Establishing friendships
freshmen may expect.
With the College of Engineering’s new Engineering Mentoring Program, freshmen can receive one-on-one help from seniors with the same major.
Lincoln Essig, ASUSU Engineering senator, created and organized the program this year and it is still in its beginning stages.
“It has been a great success so far,” Essig said. “We were very, very happy with how it worked out.”
In general, the retention rate for freshmen Engineering students is below the national average, said Scott Hinton, dean of the College of Engineering.
“One of the real challenges of engineering is that [students] get discouraged, but if you have other people you can talk with, it really can help in difficult times, especially for young students who are just getting started,” Hinton said.
Lincoln received the idea for a mentoring program from the University of Illinois, who uses a similar program that allows freshmen to work with a senior throughout the entire year.
“The main idea was to get them together,” Essig said. “We wanted to start creating that atmosphere of friendship.”
For their first meeting, during the middle of September, about 35 freshmen and 35 seniors came. They asked each other questions and exchanged contact information.
“It’s really good to hear from somebody that’s almost done,” said Cameron Grant, a freshman majoring in electrical engineering who is part of the mentoring program. “We don’t have classes with these guys [seniors], so we would have never met them.”
Lance Jensen, a senior majoring in electrical engineering and a mentor in the program said every engineering major gets overwhelmed at one point or another, especially freshmen because they don’t know what to expect.
Throughout the year, Essig hopes to continue to find senior mentors for freshmen and even sophomores in the College of Engineering.
“The hope is to convice a few of these students that they have the ability to finish this program,” Hinton said. “We really think there are a lot of people who could get through the program and end up having a fairly high-paying job for the rest of their lives.”
Other individuals who helped in creating this program include Tau Beta Pi and Engineering Honors Society President Spencer Wendel, Society of Women Engineers President Mindy Pabst and Engineering Council President Steve Gutke.