 Many organizations offer
programs for underrepresented minorities that focus on science,
mathematics, engineering, and healthcare. The Sloan Career Cornerstone Center
supports efforts to attract a larger percentage of women and
underrepresented ethnic minorities into the study of science,
technology, engineering, mathematics, computing, and healthcare.
The following chart
shows ethnicity and gender information based on research by the American Society for Engineering Engineering:
Source: American
Society for Engineering Education, 2010
University Resources
 Many universities offer special programs to support underrepresented
minorities. For example the
Minority
Engineering Program Office at the University of Michigan is a
resource for students, educators, and employers alike. The office offers
a variety of
precollege programs, and also resources for university level
students. Check with your local university
to find out what resources they may offer, including special events,
summer programs, Saturday workshops, and other resources for
underrepresented minorities.
Mentoring
Opportunities
Some universities and companies have established mentoring programs to
link students with professionals. An example is the
University of Notre Dame's
Minority Engineering Program, which offers E-mentoring support to
students.
Summer Programs
Summer programs are great opportunities for
students to explore different career fields. There are also
several focused specifically for underrepresented minorities, including
the following:
 ALVA is
a paid, high technology, 9 to 10 week summer internship experience
for entering University of Washington freshmen students.
Summer
Minority Engineering Training Program at the Colorado
School of Mines
The Summer Medical and Dental
Education Program -- a partnership of the Association of
American Medical Colleges and the American Dental Education
Association -- provides six weeks of free educational enrichment to
pre-medical and pre-dental college freshmen and sophomores
throughout the summer.
MITES (Minority Introduction
to Engineering and Science) is a rigorous six-week residential,
academic enrichment summer program for promising high school juniors
at MIT who are interested in studying and exploring careers in
science, engineering, and entrepreneurship.
 Precollege
Programs
Many universities
have special programs for underrepresented minorities at the high
school level, including the following:
IMPRINT is a
program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign that pairs
promising high school seniors with a faculty member on campus or
with an employer. The experience is intended to introduce students
to engineering and motivate them to remain in the College of
Engineering.
In addition,
many professional associations offer precollege resources, including:
-
American Indian Science and
Engineering Society
-
National Society of Black
Engineers
- National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering
-
Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers
Scholarship Opportunities
Many
universities have scholarship programs
specifically for high achieving underrepresented minorities. Be
sure to check with universities you are considering about whether they
have a minority or diversity office, and find out what services,
programs, materials,
scholarships, and events they sponsor.
Some professional societies also offer
scholarship programs, such as the American Physical Society's
Scholarship
for Minority Undergraduate Physics Majors. Several organizations link
to minority scholarship sites, such as
200 Free Scholarships For Minorities. Other scholarships can be
searched on the
College
Board website.
 Professional Association Support
Several special focus professional associations have developed to help
serve the needs of our diverse workforce. Many of these groups also
have student chapters, which can help form valuable
networking opportunities at an early age.
For example,
NSBE
Jr. membership is available for pre-college students in grades 6
through 12, and the American Indian Science and
Engineering Society has a
K-12 Affiliated Schools
Program.
The following is a sampling of organizations
that support underrepresented minorities; a full list is available on the
Cornerstone association page:
 Sloan
Career Cornerstone Center Profile Excerpts
The following excerpts from Cornerstone profiles address the issue of
diversity:
 Arnold Motley
Systems Engineer
IBM Corporation
Raleigh, NC
"I was surprised, pleasantly surprised, when I joined on at IBM. There's a
big diversity here, a lot of different minorities, men, women, young, old,
I mean you cover the entire gambit here and I was happy to see that when I
got here. It made my transition from college to employment a lot easier."
 Download Full Profile as PDF
View
Full Profile Online
 Dwight
L. Williams, Ph.D., P.E.
Chief Engineer/Principal Nuclear Physicist
U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), Technical Applications Division
"Without real world
professional experiences (internships, co-ops, etc.) it can be difficult
to appreciate how fast (and slow in some cases) things happen in the
real world. School helped me to be the best me that I can be --
technically, socially, and personally. With the foundation that I
developed in school, I have been pretty successful in navigating my way
to a place of satisfaction."
Download Full Profile as PDF
View
Full Profile Online
Brent Miyazaki
Environmental Services Program
Manager
Advance
Whittier, CA
"One of the things that
they can do that's very easy in some universities, maybe not as easy in
others, but places where I went to school, we had a tremendous ethnic
diversity of students and that includes foreign students from other
parts of the world. And by socializing with people from all walks of
life, we can learn about the similarities and the differences between
us, between the cultures. It's very easy to sit and ask someone, over a
meal or a drink - well, what is life like where you're from?"
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View
Full Profile Online
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