2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Background & Purpose
In recent years, engineering graduates have begun to have many different career options beyond the traditional technical career paths. Engineering has been cited as developing skills and competencies that have been considered in demand for leadership in many different careers. Beyond the technical skills, the engineering undergraduate experience can help to develop transferable skills or ‘power skills’. The engineering undergraduate experience now includes more than just curriculum, but also other aspects such as internships, student clubs, research and other co-curricular workshops and activities. These activities can help develop key leadership and career skills for engineering students, however not all engineering students may be influenced by certain activities in the same way. Limited work has been done to explore this specifically for Black engineering students and the influence of student activities on the development of skills compared to their non-Black counterparts. Therefore this research aims to answer the following research questions: (1) Which undergraduate student activities are most likely to develop leadership and career skills for engineering graduates? (2) Do the activities that develop leadership and career skills differ for Black vs. non-Black engineering graduates?

Research Design & Method
This research used Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) as the conceptual framework. SCCT posits that learning experiences are influenced by person inputs and contextual factors, these learning experiences can influence self efficacy in specific skills and competencies, which can in turn influence career goals and career choices. Using SCCT as a framework, a survey was designed based on PEARS (Pathways of Engineering Alumni Research Survey), and asked questions related to participation in specific undergraduate activities and the skills/competencies developed through participation in those activities. The skills/competencies included on the survey were: Technical, Interpersonal, Communication, Leadership, Business Acumen, Societal impact, Lifelong Learning, Innovation, Self-Confidence, and Independence.

Results & Contribution
The survey was distributed to engineering graduates who had complete their degrees at least 5 years prior. 289 participants completed the survey, and of those 115 identified as Black and 174 identified as other ‘non-Black’ racial groups, the majority of which were White. Survey results were analyzed for the entire dataset and also broken out into ‘Black’ and ‘Non-Black’. For the development of technical skills, the engineering curriculum was most commonly cited as developing these skills for both Black and non-Black graduates. There was a statistically significant difference for Black vs. Non-Black on citing technical team projects/capstones as developing technical skills, with Black graduates statistically more likely to cite technical team projects as developing technical skills than their non-Black counterparts. For the development of Interpersonal Skills and Leadership Skills, Black graduates were statically more likely to cite student clubs as developing these skills than their non-Black counterparts. For developing Independence, Non-Black graduates were significantly more likely to report Research activities as developing skills than Black graduates.
This work can help engineering administrators and Faculty consider how participation in engineering undergraduate activities may influence Black and other marginalized groups differently than their counterparts and potentially design experiences that can support all students.