Creating awareness about engineering careers: innovative recruitment and retention initiatives

This paper discusses several systemic reforms that were implemented to increase the awareness level of high school students on potential science, math, and engineering careers. Several members of the College of Engineering at San Jose State University are coordinating a "Diversity in Education" (DEI) project that includes educational reforms to increase engineering enrolments and graduation rates. This project is unique because it has a "vertical slice" partnership with one university and ten ethnically diverse K-12 schools in East San Jose, California. The Hewlett Packard Foundation is funding the "Diversity in Education Initiative". This article provides information on how the DEI was developed, the organizational structure used, the specific tasks required, how the tasks are implemented, and the results obtained.