As of October 1, 2016, the SWUTC concluded its 28 years of operation and is no longer an active center of the Texas A&M Transportation Institute. The archived SWUTC website remains available here.

167175-1 Report Abstract

Assessment of Programs that Encourage Students from Diverse Populations to Consider Transportation Careers

Debbie Jasek, Texas A&M University, March 2010, 46 pp. (167175-1)

The primary purpose of this study was to assess the attitudes, experiences, and awareness level of students exposed to a specialized transportation curriculum and to track the progress of participants in a series of summer transportation institutes and other outreach programs held during the period, 1999-2008.  These programs include the Summer Transportation Institutes in Texas, Go Girl!, On the Move!, Career Exploration, the Rural Transportation Institutes, and Students from Nontraditional Backgrounds.   Although an attempt was made to contact students from all of outreach events, the vast majority of responses and data were obtained from the participants in the Texas Summer Transportation Institute and the SWUTC funded Summer Aviation Transportation Institute and Rural Summer Transportation Institute.

Many of the students contacted are either currently attending a university or beginning their careers.  This project attempted to determine the status of these students and document whether and where they are attending college as well as their course of study. If appropriate the team then contacted the student to gauge their desire for interaction with either a University Transportation Center or transportation program.

Keywords: Careers in Transportation, Careers in Engineering, STEM, Transportation Outreach Programs

ENTIRE REPORT (Adobe Acrobat File – 233 KB)