Engineering Commons^™

Using Student Ambassadors To Relay Themes From Changing The Conversation In Engineering First Year Seminars, Sarah Rzasa Zappe, Melissa Marshall, Enrique D. Gomez, Esther W. Gomez, Angela D. Lueking

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper describes the efforts at a large mid-Atlantic university to integrate themes from Changing the Conversation into First Year Seminars. Changing the Conversation, a 2008 book by the National Academy of Engineering, found that both male and female students were more attracted to messages describing engineering in terms relating to societal impact, such as the phrases, "Engineering makes a world of difference" and "Engineering is essential to our health, happiness, and safety." Although the research was conducted with younger students, the potential for using these themes in the undergraduate curricula could have the potential to impact persistence in engineering, …