Released:
2/2/04
Marquette University's College
of Engineering and Thomas
More High School are delighted to announce a unique educational
partnership that seeks to encourage young people to enter the
field of engineering. The partnership places a special emphasis
on preparing high school students to enroll in engineering and
science of technology programs at Marquette by offering new courses
in engineering at the high school level. The program is part of
an innovative national initiative called “Project
Lead the Way,” which seeks to form partnerships among schools,
higher education institutions and the private sector to increase
the quantity and quality of engineers graduating from our educational
system. Thomas More students in the new program will take courses
in various aspects of engineering and have the opportunity to
meet Marquette engineering faculty, students, and alumni to learn
about careers in the field and prepare for study in the Marquette
College of Engineering.
“Marquette has embarked on programs like this partnership in
an effort to motivate and help youngsters in high school know
what engineering is about and how they can become engineers,”
said Stan Jaskolski, Ph.D., Dean of the College of Engineering.
“Introduction at this level will attract more students to engineering,
and will allow students to determine if engineering is the career
field they want to go into.”
"Thomas More is excited to be a pioneer in this new partnership
with Marquette's College of Engineering. This engineering program
provides our students with many new opportunities to explore the
field of engineering in the classroom, at the university level
and in the workplace,” explained Steven Roy, President of Thomas
More High School. “Our students' high math and science scores
and their desire to succeed, along with the school's state-of-the-art
science and technology labs make this innovative partnership with
Marquette University a great match.”
Dr. Jaskolski says that these types of partnerships are important
as the demand for students to study engineering is growing and
the pipeline of students is not.
“Unfortunately, we as a country have about 100,000 fewer students
today studying engineering than we had ten years ago,” he said.
“This partnership is important because the special courses will
spark interest in engineering as a career and help us meet the
demand for quality, professional engineers.”
That national shortage is one reason why Project Lead the Way
(PLTW) was formed. PLTW is partially funded by Charitable Venture
Foundation, a private foundation located in Clifton Park, New
York. PLTW has a support staff of experienced technology educators
and college and university partners to support schools as they
implement PLTW curricula.
PLTW has developed a four year sequence of courses which, when
combined with college preparatory mathematics and science courses
in high school, introduces students to the scope, rigor and discipline
of engineering and engineering technology prior to entering college.
The Thomas More curriculum will follow PLTW.
Enrollment in the program for Thomas More students is underway
with courses starting in the fall 2004 semester. Students accepted
into the program will take a series of technology related courses
over their high school years and after successful completion of
the program will become eligible for advanced standing in the
Marquette University College of Engineering.
During the course of the program, these budding engineers will
have access to engineering professionals and will work with students
from the Marquette College of Engineering. Thomas More is constructing
a new, state-of-the-art engineering learning lab that is being
designed for the new program.
