The impact of fraternity and sorority participation on nae’s engineer of 2020 outcomes for civil engineering undergraduates

Abstract

The rapid pace of technology and innovation in the world has required continuous improvements in the preparation of civil engineers. In 2004, the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) identified ten essential attributes as critical to the future success and relevance of the engineering profession. This paper examines how civil engineering undergraduates’ achievement of eight of the NAE’s ten Engineer of 2020 (E2020) attributes is impacted by participating in different types of activities outside the classroom. Responses from a survey of 284 civil engineering undergraduates across 23 U.S. institutions were analyzed to explore the link between reported out-of-class activities and perceived outcomes. The overall results indicated that civil engineering undergraduates identified fraternity and sorority membership as a major influencer. This paper provides civil engineering educators and students a broad view of potential student outcomes from activities beyond the in-class curriculum.