Distance Learning Degree Programs Provides Skills For Vast Career Field With Engineering Masters Degree
Hispanics and blacks could help fill a supply and demand gap in engineering fields, according to the Foundation Coalition web site. Students with engineering degrees of different specialties in 2010 four of the five highest salaries extending to nearly $75,000 a year, while employment growth in other engineering areas is anticipated over the next decade, reports from the National Association of Colleges and Employers and the Bureau of Labor Statistics show. Yet blacks and Hispanics combined account for less than 5 percent of the engineering workforce, Foundation Coalition web site notes.
Engineers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, rely on science and math principles to find economical solutions to technical problems. That might sound complex, but there are engineers in a variety of fields, including aeronautics, petroleum, computers, electronics, biomedical sciences, the environment, mechanics and more. Some say that student diversity can help with conflict resolution skills and that diversity in the engineering workplace might make for products that have a wider, international customer base. Perhaps not surprising, then, a variety of organizations has been working to encourage minority participation in engineering.
Students who want to enter engineering careers typically have to obtain bachelor’s degrees, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports. Scholarships, fellowships and grants for college typically don’t have to be repaid, and several of them are available to minority students who want to offset tuition costs and fees associated with pursuing engineering degrees. Large corporations are joining agencies as part of mentoring programs that some say can improve retention and success with engineering studies.
The National Society for Black Engineers, a non-profit student managed society, offers professional and academic development, outreach programs, mentoring opportunities and more. A non-profit organization known as Black Excel on its web site provides a link to a site that in part profiles prominent mathematicians and scientists. Through an e-mentoring network known as MentorNet, minority engineering students and others are paired in one-on-one e-mail based relationships with engineering professionals in different industries. MentorNet in March announced a partnership with AT&T intended to focus on mentoring STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
AT&T is involved with encouraging minority participation in engineering in other areas as well. Mary Fernandez, an AT&T executive director profiled in Hispanic Engineering & Technology Magazine, chairs a corporate fellowship program and assists in advising, energizing and evaluating applicants for women and minority-targeted graduate scholarships, according to the report. Fernandez, who called herself AT&T’s first minority female executive director, works also with Young Science Achievers to stimulate interest in science and engineering among girls and minority students, the report noted.
IBM also has gotten in on the action. A partnership between IBM, the Society of Professional Hispanic Engineers and the Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Awards Conference is known as the Hispanic Alliance for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) Opportunities, according to information on the society’s web site. The alliance began in 2007 with a STEM-centered camp for youngsters that might spur interest in the field at an early age, the web information noted.
There’s also a group known as the National Coalition of Underrepresented Racial & Ethnic Advocacy Groups. This agency is looking at partnering with community colleges as a means of encouraging underrepresented students to continue their studies toward bachelor’s degrees in engineering, according to its web site. At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an engineer and educator was recently recognized for work that included encouraging stronger ties between academia and industry and enhancing opportunities for minorities, a Hispanic Engineering and Information Technology report noted.
Minority students who want help paying tuition and fees at campus and online colleges, universities and technical schools as a means of pursuing their online bachelor engineering degree have a number of resources. Individual institutions with campus and online degree programs in engineering might offer scholarships, fellowships and grants for college. Large corporations and non-profit organizations make financial aid like this available as well. In addition to scholarships that the National Society of Black Engineers offers to members, non-members can look toward a Black Excel web site that includes minority scholarships for general and specialized studies. The Hispanic Scholarship Fund web site is another source for minority scholarships, as is the Society of Professional Hispanic Engineers that, with student chapters, on its web site lists member scholarship opportunities in math, science and engineering. The American Society for Engineering Education has a minorities in engineering division and lists scholarship, fellowship and internship opportunities on its web site as well. Students will find that these funds can be used at both on-campus and online course programs.