Creating community outreach partnerships that help improve the pipeline of underrepresented minorities in engineering

Abstract

The Center for Student Success (CSS) is designed to improve the recruitment and retention of women and underrepresented minorities in the College of Science and Engineering at Loyola Marymount University (LMU). In 2001, LMU wanted to do more to improve our chances of recruiting underrepresented students and created The Science and Engineering Community Outreach Program (SECOP). SECOP is a two-week residential summer program with an engineering focus. It is a partnership between LMU and five academic enrichment programs including Young Black Scholars in Inglewood and American Indian Clubhouse in Downtown Los Angeles. Since inception, 100 students from 40 high schools have participated with outstanding results. After collecting data on 59 students who attended SECOP and graduated from high school, 44% selected engineering majors (26/59) and 38% are female engineering majors (15/39). These statistics are three times higher than the national average of underrepresented engineering students (12%) and twice as high for female engineering students (20%)). This article discusses the methods used to develop a valuable and meaningful program that supports our community, improves the pipeline of engineering students and benefits our University. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2006.