Successful Women Engineering Students: A Survey Assessment To Guide Our Efforts To Boost Women’s Retention
- Conference
- Location
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Louisville, Kentucky
- Publication Date
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June 20, 2010
- Start Date
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June 20, 2010
- End Date
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June 23, 2010
- ISSN
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2153-5965
- Conference Session
- Tagged Division
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Women in Engineering
- Page Count
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13
- Page Numbers
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15.1145.1 - 15.1145.13
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--16809
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/16809
- Download Count
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981
Paper Authors
Daniel Knight University of Colorado, Boulder
DANIEL W. KNIGHT is the engineering assessment specialist at the Integrated Teaching and Learning Program in CU’s College of Engineering and Applied Science. He holds a B.A. in psychology from the Louisiana State University, and an M.S. degree in industrial/organizational psychology and a Ph.D. degree in counseling psychology, both from the University of Tennessee. Dr. Knight’s research interests are in the areas of retention, program evaluation and teamwork practices in engineering education. His current duties include assessment, evaluation and research for the ITL Program’s hands-on initiatives.
Katie Corner University of Colorado, Boulder
KATHERINE CORNER is a senior completing a B.S. in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Colorado at Boulder. After graduating this spring, she will continue to pursue a M.S. in Computer Science, also from the University of Colorado, with research interests in artificial intelligence. Katherine is passionate about encouraging women in engineering; she has worked in various supporting roles on the CU campus and founded the QBuds Intern Mentor Program while working at Qualcomm, Inc.
Beverly Louie University of Colorado, Boulder
BEVERLY LOUIE is the director for teaching and learning initiatives in the Broadening Opportunities through Leadership and Diversity (BOLD) Center in CU’s College of Engineering and Applied Science. She holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in chemical engineering from CU, and a D.Phil. in mechanical engineering from the University of Oxford, England. Dr. Louie’s research interests are in the areas of engineering student retention and performance, teaching effectiveness and collaborative learning.
Amber Shoals University of Colorado, Boulder
AMBER SHOALS is a senior in the CU College of Engineering and Applied Science majoring in architectural engineering. She plans to attend graduate school after graduation.
Cindy Cabrales University of Colorado, Boulder
CINDY CABRALES is an employee of the University of Colorado at Boulder, Student Affairs Division in the Student Organizations Finance Office. She formerly worked at CU's BOLD Center in the College of Engineering and Applied Science.
Abstract
NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract
Successful Women Engineering Students: A Survey Assessment to
Abstract
In the fall of 2009, a college of engineering and applied science at a public, Rocky Mountain region university embarked on a new inclusive excellence initiative called Broadening Opportunity through Leadership & Diversity (BOLD). The BOLD Center is a new K-16 organizational structure to increase the performance, representation and retention through graduation of students who are underrepresented in engineering, including women, students of color, low income and first generation college attendees. A BOLD Center focus of concern is the declining retention rate of women that has dipped below that of men recently in our College. A survey consisting of 41 questions was distributed to all undergraduate engineering women in the college that incorporates scales from the Assessing Women in Engineering (AWE) assessment and from the Academic Pathways of People Learning Engineering Survey (APPLES). Five research questions were posed in the survey design:
-efficacy levels change during the program?
The survey generated 116 responses from 2 solicitations, with women students represented from every major across all four undergraduate years. An unintended outcome was that the sample largely consists of women with high grade point averages. Thus, this paper offers -efficacy and their views on the college climate, the benefits from various support systems advising, mentoring, social and financial and the existing programming and initiatives that can play a role in their achievements.
The results indicate that women students are interested and efficacious with respect to obtaining an engineering degree, and that the college climate is, on average, warm and accepting. However, women were less satisfied with advising, mentoring, and their financial support. Women students also perceive that they must sacrifice their outside interests to in engineering and in order to handle the course workload that they perceive as overly heavy. These results and others to be presented in this paper will shed light on the factors we retention and success in engineering education.
Introduction
This paper analyzes the experiences of undergraduate women in engineering and applied science majors at a public, Rocky Mountain region university with about 30,000 undergraduate students. The survey and research were initiated to address two disturbing trends seen in undergraduate education in the United States. While women have historically been underrepresented in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields, the
Knight, D., & Corner, K., & Louie, B., & Shoals, A., & Cabrales, C. (2010, June), Successful Women Engineering Students: A Survey Assessment To Guide Our Efforts To Boost Women’s Retention Paper presented at 2010 Annual Conference & Exposition, Louisville, Kentucky. 10.18260/1-2--16809
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