diversity Benjamin Gordon (shown here with his faculty mentor, Jeffrey Vipperman), was a 2007 Barry M. Goldwater scholar and inaugural recipient of the George Washington Prize. Gordon received his BS degree from the Swanson School in 2007 and has decided to pursue his graduate degree in mechanical engineering here as well. Retention of underrepresented students in engineering remains a core priority for the Engineering Office of Diversity.
engineering
office of diversity
www.engr.pitt.edu/diversity
New Strategies Support Growth, Scholarship
Recruitment and retention of a diverse student population remain major priorities of the Engineering Office of Diversity (EOD). To that end, EOD staff members have implemented an aggressive recruitment strategy this past year, which included increasing fellowship opportunities at both the school and University level as well as opportunities through national organizations such as the National GEM (Graduate Engineering Minority) Consortium, of which Pitt is an active member. The program awards fellowships for students to obtain MS and PhD degrees in engineering through a program of paid summer internships and graduate financial assistance. This program has proved to be successful over the years, with several GEM scholars completing master’s degrees and one GEM scholar completing both an MS and a PhD in the Swanson School. One new GEM scholar will begin studying in the Swanson School this fall. Additionally, EOD assumed the lead in pursuing a new Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP), which aims to organize a systemic, multicampus framework to support the identification, recruitment, retention, graduation, and placement of traditionally underrepresented PhD students in academic faculty careers in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields.
2008 graduates Cameo Rowe Jr. (left) and Melissa Angeles. Rowe served as publications chair of the National Society of Black Engineers Pitt chapter and founded its magazine, The Torch. Angeles conducted research through the Pitt EXCEL Program, was involved with the Filipino Students Association, and was a member of Engineers for a Sustainable World.
28 SWANSON SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING
One recent retention success story is that of Benjamin Gordon, a current graduate student and 2007 Barry M. Goldwater scholar. This past year, Gordon received the inaugural George Washington Prize, a $5,000 award presented annually to a Swanson School senior to help further that student’s engineering education. With this support, Gordon, who received his BS in mechanical engineering in December 2007 and was a student in the University Honors College, was able to continue
his education at Pitt as a graduate student in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science. Gordon has exhibited particular devotion to both bettering his profession and encouraging young African Americans to pursue engineering careers. Minority Opinion magazine recognized his dedication by presenting him with its 2007 Black Achievers Award. From 2006 to 2007, Gordon served as chair of and a mentor for the National Society of Black Engineers GEMSTONE program, for which he helped engineering freshmen at Pitt transition to college life and excel academically.
Increasing diversity among faculty also remains a priority of the Swanson School. This past academic year, Willie F. Harper Jr. joined the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering as an associate professor. Harper received his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2002. His research group is interested in biological processes for environmental engineering—including engineered systems such as biological wastewater treatment processes—and also natural systems such as wetlands and estuaries. Before joining the Swanson School, Harper served on the faculty at Auburn University, where he was honored with an Outstanding Junior Faculty Award in 2007. Harper also is a recipient of a prestigious National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award. A licensed professional engineer in the state of Arizona, he has authored or coauthored 25 journal articles, conference proceedings, and book chapters. He has participated in many community outreach programs and youth mentoring efforts.
Office Highlights • Sylvanus Wosu, associate dean for diversity and associate professor, is a certified administrator of the Intercultural Development Inventory. He worked with several programs within the school this past year to help to develop competence in leading, working, and succeeding in an increasingly diverse global workplace and marketplace. • Njideka Mbonu, a sophomore majoring in chemical engineering, received an American Chemical Society PRF Underrepresented Minority Research Fellowship, in the amount of $5,000, to conduct research with Di Gao, assistant professor of chemical and petroleum engineering.
• The Swanson School’s African American and Hispanic populations have increased from 5.27 to 5.51 percent and from 1.1 to 1.3 percent, respectively. Female enrollment makes up 20.38 percent of the undergraduate population and 31.9 percent of the graduate population. • One hundred percent of the 53 Pitt Engineering Career Access Program (PECAP) precollege component graduates enrolled in college in fall 2007, exceeding the goal of 95 percent. Fourteen graduates chose to major in engineering, seven were accepted by the Swanson School, and four enrolled. This more than doubled the goal of 25 percent of engineering majors enrolling in the Swanson School. • Precollege outreach to out-of-state students continued to improve through the Critical and Analytical Reasoning Enrichment (CARE) summer program. During summer 2007, the last term for which data were available at the time of publication, out-of-state participants numbered nearly double that of the previous year, with students coming from Maryland, New York, and Virginia. One student was from Ethiopia. • Pitt EXCEL—a comprehensive program committed to the recruitment, retention, and graduation of academically excellent engineering undergraduates, particularly individuals from groups traditionally underrepresented in the field—continues to provide academic counseling, tutoring, engineering research and mentoring opportunities, graduate school preparation, and career development workshops. New programming implemented in 2007–08 included an engineering research living-learning community, a fall retreat, an EXCEL peer mentoring program, and a post-midterm family dinner. More than 120 students participated in services offered by the Pitt EXCEL Program. • The EOD Diversity Action Plan would not be complete without goals that include faculty and staff diversity initiatives. EOD offered programs for faculty and staff members, including seminars on sexual harassment, generational differences, graduate education, valuing diversity in interpersonal relationships, and cross-cultural communications. 2008 ANNUAL REPORT 29