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Multicultural Engineering Program:
MEP Serves as Model for Diversity Programs Across the Campus

Bradford Peagler and Kristin Aragon, along with Ian Her Many Horses (not pictured), represent MEP on the CU-LEAD Alliance's Student Advisory Group.

Leadership, excellence, achievement, and diversity have been pillar values of CU's Multicultural Engineering Program for more than 30 years. Now, with the MEP serving as a model and guide, those values are being adopted across the Boulder campus through the emerging strength of a collaborative organization named for those very words: the CU-LEAD Alliance.

Founded six years ago, the CU-LEAD Alliance is an umbrella organization made up of diversity programs from various schools and colleges on the CU-Boulder campus.

"MEP, in conjunction with the Minority Arts and Sciences Program and the McNeill Academic Program, serve as the cornerstones of the CU-LEAD Alliance," says Christine Yoshinaga-Itano, vice provost and associate vice chancellor for diversity and equity. "MEP's 30 years of success serves as a model, not only for the Boulder campus, but also as a national model that has succeeded in diversifying the pool of engineers."

Since its inception, the CU-LEAD Alliance has helped to establish and develop new diversity programs, such as the recently formed Journalism Diversity Scholars Program and the Diverse Musician's Alliance Program. The alliance now includes 14 diversity-focused academic neighborhoods representing every college or school on the Boulder campus.

"The MEP is sharing its 'building community' model for collaborative learning and student development to help other programs develop the key elements proven to increase the retention and academic success of multicultural students," says MEP Co-Director David Aragon. These elements include fostering camaraderie and achievement through a supportive, cohesive community experience, academic enrichment and leadership activities, and scholarships.

While much of the CU-LEAD Alliance's work is done at the administrative level, a group of student representatives from each participating program is asserting a growing role.

"Up to this point we've mostly functioned as a think-tank, but now we're starting to take more of a leadership role," says Ian Her Many Horses, a senior computer science student and MEP participant who co-facilitates the alliance's Student Advisory Group.

For example, student representatives this year provided advice to the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program on how to better attract a diverse array of students. They also worked to further define the purpose of the CU-LEAD Alliance and proposed ideas for better engaging students in this campus-wide multicultural community.

For more information, visit www.colorado.edu/engineering/MEP