Denver-Metro Engineering Consortium

Broadening Participation in Community College Transfer Pathways by Building 鈥淐ollege Capital鈥�

The Denver-Metro Engineering Consortium (DMEC) project听is听a new consortium of local community colleges, four-year institutions, and industry partners that听seeks to significantly increase the number of engineering professionals from underrepresented groups. Both the University of Colorado Boulder and the University of Colorado Denver, as well as the five Denver-metro community colleges are participating in the project. The community听colleage partners include听 the , the , , and 听

The project aims to address our nation鈥檚 STEM participation challenge through an intense focus on historically underrepresented groups鈥攚omen, Hispanic, African American, and veteran students鈥攁nd link economically disadvantaged community college students with paid internships to provide the financial support they need to pursue full-time enrollment and subsequent STEM pursuit. An overarching thrust of the DMEC project is to build college capital in community college students.

What is DMEC?

The DMEC aims to address our nation鈥檚 STEM participation challenge through an intense focus on historically underrepresented groups鈥攚omen, Hispanic, African American, and veteran students鈥攁nd link economically disadvantaged community college students with paid internships to provide the financial support they need to pursue full-time enrollment and subsequent STEM pursuit. An overarching thrust of the DMEC project is to build college capital in community college students. DMEC defines college capital as those skills that ANY student needs to succeed in STEM 鈥撎齮he combination of math and other academic skills, including:听

STEM career aspirations and self-confidence
Knowledge of college pathways
Professional development opportunities
The needed social, financial, and academic support to pursue a demanding and intensive four-year engineering program.

The听core mission of this project is how DMEC can听help community college students develop college capital?

Project Goals

The goal of DMEC is to increase the number of underrepresented groups earning associate degrees and transferring to undergraduate engineering programs鈥攁ccomplished through the creation of multi-year, year-round transfer pathways that integrate academic coursework with paid research and internship opportunities, with wrap-around student support and STEM career awareness.

DMEC also collaborates with industry partners on pathways that offer students full time jobs after community college, including financial support towards B.S. degree pursuit.听

DMEC will broaden participation of underrepresented students by developing clear, accessible, and supported pathways to two-year associate degrees, to internships with STEM employers, transfer opportunities to four-year research institutions and subsequent bachelor鈥檚 degree attainment, and opportunities to enter high-demand, high-wage engineering careers.

DMEC Announcement News Story

Multi-Year, Year-Round Project Features

A 4-week summer bridge program for high school seniors in the schools near the five Denver-metro community colleges.
A year-round, supported accelerated mathematics program to provide the needed academic preparation to transfer to university to earn a Bachelor鈥檚 engineering degree.
Paid summer research internships with universities and industry.
A supportive cohort with students who have similar goals to help build community and foster engineering identity.
Transfer support to the University of Colorado Boulder鈥檚 College of Engineering & Applied Science or the University of Colorado Denver鈥檚 College of Engineering, Design and Computing.
And more!

Contact

Partner Institutions

University of Colorado Boulder

Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Office of Naval Research or the National Science Foundation.

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