Engineering Leadership Pathway Scholars 2 Program

San Jose State University Foundation, San Jose CA

Investigators

Abstract

The Engineering Leadership Pathway Scholars 2 (ELPS2) project at San José State University (SJSU) is awarding annual renewable scholarships to academically talented, financially needy undergraduate engineering students. The five-year program is generating 30 to 36 future engineering leaders who can serve as role models for other students and be leaders in the 21st century workforce. Scholarship recipients form a cohort of students engaged in personal leadership development activities in parallel with their academic development. With the support faculty and peers mentors and student-led Leadership Teams, ELPS2 scholars develop their own visions of leadership and emerge with personal and professional goals that enable them to make the best of their own talents as well as be prepared to tackle the challenges that face the nation's technical leaders. Intellectual merits of the program lie in the comprehensive nature of the program. The ELPS2 program is recruiting a diverse applicant pool (many of whom are underrepresented in STEM or who are first generation in college), and providing U.S. industry with engineers who have practiced leadership skills. The ELPS2 program is meant to serve as a model for leadership development throughout the SJSU College of Engineering. The project is evaluating the effectiveness of programs for developing leadership characteristics so that the College of Engineering can institutionalize and sustain leadership programming. Lessons learned are being disseminated through the California Engineering Liaison Council, conferences, presentations, and archived articles, and used to expand the ELPS2 program to all interested SJSU engineering students. Dissemination of the lessons learned along with the contribution of the program to a qualified workforce is the major broader impact of the program.