title: ALVA: A Successful Program for Increasing the Number of Minority Undergraduates who Earn Engineering Degrees.
abstract: A highly successful minority outreach and support program for incoming college freshmen in engineering is described. The University of Washington has been running ALVA (Alliances for Learning and Vision for underrepresented Americans) for 11 years and continuously tracks its participants. Partners in ALVA come from the government, education, and industry. This program targets talented underrepresented minority students and addresses four major hurdles that face minority students in engineering: lack of vision of themselves as an engineer, finances, community, and academic preparation. We will present ALVA as a model that can be duplicated at other colleges and universities.
authors.affiliation: College of Engineering, University of Washington.
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Peterson
authors.affiliation: College of Engineering, University of Washington.
authors.forename: Scott
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pinkham
authors.affiliation: College of Engineering, University of Washington.
authors.forename: Cathryne
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Jordan