The Diversity Hire

This autoethnography utilizes a subjective and recursive constructivist approach to study the integration of social impacts into engineering education and its effect on retention of students and faculty. The article contributes to a growing body of literature on the experiences of students who embody traditionally marginalized identities in engineering education. They face higher levels of discrimination and as a result need higher levels of resilience while pursuing STEM degrees. I draw on 20 years of experience as a student, practicing engineer, and faculty member to demonstrate how the integration of social impacts into technical courses can create resilience to discrimination in students and faculty and help them combat oppressive power systems. I argue for the integration of social impacts to be a collective effort across STEM-disciplines but especially in engineering education.