CONTACT: Bill Burton at (847) 491-3115 or e-mail at [email protected]
FOR RELEASE: Immediate
MINORITY STUDENTS GET READY TO EXCEL IN ENGINEERING SCHOOL
EVANSTON, Ill. --- Thirty-four academically elite minority students -- 24 African Americans and 10 Latinos -- are taking part in an intense summer challenge program to begin their engineering studies at Northwestern University.
The program is called EXCEL because it is designed to challenge minority students to perform at the top of their class from the time they begin their engineering education. This is the program's 20th year at Northwestern's Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science.
"I'm not sure I would have graduated in engineering had I not been through it," said 1993 EXCEL participant Donald Cantrell, who received his degree last year. "It was extremely challenging and almost scared me off. But it helped me realize what I could do."
Cantrell is now assistant director of Northwestern's Minority Engineering Opportunity Program (MEOP), which administers the EXCEL summer challenge program and a complementary program during the academic year called COMPLEAT, which is funded by a grant from Electronic Data Systems. He is a graduate student in mechanical engineering at Northwestern, where his research project is to develop a computer mouse that senses its own position and motion and gives physical feedback to the user.
This summer's class -- 19 males and 15 females -- is by far the largest in EXCEL's 20 years. Participants will be exposed to different fields of engineering and be challenged in an intensive academic environment before they become Northwestern freshmen in the fall quarter (Sept. 23).
The academic curriculum, during the program's first four weeks, includes calculus and linear algebra, chemistry, computer programming and leadership training. The McCormick faculty also developed three engineering projects specifically to develop teamwork skills in problem-solving.
"The program is aimed at developing the full potential of students, as individuals and as team-members," said Marla Dwyer, assistant dean at McCormick and director of MEOP. "Many of these students become campus leaders before going on to highly successful careers," she said.
The fifth week of the program is designed to motivate the students professionally. They will tour many of the research laboratories in Northwestern's Technological Institute and also visit local industrial firms, including Abbott Laboratories and Motorola.
The EXCEL students also get acclimated to the aspects of social life at a predominantly white university. They live in a campus dormitory, along with five upperclass McCormick students who serve as tutors and counselors throughout the program.
Minority students in the McCormick School have a graduation rate twice the national average for minority engineering students. Since the McCormick School began the EXCEL program 20 years ago, almost 80 percent of the school's minority students have graduated on schedule. The national average is about 40 percent.
This summer's EXCEL students arrive the weekend of June 27 and 28. On Monday, they begin taking the calculus and chemistry placement tests required of all McCormick freshmen. The EXCEL program runs through Aug. 1.
The program is provided free to students. Financial support for tuition, room and board and transportation is provided by Amoco, Dow Chemical, Goodyear, Hewlett-Packard, Kodak, Merck and Procter & Gamble.
RSS