fieldsupport the need for universities to find ways to effectively foster professional identitydevelopment. For example, three ways in which the institution can foster identity formation asan engineer are: (1) program admission criteria, coursework, etc. (institutional identity), (2) co-ops and internships (self-identification through exposure to the norms and values held byprofessional engineers), and (3) communities of practice (recognition by other in-group membersas a professional in the field)12,13. Co-ops and internships contribute to students’ desire tobecome an engineer14, retention and work self-efficacy15, and higher starting salaries and thepotential for a job offer by graduation16. However, “lack-of-belonging” has been found to be
Workforce Development and Life Long Learning division of the Univer- sity of the District of Columbia, Community College.Dr. Annie R Pearce, Virginia TechDr. Christine Marie Fiori P.E., Virginia TechDr. Tanyel Bulbul, Virginia Tech Dr. Bulbul is an Assistant Professor of Building Construction and Adjunct Professor of Civil and En- vironmental Engineering at the Virginia Tech. She has expertise in investigating information and com- munication technologies together with the development of formalized, model-based analysis approaches to deal with the complexities of the built environment. Her research areas include Building Information Modeling (BIM); product and process modeling in AEC/FM; ontology based approaches for design
. In-depth interviews with women revealed that through such experiences, theiropportunities to invest in mentoring and networking increased significantly and contributed totheir potential for advancement [4].These results suggest that educational work experience programs may allow women theopportunity to ‘scope out’ their potential employers early on and cultivate soft skills throughmentorship and networking. Thus, early exposure to the culture of the organization may lead tomore informed, strategic decisions on key players, improving women’s opportunities forintegration into the culture of engineering. Building on these results which speak to the influenceof educational work experience programs on the career development of women in
, geographically distributed, collaborative research projects among scholars, and with underserved communities. She is also a lecturer in the Mechanical Engineering department where she currently teaches a course Global Engineers’ Education.Ms. Sneha Ayyagari, Stanford University Sneha is a student studying engineering at Stanford University. She is interested in understanding the role of education in solving pressing health and environmental issues. Through her experience in non-profit work, she has developed an interest in learning how to work with underserved communities to create sustainable solutions.Mr. Jonathan Edward Pang, Stanford University I am an undergraduate studying mechanical engineering at Stanford University
onmarket needs can be gained through the proper use of co-op evaluations.Therefore, great emphasis has been placed on developing evaluation criteria thatmeet the needs of the cooperative education programs and the ABET needs of thecollege or university. The University of Cincinnati (UC), along with manyengineering cooperative education and internship programs recognized thisassessment need, and developed new assessment tools in the late nineties inanticipation of the new ABET 2000 engineering criteria.Until 2003, evaluations were gathered on paper, making the charge of analyzing Page 12.1124.2and summarizing feedback for the departments a time consuming, if even
Pennsylvania.While the benefits to the students are vital, the impact of a co-op program goes beyond thestudents. Industry can gain benefit by obtaining staffing for projects at a substantially reducedrate (and typically without the benefits overhead). Moreover, by hiring interns and co-opstudents, industry can develop a recruiting system that allows them to make better hiringdecisions than can be done via a resume and interview alone.The benefit also extends to the higher education institutions. An organized co-op program canhelp the institution develop relationships with regional and national industry. Thoserelationships can be valuable in many ways. For example, at the authors’ institution, the industryrelations developed through the co-op program have