The Leadership Development Program is modeled after a successful 3 year scholarship program that was funded by an alum for talented economically-disadvantaged transfer students seeking a Bachelor of Science degrees in engineering and technology. The program provided students with a monetary award, additional training and mentoring opportunities that prepared them for leadership roles in engineering. The program has proven to be a tremendous success with all six students of its first cohort graduating within two years of transferring to SIUC and securing fast-track careers. In continuing this model, applicants are chosen from Illinois' southern-most 11 community college districts. A total of twenty-nine recipients receive $9000 scholarships their junior and senior years. These scholarships remove economic barriers that would prohibit a largely first generation college student demographic from achieving a professional career, and improve the recruitment, retention, graduation rates, and job placement of these students. In particular, the project aims to achieve a three-year graduation rate (i.e., four and one half years after beginning at the community-college level) of at least ninety percent and become self-sustaining through corporate sponsors interested in developing a diverse engineering population. Support activities for scholarship recipients build upon the College of Engineering's many existing student support programs (i.e., peer mentoring, minority support programs, and tutoring). The intellectual merit of this project is the determination as to whether retention, graduation, and job placement rates of students attracted to engineering and technology can be increased by providing financial support and by implementing student support and leadership programs. The broader impact of the project is an increase in the breadth of social and economic backgrounds of students graduating in engineering and, thus, of prepared individuals entering the job market.
