The Blurring of Academic, Cultural, and Social Borders for Minority Engineering Students

In 2003 Arizona State University received a five-year block grant from the National Action Council on Minorities in Engineering (NACME). The funding provides scholarships of up to $2,500 for underrepresented students with financial need. Qualified non-minority students have been included in the program during the past two years and are supported by other funding. The new freshmen NACME students are required to take a two-hour course in the fall and meet every other week for an hour during the spring semester. In subsequent semesters, the NACME scholars meet for an hour six times a semester. This paper will report on lessons learned during the three years of the program, on programming improvements (including an academic emphasis), and on the challenges of the program. The paper will also include the students´ retention, GPAs, and evaluations of the program. To date, over 60 students have participated in the program. This program helps to blur the academic, cultural, and social borders that minority engineering students often face