Expanding the Community College Engineering Educational Pipeline through Collaborative Partnerships

The 2012 President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) report, "Engage to Excel" indicates that the United States needs to produce one million additional STEM professionals in the next decade in order to retain its historical preeminence in science and technology.The report proposes that addressing the retention problem in the first two years of college is the most promising and cost-effective strategy to address this need.The California Community College System, with its 112 community colleges enrolling approximately 2.5 million students-representing nearly a third of the nation's community college student population-is in a prime position to grow the future STEM workforce.However, for most community college engineering programs, developing strategies to increase the number and diversity of students successfully pursuing careers in engineering is a big challenge due to shrinking resources and continuing budget crises.This paper is a description of how a small Hispanic-serving community college in the San Francisco Bay Area developed effective partnerships with other institutions of higher education and industry partners in order to create opportunities for underrepresented community college students to excel in engineering.These partnerships led to programs that have increased the interest, entry, retention and success in engineering fields among minority students.Among these programs are: a) a summer engineering institutea two-week residential summer camp for sophomore and junior high school students; b) a ten-week summer research internship program for community college engineering students; c) a two-day summer engineering teaching institute that assists community college engineering faculty in developing technology-enhanced instruction using tablet computers and distance education; and d) alignment of engineering curriculum and development a joint engineering program among participating community colleges.These programs have resulted in strengthening the community college engineering education pipeline in the state.