Gateway's human potential initiatives are in support of the broader student oriented mission of developing the emerging engineering professional. The restructured curriculum itself, with its incorporation of innovative educational technologies and methodologies, as well as the quality assurance efforts all contribute in harmony with this objective of broadly addressing the opportunities to develop the individual and his or her ability to reach full potential. The issues to be addressed which can lead to fulfillment of this challenge are extensive both in sphere of influence and in program focus.

The Gateway Coalition has set the transition to the four year College/ University environment, be it from high school or from two year institutions of higher education, and the College/University matriculation period itself through such issues as mentoring and student retention, as the spheres in which to work to influence this process.

The Coalition also recognizes that there are specific populations which have traditionally been underrepresented in the engineering educational process and could benefit from specific targeted programs beyond those geared to the population as a whole.

The issues, within the spheres which the Gateway Coalition addresses extend beyond the student to include faculty and institutional culture broadly. The Coalition is attempting to alter institutional culture in many ways including:

• the curriculum;
• how we teach as well as what we teach;
• the context in which the educational process engages the student;
• the use of innovative technologies to help in this process; and
• the personal environment in which the students find themselves.

To meet this challenge, the Gateway Coalition has identified its human potential efforts with four sub-focus areas:

Women in Engineering

Minorities in Engineering

Student Development

Faculty Development

Each institution of the Coalition undertakes a number of efforts to meet these challenges. The Gateway support is intended to seed and catalyze new ideas as well as to leverage ongoing institutional efforts. The Coalition does not offset support for programs which are extant within the institution other than to catalyze their extension in spheres of influence. The Coalition's objective is to see new initiatives and existing programs become embedded within the academic culture of the College/University.

The aim of the Women in Engineering is to create a dynamic, evolving medium to facilitate the interactions between faculty and students and to access to up-to-date information and resources pertinent to women in engineering with emphasis on the needs of current and future women engineering students and faculty.

The information is available to and accessible by all Gateway students and faculty. The dissemination and publication medium is Hypertext/ Multimedia/Networking on the World Wide Web under the Gateway Engineering Coalition Home Page umbrella.

Go to the Gateway Projects for Women in Engineering

The Gateway Coalition Minorities leadership group includes the minority program directors or multi-cultural directors from our Coalition institutions. A number of programs have been undertaken during these past few years at each of our partner institutions. These have included:

• bridge programs,
• sensitivity training,
• mentoring programs,
• summer research opportunities, and
• community outreach with encouragement and excitement to the prospective engineering student.

While the Gateway leadership continues to encourage such programs we have made some specific program focus decisions. When possible, we want to be a catalyst for change and leverage Gateway support to serve as seed support with other efforts. Where possible, we desire that supportive programs specifically geared to assist with increasing the percentage of minorities in Engineering be imbedded within the broader culture of the educational mission for all students.

Go to the Gateway Projects for Minorities in Engineering

The Student Development Area focuses on the student as an emerging professional. The goal of the program area is to identify non-technical skills important to successful professional engineers, develop and test programs that provide those skills, and then implement the programs at institutions within the Gateway Coalition.

Go to the Gateway Projects for Student Development

The Gateway Coalition has recognized that we must address the means through which the faculty are to grow if we are to achieve sustainable institutional cultural change. In addition to the diversity sensitivity issues, faculty need:

• to learn to use new technologies and methodologies,
• to be aware of the body of educational research and development and how it can be applied successfully to engineering education,
• to understand and use evaluation to improve them selves and their educational process,
• to understand that the discipline of quality assurance is really just asking to identify ones objectives, what the measures of achieving those objectives are, and what and how measurements will be taken to assess whether such desired change has in fact taken place.

Many Engineering and Science professors view themselves as Gurus and Gatekeepers. We need to change these faculty to think of themselves as Guides and Learning Facilitators where the student takes an active roll in the learning process.

Go to the Gateway Projects for Faculty Development

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