PECAP becomes guide for underrepresented students

Pitt is redefining the term “diversity” with a unique perspective, an innovative program… Pitt is redefining the term “diversity” with a unique perspective, an innovative program and a couple of new acronyms.

Sylvanus Nwosu, assistant dean for diversity at the School of Engineering, disagreed with higher education protocol for recruiting underrepresented students. He felt that programs such as affirmative action are unsuccessful in diversifying colleges. So he set out to create the Pitt Engineering Career Access Program.

In a sequential set of three programs, PECAP would recruit underrepresented students, regardless of race or gender, and offer them an educational lifeline to guide them through high school, college and graduate school, believing it would be a formidable tool for diversifying Pitt.

The Board of Education agreed, and pledged Nwosu almost $600,000 pending Pitt’s approval and adoption of his plan. Now PECAP has funding for the next five years, and is set to fully implement the program.

PECAP differs from other minority recruiting plans because it is comprehensive and “a total package,” according to Nwosu. Qualified students are not simply plucked out of high school and given money to attend Pitt. Instead, the program seeks to form an educational bond with students while they are still in high school.

Through the first phase of the program, Critical and Analytical Reasoning Enrichment, pre-college students hone their critical, cognitive and analytical thinking skills in a summer academic enrichment program on the Pitt campus.

Graduates of CARE are invited to attend Pitt with special consideration. While Nwosu stresses that they would not be required to do so, he said they would not be receiving the benefit of the whole program if they chose to attend a different college.

PECAP continues with the Excel Summer Engineering Program. Recent high school graduates will attend SEA to smooth the transition from high school to college. They will take both credit and noncredit courses in science, math and technical communication. Able minds will assist faculty and graduate students in summer research projects.

Again, students who plan to come to Pitt are given priority acceptance to SEA and are given special consideration when they finally apply to the university.

PECAP concludes at the undergraduate level with the Minority Engineering Mentoring Program. MEMP provides students with peer, faculty and professional mentors to monitor their progress, evaluate their academic performance and identify their weaknesses. Students will participate in research projects and attend career workshops through MEMP.

The ultimate goal is to make good students better, said Nwosu, and prepare them for continued study in graduate school.

It differs from other programs in its fresh interpretation of the concept of diversity. Nwosu said PECAP is way ahead of the game of diversification because it has redefined the term and eclipsed its accepted racial undertone by targeting all underrepresented students, regardless of race or ethnicity.

“We are trying to dismantle every element of segregation,” he said.