community Help: An Engineering Outreach Mentoring Program For Minorities

Providing exposure, stimulating enthusiasm, training, promoting the value of engineering, and mentoring minority K-12 students, as a means to increasing STEM participation is the primary goal of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) Technical Outreach Community Help (TORCH) program. The program has taken advantage of its unique opportunity to increase the number of minority students that are exposed to engineering through an outreach and mentorship model using the face of NSBE’s collegiate and alumni members. Utilization of formal and informal environments, with African American mentors in engineering provides a unique experience for participants to discover the field and explore the disciplines. The combination of mentors who share ethnic background, similar experiences, and the actual content of the program help to diminish the barrier between minority K-12 students and engineering. This paper will cover the design, content, and assessment of the TORCH program, as well as discuss the program’s progress and future.