The University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering surpasses the national average of women enrolled in engineering degree programs by four percent, with nearly a quarter of its student body as female students. A new program has been launched at the college in an effort to help recruit and retain women in the field of engineering, a field traditionally dominated by men. The Women in Engineering Learning Community for Maximizing Excellence (WELCOME) is a newly designed program by Dr. Julie Trenor, director of undergraduate student recruitment and retention, and Dr. Fritz Claydon, associate dean of undergraduate studies, to establish a support system for women, giving them the opportunity to meet fellow classmates, while interacting with women currently working in the field of engineering.
Supported by a grant from the Texas Engineering and Technical Consortium (TETC), Trenor envisions WELCOME as a forum for women to network on both social and professional levels.
“WELCOME will provide our female students with academic support and professional development, while addressing the isolation that many female students feel in their engineering classes,” Trenor said. “We hope to see increased retention rates among female students in the college.”
In fact, Trenor has found that in the last 25 years, the majority of Cullen College of Engineering female undergraduates left the program during the first two or three semesters, resulting in a 60 percent drop-out rate in some departments.
“I’ve read scores of scholarly articles and longitudinal studies in engineering education literature about why undergraduate females leave these programs,” Trenor said. “It’s not due to the lack of cognitive ability. In fact, several studies found that the women who left the field actually had higher grade point averages than their male counterparts. For women, the problem is usually one of isolation.”
Initially, the program will focus on the construction of a community, one in which females students can interact with one another on a social level. For professional and academic development, Trenor will coordinate a student-to-student and professional-to-student mentoring program, as well as a series of seminars geared toward providing insight for women at every stage of their academic careers.
“For the student-to-student mentoring, we’ll match incoming students with junior and senior level students who can show them the ropes and provide insight about adjusting to the academic environment,” Trenor said. “We are still looking to recruit women working in the field of engineering to participate in our professional-student mentoring program.”
Because Houston is the nation’s fourth largest city and one of the world’s most important industry hubs, the outlook for finding professional mentors in the area is good. Though less than 9 percent of the engineering workforce are women, Trenor hopes that the college’s location, at the epicenter of industry, will attract strong candidates for the program.
“This part of the mentoring program will be less about academic adjustment and more about maximizing employability,” said Trenor. “These professional women can directly address the student’s concerns about being a woman in a man’s field.”
While a number of working female engineers have joined the WELCOME program to mentor students, the program needs more professionals willing to counsel students about employment and other workplace issues, primarily through an e-mail based form of communication.
“We’re looking for mentors who will be willing to take 15 minutes per week to interact with students through e-mail.,” Trenor said. “Other activities, such as inviting your ‘mentee’ to tour your place of work or to participate in a professional society meeting are also encouraged, but not required.”
For students and professionals who are uncertain of how the mentoring process works, Trenor will utilize a training handbook developed by the Women in Engineering Programs and Advocates Network (WEPAN). She also plans to develop ways in which mentors can easily begin conversations with the students.
In addition to the mentoring program, WELCOME will offer a seminar series each semester with topics that appeal to both lower and upper division students, including stress management, test preparation, getting the most out of your professors, graduate studies, and the workplace. While some of these seminars are already offered on campus, Trenor believes there are advantages in holding them through the WELCOME program, where discussions will be geared toward engineering.
“In addition to seminars concentrating on academic success, others will be geared toward making the upper-division students more employable and sustainable in the workforce. Students will have the opportunity to meet successful women in both industry and academia and talk to them about their career questions and concerns through panel discussions,” Trenor said. “We hope to offer seminars on financial planning, comparing job offers and benefits packages, and negotiation skills.”
WELCOME’s first interest meeting garnered 50 women. Those interested in participating as a student or a professional mentor can contact Trenor at jmtrenor [at] uh.edu (jmtrenor[at]uh[dot]edu) or 713-743-3299.
“To have 50 students show up to our first meeting with little advertising shows that there is a need for this,” Trenor said. “As students walked into the meeting, they were astonished to see so many other women in attendance, which is precisely the point. They had no idea that so many female engineering students were in the Cullen College of Engineering. With WELCOME, we will continue building awareness, while creating a supportive community for these women to help them succeed and stay in engineering.”