Motivations Interests And Retention Of Female Minority Engineering Students

In an effort to potentially increase low enrollment of females, particularly minorities, in Engineering programs, this study used a survey to determine motivations, interests and retention of current female Engineering students. A total of 82 participants from varied ethnic (non-Hispanic white, Euro-American, African American, Hispanic American, Asian American, South Asian, Arab American, and Native American participants) and education (high school senior, undergraduate, graduate, and in-service Engineers) backgrounds filled out the survey. With approximately half of the participants being non-minorities (non-Hispanic white or Euro-American), they served as the `control' group for the data, and the comparison group was the minority participants. Notable differences between the two groups were: student participation in female community groups, and extra-curricular activities like sports and arts (writing, drama and band) clubs. Increasing female-minority participation in these clubs and other extra-curricular activities may potentially increase their enrollment numbers in Engineering programs.