February 15, 2002

NC State Minority Freshman Engineering Students Honored

Dr. Tony L. Mitchell (left), assistant dean of engineering
and director of Minority Engineering Programs, and
Dr. Nino A. Masnari, dean of the College of Engineering
at NC State University, hold the plaque commemorating
the Outstanding College Performance Award presented to
minority freshman students from the College.

Minority freshman students from the College of Engineering at NC State received an Outstanding College Performance Award at the 2002 Multicultural Student Affairs Freshman Honors Convocation held January 29 at the Witherspoon Student Center on campus.  The award was presented to each college with fifty percent or more minority freshman students with a fall 2001 grade point average (GPA) of 3.0 or higher.  Minority students are defined as students of African-American, Native American and Hispanic-American heritage. Of the four colleges honored, the College of Engineering is the only one honored for the second year in a row.

Dr. Tony L. Mitchell, assistant dean of engineering and director of Minority Engineering Programs, attributes the success of minority engineering students in part to the well-developed support system that has been in place for several years.  This system includes a summer high-school-to-college bridge program to give entering freshmen familiarity with the campus and college life, a mentoring program that pairs students with an engineering major and two courses, Engineering 144 and 145 (Academic and Professional Preparation for Engineering I and II), that teach survival skills for students bridging the gap between full-time scholar and professional engineer.

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Media Contacts: Dr. Tony L. Mitchell, 919/515-3264, tmitchel@eos.ncsu.edu Linda E. Rudd, 919-515-3848, linda_rudd@ncsu.edu