ASEE’s Year of Impact on Racial Equity (2021 – 2022) is well underway. The major tenets of this initiative can be described by three pillars. The pillars are focused on engaging engineering and engineering technology students, faculty and administrators in colleges of engineering and engineering technology, and P-12 parents and guardians, respectively. This announcement is focused on the first of these three groups.

 

Engineering and engineering technology (E&ET) student organizations offer opportunities for students to develop peer networks, gain valuable co-curricular experiences, apply knowledge acquired in the classroom to real-world challenges, and prepare for future success in the workplace. Participation in engineering student organizations can offer students access to career opportunities including mentoring, internships/co-ops, job opportunities. The access and experiences that these opportunities afford are valuable and formative for an engineering student’s success and persistence. But the question we should ask ourselves is: are all students able to take advantage of, and benefit from, these opportunities? In this 90-day Equity Challenge, we challenge the leaders of student organizations to identify and address barriers that exist within the local chapter of your organization which may prevent equitable and inclusive engagement by all students. At the end of the 90-day challenge, fifteen (15) teams will be selected to win a $1,000 prize for their organization, have their work highlighted on a national platform, and be featured in multiple press releases. The deadline for the 1-pg proposal submission is Jan. 3, 2022. For more info, please visit: https://diversity.asee.org/deicommittee/yire/90-day-challenge/