In Fresno State’s final collaboration, the university hopes to bring diverse engineers and construction managers into the profession through attentive support toward under-represented students. Specifically, the project hopes to greatly increase the number of African American students in their Lyles College of Engineering, as African American students currently make up only 2% of their engineering students.
One of the focus areas of their project is expanded community outreach to recruit more under-represented students into the engineering field by engaging with community-based organizations, community influencers, and K-12 schools. They also hope to develop K-12 teachers through workshops so that they will be able to better prepare students for engineering education and reduce the intimidation surrounding the field. Fresno State will host a “Young Minds Explore Engineering” summer program to stimulate even more interest in engineering and construction careers, and they will also sustain and strengthen their Partnership for Engineering Education by developing new courses and offering dual enrollment. Lastly, the university will partner with Reedley College to develop a new 2-year Associate’s Degree in Geomatics Engineering, which will be the first of its kind in Central California.
