Work in progress — Engineering Leadership Program: The first year experience

The Engineering Leadership Program (ELP) founded at Iowa State University in 2006 is a four year student run leadership development program for undergraduate engineering students. The ELP is continually adapting to feedback from the scholar community, however the first year experience has emerged as a well structured learning experience. The first year ELP experience is designed to create a close knit community. Following a community building retreat, first-year scholars meet weekly in a credit bearing seminar taught by upper class scholars. In their second semester, scholars design and implement a service learning project, following a six sigma process. In the four years of ELP, the first year experience has led to a strong community within each cohort, which is highly valued by the scholars. As they progress through the program, they continue to seek opportunities to strengthen their relationships across cohorts. This model could be replicated more broadly within engineering and beyond for enhancing student engagement and retention.