Designing Our Community: Evaluating The Success Of A Program To Recruit And Retain American Indian Students To Engineering
- Conference
- Location
-
Chicago, Illinois
- Publication Date
-
June 18, 2006
- Start Date
-
June 18, 2006
- End Date
-
June 21, 2006
- ISSN
-
2153-5965
- Conference Session
- Tagged Division
-
Minorities in Engineering
- Page Count
-
15
- Page Numbers
-
11.420.1 - 11.420.15
- DOI
-
10.18260/1-2--179
- Permanent URL
-
https://strategy.asee.org/179
- Download Count
-
393
Paper Authors
Sheree Watson Montana State University
Sheree J. Watson, M.S., is Assistant Project Director for the DOC Program in the College of Engineering at Montana State University. Sheree has over 5 years of experience in teaching and mentoring Native American students and over 5 years experience in 7-12 grade science education. As Assistant Director, she has primary responsibility for the implementatino of DOC program components.
Heidi Sherick Montana State University
Heidi M. Sherick, M.Ed., is Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Programs and Diversity in the College of Engineering at Montana State University. She is in charge of efforts to increase diversity in the College of Engineering by recruiting, advising, and supporting minorities. She is the Director of EMPower and the Project Director for the DOC program. She has over 5 years of experience in teaching middle school science.
Carolyn Plumb Montana State University
Carolyn Plumb, PhD, is the Director of Educational Innovation and Strategic Projects at Montana State University. Her work revolves around instructional development, curriculum reform and enhancement, and assessment of student learning. Prior to August of 2004, Plumb was at the University of Washington, where she directed the College of Engineering's Communication Program and also served as an instructional development and assessment specialist for the School of Law.
Abstract
NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract
There is no other single campus in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, or the Dakotas that offers comprehensive (B.S. through PhD) degrees in computer science, engineering and mathematics, as well as the B.S. and M.S. degrees in engineering technology. The COE is developing programs that provide a pathway for American Indian students to achieve training in engineering and technology and that provide opportunities to enter the corporate world or return to their reservations.
Enrollment data for American Indian students shows that they have comprised 1.5 to 2.0 percent of the total enrollment in the COE prior to autumn 2004. Autumn semester of 2004, we saw a large increase in American Indian student enrollment in the COE, hopefully as a result of our recruitment efforts during the 2003-2004 academic year. This increase held steady autumn of 2005, and American Indian students now comprise 2.5 percent of the total COE enrollment.
The Engineering Schools of the West Initiative (ESWI)
In December 2001, the Montana State University College of Engineering was awarded a three-year grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation to support the “Designing Our Community” Program (DOC).3 Nine public colleges and universities from nine western states were awarded grants as part of the Engineering Schools of the West Initiative (ESWI), and these schools have designed programs to improve the quality of undergraduate education in engineering and to increase the student numbers in engineering. These institutions, selected for a commitment to rigorous assessment and an ability to sustain long-term outcomes, collaborate to tackle such broad issues as best practices in recruitment and retention, faculty development, and program sustainability.
Designing Our Community Program Activities
DOC program activities are described in detail elsewhere,4,5 but are listed briefly below:
Recruitment Activities Outreach to Montana’s reservations, both at the K-12 level and the Tribal College level. This outreach includes contact with students, teachers, and advisors. Ongoing e-mail and phone contact with prospective students Montana Apprentice Program (MAP), a six-week summer program for high school students interested in science and engineering. Presentations and tours for visiting groups of K-12 students. Academic preparation sessions for K-12 students and teachers. A DOC web site and brochure.
Retention Activities Summer Bridge program, a week-long “super orientation” that includes (1) academic preparation sessions in math, chemistry, writing, and computers; (2) introduction to MSU resources, such as tutoring, the library, and the American Indian Club; (3) workshops on study skills; and (4) social activities.
Watson, S., & Sherick, H., & Plumb, C. (2006, June), Designing Our Community: Evaluating The Success Of A Program To Recruit And Retain American Indian Students To Engineering Paper presented at 2006 Annual Conference & Exposition, Chicago, Illinois. 10.18260/1-2--179
ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2006 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015