Camp Ie A Discipline Specific Model For The Recruitment Of Minorities Into Engineering

In spite of progress made over the last 20 years, recruitment and retention of African American students remain a problem at most engineering schools. Many universities have developed programs that seek to introduce pre-college students to the engineering profession early in their high school careers. The University of Louisville is no exception. In collaboration with the local public high school system, the University of Louisville’s Department of Industrial Engineering developed “CAMP IE”. This unique program is a discipline-specific, five week, Saturday morning “camp” for 9 and 10 grade students who have been historically underrepresented in engineering. Given the demographics of Louisville, this program chose to target African American youth. This paper describes how “CAMP IE” was developed, its goals and key elements, and how its principles can be modified to meet the recruitment needs of other engineering colleges.