When you think "boot camp," you probably think of the military, or maybe one of those fitness boot camps where you're egged on by a sadistic instructor through obstacle courses and hundreds of pushups. Purdue University's Academic Boot Camp, part of their Minority Engineering Program (MEP), is as rigorous as any military or fitness boot camp, but instead of exercising their muscles, students exercise their minds. The Academic Boot Camp (ABC) is a five-week crash course in the lifestyle and pace of the colleges of engineering, technology and science at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind. The ABC lets students get adjusted to the rigors of college life and take a sneak peek at the material they'll be working on during the school year.

Stephon Watson, who graduated from Purdue's engineering program in 2006 and now works at Microsoft, helped develop the program for the ABC in 2005 and 2006. In 2005, part of the program included asking the participants to build a Lego drawbridge; in 2006, the students created remote-controlled gas-powered cars. "We [the prototyping team] built the cars ourselves so that we would know what were some of the problems the students would encounter," he says. "It took us three days to get it done, and then we figured out what were the teaching points in researching and building the car."

The ABC is just one part of Purdue's multifaceted MEP, which is one of the earliest minority engineering programs in the country. Since 1974, when Purdue alum Marion W. Blalock built the MEP into a model for universities across the country, the MEP has graduated more than 1,300 engineering students of color.

Recruit, Motivate, Retain

The Academic Boot Camp is one of many programs that Purdue's Minority Engineering Program uses to help recruit, motivate and retain engineering students. "Our programs are open to all students and designed to support a climate that values diversity and inclusion within and outside of the classroom," says Virginia Booth-Gleghorn, director of the Minority Engineering Program. The MEP offers programs that reach students ranging from elementary school age to college students, and that aim to get more students to choose engineering as a career-and to succeed in their professions. Some of these programs include:

Preview

This three-day program is designed to encourage students who have been admitted to Purdue to enroll full-time. Second-year student Alice Asha Madjani credits Preview with convincing her to choose Purdue. "When I was invited to Preview, I was still trying to decide whether to enroll," she says. "After I attended Preview, I just had to come. I got to know more about the engineering program, and I saw that the school was big and diverse, with all kinds of different people. The students I met were extremely nice and gave me insights about Purdue."

The Summer Engineering Workshop (SEW)

SEW, which more than 3,000 students of color in the sixth, seventh and eighth grades have participated in since 1976, is a one-week workshop that exposes young students to engineering, higher education and college life. Activities include hands-on engineering-related projects, tours of the campus and the engineering labs and facilities, discussions with engineering students and professionals presentations from counselors on what courses junior and senior high school students need to take to enter the field of engineering, and "Life Planning" sessions on time management, goal-setting, and other important skills.

Purdue's Recruitment Of Multi-Ethnic Students Interested in the Schools of Engineering (PROMISE)

PROMISE is a three-day program where high school juniors and seniors get the scoop on admission and financial aid procedures, the freshman engineering curriculum, Purdue's cooperative education program and summer internship opportunities, and engineering student organizations. Other activities include visits to actual classes accompanied by Purdue students, a campus tour, social events, and the opportunity to meet practicing engineers, faculty, and staff.

Target Cities Luncheon Programs

Exceptional high school juniors and seniors, and their teachers and counselors, are invited to special luncheons held in various Midwest cities to learn about the Purdue University Schools of Engineering and the field of engineering. Purdue engineering students help out by leading group discussions that focus on making the transition from high school to college and succeeding in an engineering curriculum, while engineer role models share their professional experiences.

The MEP Tutorial Service

When students are feeling stressed out by the workload, they can get pointers from junior, senior and graduate engineering students for free at the Tutorial Service. "My first year in the engineering program, I experienced that college 'reality check,' and the MEP Tutorial Service helped me with that," says Madjani. "I had tutors twice a week for math and science. The MEP staff have always been willing to help if I told them I needed it."

The Minority Engineering Student Seminar

This seminar, also known as Engineering 180, explores the challenges that minority engineering students have in making the transition from high school to college. Engineering 180 gives students details on the support services that are available through the MEP, lets students meet the faculty and staff, and gives them the opportunity to interact with professionals who will share their strategies for coping with academic and professional life as an engineer.

A Family Affair

Purdue University's Minority Engineering Program takes "being involved" to the extreme. Students not only participate in the MEP-they also help run it. For example, Luis Moreno, class of 2007, volunteered to head up a project where engineering students tested sound waves using bottles containing different volumes of water. The students developed an equation to describe how the frequency of the sound related to the amount of water in the bottle-and competed to compose the best melody using the water-filled bottles that they decorated.

Then there's Madjani, who works for the MEP as a work-study student. "I help out with the office materials, and organize annual programs like PROMISE by sending invitations to high school students and reserving rooms," she says. She also assisted with the MEP's recognition awards ceremony and is part of the administration of the Tutorial Center.

Some students participate in the MEP and continue in the program by working there after graduation. Allene Manning earned her undergraduate degree in electrical engineering in 1996 and her master's degree in 2000. She returned to become the assistant director of the MEP in the summer of 2006. "I originally wanted to become a professor and help students that way, but at a research university you can't be that involved," she says. "There are other things you have to be worried about, like publishing. I was more interested in impacting the students." As the MEP's assistant director, Manning is proud to be having a positive influence on the program's participants. "I make sure they have top grades and do what I can to find tutors or help them myself if there's a class they're having trouble with," she says.

