Shaundra Bryant Daily, Wanda Eugene, Anderson D. Prewitt

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to present a framework for understanding how social capital generated through involvement in student-run engineering organizations can help to improve retention rates of African American students in engineering and positively affect their overall success. The individualistic and weed out culture of engineering, ethnic isolation, and lack of interaction with faculty and broader university community can leave these students feeling isolated. Consequently, students may become at risk for leaving the field, or not excelling in it, thereby making the goal of retaining a diverse cohort difficult to achieve. Through interview data that reflect the experiences of students involved in the National Society of Black Engineers, it can be shown that studentrun organizations can help develop social capital for positive outcomes. Keywords: social capital, minority student retention, student-run organizations