Four Years Of Helping Underrepresented Students Succeed In Engineering

The Michigan Tech GUIDE (Graduate and Undergraduate Initiative for Development and Enhancement) began in the Fall of 2002. This NSF funded program helps engineering students from underrepresented groups succeed academically through mentoring, engineering seminars, and career development initiatives. During the grant period, over 70 undergraduate and graduate students have participated in the program. From the beginning of the program, the GUIDE undergraduates have out performed the average College of Engineering (COE) student in several ways (See Table below): • They have participated in campus activities at a higher rate than the university average; • They have obtained co-ops at rates exceeding the national and Michigan Tech averages; • They have initiated a service component to the program that was not in the grant proposal. GUIDE and COE Participation Undergraduate GUIDE Scholars COE Work Study 57% 45% Co-Op (National Average: 9%) 15% 12% Study Abroad 2% 2% Enterprise 20% 10% Academically, the GUIDE scholars have performed at the same level or better as the COE. This finding was surprising because many of the GUIDE undergraduates faced academic challenges when they started engineering school. For example, a higher percentage of the GUIDE first year students were not ready to take Calculus. They also had lower ACT/SAT scores than the average first year engineering student. This paper will briefly describe the program. Its main focus will be outlining the successes of the program through the presentation of program data and will hypothesize why these successes have occurred.