Transportation Workforce Development: Sustaining and Expanding High School Outreach Programs and Multi-Agency Partnerships.

摘要

This project supported a multi-university/agency partnership between Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU), the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI), and Texas A&M University (TAMU) that focuses on producing high-quality transportation professionals from underrepresented groups. This project redesigned and expanded the Summer Transportation Institute (STI) Scholars program created with previous funding from this sponsor; its goal is to motivate students to take an interest in civil engineering and transportation careers. The STI Scholars program curriculum was redesigned to enhance the stimulating environment that would attract, inspire, and encourage students from various high schools within Texas and beyond to participate in the STI and STI Scholars program for the two summers before they pursued higher education. The STI Scholars programs internet presence was enhanced with updates and improvements to the STI webpage and Facebook page. To promote long-term sustainability, the project produced a network of (a) former students, (b) educational professionals (counselors and teachers), and (c) public and private agencies including academia. The program was able to track former graduates as part of its goal to monitor their education and careers beyond the program and found that 100 percent of the STI Scholars program graduates that could be tracked (seven out of eight) are pursuing higher education and more than 70 percent are pursuing higher education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)-related fields. The success of this project is having a positive impact on the civil engineering programs at PVAMU and TAMU and can serve as a model for similar outreach programs at other locations across the nation.