The MEP's practice of involving students in its administration is a way of building community. "It's not just an organization where students come together once in a while," says Leah Jamieson, Purdue's John A. Edwardson dean of engineering.

"A lot of students have a role in making the program happen. That gives them an additional set of connections to Purdue and engineering, and gives them some ownership that wouldn't happen with a program run from a more traditional administrative model."

Profiles of Success

Purdue graduates who participated in the Minority Engineering Program have gone on to achieve some impressive career goals. For example, Purdue alumni Don Thompson began his career with McDonald's in 1990 as a restaurant systems engineer and is now the president of McDonald's USA. Dr. William Payne received a bachelor's degree from Purdue University, then went on to receive an master's degree from Georgia Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. from Illinois Institute of Technology, all in electrical engineering. He's now the senior director of operations of Networks Advanced Technology at Motorola. Kirk A. Law, who received his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Purdue in 1981 and his MS in electrical engineering from Purdue in 1983, is now the vice president of storage and platform engineering at Network Appliance, Inc.

Watson, who just graduated in 2006, tells a funny story of how he ended up as the program manager of Windows Component Platforms at Microsoft.

"I had interviews for two internships at Microsoft, but didn't get them," he says. "Then, last December just before the break at school, I received an email from Microsoft asking to interview me for a full-time position. They flew me to Redmond, I did a full day of interviews, and in February they offered me a job." At the second internship interview, the interviewer had told Watson that he didn't fit the position. However, the interviewer thought Watson would be perfect as a full-time program manager, and put a note in his file to call him about the job.

Challenges and Changes

Spurred on by the growth of the minority student population in the U.S., the MEP has gone through many transformations over the years. "Thirty years ago more than 19% of the college age population consisted of underrepresented minorities," says Gleghorn. "But the underrepresented minority and female population is growing; it's projected to be more than 40% by the year 2025. We're being challenged to increase the engineering graduate population in proportion to this growth."

To meet those growing demands, over the years the MEP has expanded to include more focus on K-12 outreach programs like SEW and PROMISE, plus more collaboration and partnerships with various engineering, science, technology and mathematics programs. One such partnership is with the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation and the Alliances for Graduate Education in the Professoriate. Both of these alliances are funded through the National Science Foundation and encourage students to pursue science, technology, engineering or math. They emphasize research and encourage students to continue through the Ph.D. level to increase the number of minorities at the professor level.

While the population of college-age minority students is growing, the explosive growth of technology means the U.S. needs more engineering students than ever. The MEP's goal is to help the growing number of underrepresented minority students fill the increasing number of technological jobs by giving students math and science skills at an early age.

"As the nation seeks to engage American schools and communities in initiatives to bridge the 'digital divide,' reducing inequities in access to information technology and the Internet, our programs have also changed to engage student participants in more hands-on, computer-based projects that require them to explore the educational benefits of the Internet," says Gleghorn. "We're also challenged by the demands of a global academic environment and the need for American students from historically underrepresented groups to understand and be able to function well within a rich and diverse cultural community." In response, the MEP exposes students to instructors from different countries during the Academic Boot Camp to acclimate them to the typical college classroom.

In addition, Purdue's homestate of Indiana has a significantly larger Hispanic population than it did even five years ago, says Jamieson, "It increases the importance of having Purdue be a central part of the Minority Engineering Program." They must be doing something right-Purdue was named the second best place in the country for Hispanic students to study engineering by Hispanic Business magazine.

But the issues that underrepresented students face have not been improving fast enough to suit Jamieson. "Being in a class where there is one woman, one African-American student, one Hispanic student leads to isolation issues," she says. "Though our numbers are better than they were 30 years ago, they're not much better than they were 10 years ago. The percentage of students who are minority students is up a little bit, but not dramatically, and that's true nationally as well."

More to Come

The staff at the MEP are always thinking up new ways to improve the program. "The numbers on diversity haven't been changing in the last ten years," says Jamieson. "There hasn't been the kind of progress anyone would like. We continue to need new ways to think about the issue and new approaches. My goal is to be at the forefront of making engineering a place where we both increase the success of minority students and ensure a welcoming climate."

This year, Jamieson and her colleagues are working on a research project to understand the relationship between diversity and curriculum. "There are things we can and should be doing not just in summer programs, but in the core of our curriculum at the university," she explains. "We need elements that are better aligned with the interests and priorities of underrepresented groups.

We're spending this year trying to gain a deeper understanding of what we can do in our curriculum that will fundamentally make this a more welcoming profession for people who have not thought of engineering as something they want to spend their lives doing."

In the meantime, students continue to participate in the Minority Engineering Program, flourish in the academic environment, and succeed in school and in their careers. "I'm proudest of the commitment and loyalty of students who have participated over the years and continued to be committed to that program," says Jamieson.

And wherever they go, students take with them the positive influence of Purdue's Minority Engineering Program. Says Watson, the student who is now at Microsoft, "I love MEP. They are my family."