10/3/2024 Aaron Siedlitz
Written by Aaron Siedlitz
The Grainger College of Engineering continues to deliver on its promise of working deeply with partner institutions to ensure greater engineering education accessibility for all, and to cultivate a diverse engineering workforce. To that end, Grainger Engineering is proud to announce the Engineering Access Alliance partnership with City Colleges of Chicago.
The Alliance will increase access to and awareness of the top-5 ranked undergraduate engineering program at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign for potential transfer students from City Colleges.
ACADEMIC ALLIANCE PARTNERSHIP EVENT
Watch the partnership recording
Building off an established relationship gained through the Engineering Pathways program, Grainger Engineering and City Colleges will now offer prospective transfer students a streamlined process for entry into Grainger Engineering. This will come through exposure to diverse engineering fields and specialized courses, access to summer programs and research opportunities, and seamless transitions through co-advising.
“The Engineering Access Alliance helps increase the efficiency and clarity with which we can support City Colleges' students who are working toward a bright future in the STEM field,” said Jonathan Makela, Grainger Engineering associate dean for undergraduate programs. “By working with these students in a more specific way, we can learn deeply about their interests and help them understand more about Grainger Engineering’s capabilities and opportunities that line up with their future goals.
“There are many reasons why students wouldn’t or can’t choose a traditional four-year undergraduate path. We want to highlight and facilitate other ways for City Colleges' exceptional and diverse student pool to choose our campus and Grainger Engineering’s undergraduate program.”
Created in 2012, the Engineering Pathways program started with a handful of community colleges. But in 2023 it expanded to offer a streamlined transfer experience and guaranteed admission into Grainger Engineering for students from any community college within Illinois.
Many of those students came from City Colleges of Chicago, arriving at the U. of I. with an exemplary educational background due to their community college experience.
“The day acceptance letters came out, I think I checked the university portal every thirty minutes. When I read the words ‘Welcome to Illinois,’ I cried at work, grabbed my manager’s phone, and called my mom to tell her, ‘We did it!’ I started at U. of I. in the fall of 2020 and enjoyed my time there so much. I graduated on December 17, 2022, with a job already lined up for after graduation at Eaton Corporation in Wisconsin. When I secured the job, I told my mother that it was time for her to retire. It’s my turn to take care of her.”
--Jonathan Cifuentes Barrios, City Colleges and Grainger Engineering alumnus
These students, Makela said, are well prepared academically – through a thorough and well-developed STEM curriculum – and professionally – through internship and similar experiences.
Grainger Engineering meets them with an undergraduate program that emphasizes an empowering experience intended to prepare students as future leaders, who are purpose-driven, collaborative and innovative.
“Consistent with the university’s land-grant mission, Grainger Engineering provides an excellent undergraduate experience at scale. We are proud of programs like the Engineering Access Alliance because they offer new avenues for a diverse population of talented students to enter engineering education. In turn, many of our graduates will become the Grainger Engineers building the state of Illinois and Chicago's future tech workforce and positioning the Urbana to Chicago corridor as the nation's fastest-growing tech hub,” said Grainger Engineering Dean Rashid Bashir.
A major reason Grainger Engineering seeks to further the connection with City Colleges of Chicago is the institution’s dedication to STEM education, which impacts a student’s likelihood of success.
City Colleges has grown its model engineering program at Wright College from nine students in the 2015 pilot, to 25 students before receiving a $1.7 million National Science Foundation grant in 2018 used to launch an engineering bridge program. The program enrolls 650 students today. Two-thirds of its students are Latine or Black students and 23 percent are women.
“City Colleges offers Chicagoans a high-quality, affordable, and accessible engineering education with a pathway to Illinois’ top-ranked engineering bachelor’s degree program,” said Chancellor Juan Salgado, City Colleges of Chicago. “Now many more diverse and talented Chicagoans can pursue sought-after engineering careers that can transform their lives and our communities.”
“We are thankful for the opportunity to co-create this pipeline of diverse engineering students that will go out into the world and build, protect, and fix our communities,” said Dr. Doris Espiritu, senior advisor to the provost and dean of the Center of Excellence in Engineering and Computer Science. “Our students are talented and fearless. We are grateful to the U. of I. and The Grainger College of Engineering for recognizing their talent and creating this expanded partnership.”