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A Civil Engineering Degree Through Online College Programs Provides Skills For Vast Career Field Of Engineering
Hispanics and blacks could help fill a supply and demand gap in engineering fields, according to the Foundation Coalition web site. Students with engineering degrees of different specialties in 2010 four of the five highest salaries extending to nearly $75,000 a year, while employment growth in other engineering areas is anticipated over the next decade, reports from the National Association of Colleges and Employers and the Bureau of Labor Statistics show. Yet blacks and Hispanics combined account for less than 5 percent of the engineering workforce, Foundation Coalition web site notes.
Engineers generally work with math and science principles to find economical solutions to technical problems, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports. They specialize in areas such as electronics, computers, petroleum, mechanics, aeronautics, biomedical sciences and the environment. Several organizations have been established to encourage minority participating in engineering fields such as these.
Students who want to enter engineering careers typically have to obtain bachelor’s degrees, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports. Scholarships, fellowships and grants for college typically don’t have to be repaid, and several of them are available to minority students who want to offset tuition costs and fees associated with pursuing engineering degrees. Large corporations are joining agencies as part of mentoring programs that some say can improve retention and success with engineering studies.
One group that offers mentoring programs and more is the National Society for Black Engineers, a non-profit student managed society. Minority students and others also have online opportunities to be paired with professional engineer mentors – through an e-mentoring network known as MentorNet. AT&T has partnered with MentorNet to focus STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, a news release on the e-mentoring network web site suggests.
Hispanic Engineering & Technology Magazine recently told the story of Mary Fernandez, who noted that she’s AT&T’s first minority woman executive director. As executive vice president for Young Science Achievers, Fernandez works to boost interest and excitement in science and engineering among girls and minority students, the report noted. She also chairs AT&T’s fellowship program and helps to advise, energize and evaluate candidates for graduate scholarships targeting women and minorities, according to the report.
IBM has became part of an alliance targeting Hispanics in the STEM studies. The company, with the Society of Professional Hispanic Engineers and the Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Awards Conference, in 2007 formed the Hispanic Alliance for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) Opportunities. A STEM-centered camp for youngsters helped launch the alliance.
A National Coalition of Underrepresented Racial & Ethnic Advocacy Groups in Engineering and Science is looking at collaborating with community colleges to get underrepresented students to continue studies through bachelor’s degree programs in engineering, according to its web site. A Massachusetts Institute of Technology engineer and educator in June was recognized for his efforts toward advancing engineering education and practice around the world, Hispanic Engineering and Information Technology reported. Paul Edward Gray, among other things, worked to promote stronger ties between academia and industry and to increase opportunities for women and minorities, the article noted.
In addition to scholarships offered by individual colleges, universities and technical schools, minorities might apply for any number of engineering scholarships from non-profit organizations, foundations and large corporations that can be applied to their degree in engineering. The National Society of Black Engineers, for example, offers its members scholarships. Black Excel on its web site provides a list of minority scholarships for general and specialized studies. A variety of scholarship opportunities can be found on the Hispanic Scholarship Fund web site. The Society of Professional Hispanic Engineers, like the National Society of Black Engineers, has student chapters. Its web site shows that members have access to scholarship opportunities in math, science and engineering. There’s also a minorities in engineering division of the American Society for Engineering Education, which has scholarship, fellowship and internship opportunities on its web site. The wide variety of aid is available for online degree programs and traditional campus education.