Page 9 - InSights_Fall_2016

“If Cal State LA and all the CSUs were able to graduate every minority student in four years, then by ourselves we would tip the scales for the entire country in terms of minority engineers.”
– Emily Allen, Dean, College of ECST
ECST’S ROLE IN EFFECTING CHANGE IN THE STEM WORKFORCE
The STEM workforce is no more diverse today than it was 15 years ago. This is according to a study released last year by a STEM nonprofit, Change the Equation. Despite nationwide efforts to direct more students toward science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields, high school student interest in STEM remains low, particularly among underrepresented minority students; and the percentage of women in computing, engineering and manufacturing has shown little to no increase.
This data is startling, and has not gone unnoticed by ECST.
While the college’s national standing is strong in terms of representation of traditionally underserved minority groups (see infographic on page 8), studies like this tell us we need to do more. ECST Dean Emily Allen believes we can.
college aims to turn this around. “As a member of the Dean’s Advisory Board and Cal State LA alumna, I wanted to help the college, so I decided to use my doctoral dissertation to conduct research and develop ideas for a summer program for high school women in STEM.”
ECST will pilot a new bridge program in summer 2017 called LaunchPad that focuses on teaching high school girls the skills they need to succeed in STEM disciplines. “By strengthening the connection between ECST and the high schools served by Cal State LA, we’ll see a positive impact to the pipeline of incoming students,” says alumnus Jorge Ramirez, the CEO of Heateflex Corporation and a member of Dean Allen’s Advisory Board. The goal? Increase female student enrollment
in ECST majors from 14 to 25 percent by 2020. To help meet that goal, Ramirez and his wife recently made a $25,000 gift to help pilot the program.
Building Student Success
Diverse enrollment alone, however, does little to resolve the nation’s STEM diversity deficit. Faculty and staff know it’s about supporting student success once they’ve arrived that ultimately ensures positive employment outcomes.
The college recently introduced FYrE@ECST (First Year Experience @ ECST), a program that provides holistic advisement and STEM foundational skills for all freshmen, including the pre-freshman summer STEP program (Summer Transition to ECST Programs) and a new three-unit freshmen course, or Introduction to Engineering and Technology (ENGR 1500), which includes hands-on design projects.
Last fall, Allen signed the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) dean’s diversity pledge as a show of ECST’s commitment to effecting change. The pledge calls for an increase in diversity in enrollment, retention and graduation rates of engineering students, as well as increased diversity in the faculty in order to impact the engineering workforce over the next decade.
To support this effort, the college is prioritizing programs that focus on increasing female enrollment – a demographic ECST has been challenged in attracting – and equipping all students with the skills they need for academic success, as well as improving employment outcomes for graduating students through internships.
Launching Women Toward STEM
When compared to other CSU campuses, ECST has a lower- than-average percentage of female students. With the help of USC Rossier School of Education Ed.D student and Aerospace Institute Assistant General Manager Cheryl DeMatteis, the
Continued on page 8. InSights | 7