Purdue University and Morgan State University are partnering to launch a new program directed at students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Purdue will offer its aeronautics and astronautics expertise to Morgan State as the school establishes its own campus liquid-fueled rocketry lab and training program. Thanks to these efforts, HBCU engineering students now have the opportunity of earning a degree from Purdue.
Dubbed the 3+2 program, it enables students studying civil engineering or engineering physics to finish the first three years of their bachelor studies at Morgan State before completing their studies at West Lafayette, where they can earn a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering. This means that students can now earn a degree from both universities. Three Morgan State students spent their internship at Purdue’s Maurice J. Zucrow Laboratories, an academic rocket propulsion facility, during the summer of 2019.
According to the two universities, the program came to life thanks to a Morgan State team that won a $1.6 million grant from Base 11 to develop a rocketry program. Base 11 has been working toward providing more STEM education and opportunities for underrepresented minorities—particularly, students of color. The president of Purdue, Mitchy Daniels, expressed that the university could make improvements in engaging and preparing “young people of color, first-generation students, and low-income students.”
“We’re working very hard on this,” he shared. “We started the Purdue Polytechnic High Schools to increase our numbers of minority and low-income students who will pursue STEM careers. We have to be much better in this area, and the program with Morgan State fits directly into this ambition.”
Located in Indiana, the Purdue Polytechnic High School has served as a way of providing more low-income and minority students access to the public education system, which has presented low acceptance numbers for these specific groups. Purdue also launched the Summer Start and Early Start Programs last summer, where 1,000 new Boilermakers can get a head start on their college educations. These direct-admit programs are targeted at minority students who, while falling short in some admissions requirements, have managed to display the capacity to succeed at Purdue.
Demographics show that unemployment levels are high in communities of color in states where tech and engineering are the dominant industries. The goal of these kinds of programs is to create a pipeline where students can develop the skills that allow them to access these growing economies and industries. By expanding access to education, Purdue and Morgan State are furthering opportunities for both low-income students and students of color to access STEM careers and gain more opportunities as well as representation.
For more information, visit https://purdue.edu/
For more news and stories, read how socioeconomic inequality affects STEM education here.