Broadening Participation in Engineering: U.S.-Trinidad-Anguilla Partnership

摘要

African Americans are underrepresented in both the engineering workforce and study abroad. 61.7% African Americans students who enter engineering programs do not graduate in this major. This translates to an engineering workforce that comprise; about 4% African Americans. While African American students account for 15% of the overall U.S. undergraduate population, they only represent 5.6% of the over 300,000 U.S. students studying abroad. There are several reasons for this disparity; finances, faculty leadership, high attrition rates, family support, anxiety resulting from travel inexperience, and lack of insight to the correlations between global cultural competence and career goals. Research shows that students who have abroad experiences; graduate on time, with higher GPAs and that the travel opportunities foster cognitive analytical and affective organizational learning proficiencies which are sine qua non for academic success. Bowman and Sage summarized: "Preparing a diverse, globally-engaged scientific and technological workforce necessitates strengthening international research opportunities for students underrepresented in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields". The engineering workforce can only benefit from a significant proportional increase in culturally competent African Americans especially in today's increasingly global economy. Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) can play an important role in solving this national challenge.