Lue Lor was in high school, working a minimum wage job at the Dollar Tree, when he applied to UWM in 2018. “Honestly, if I didn’t get into college, I would most likely have pursued a factory job,” he says.
Lor—a first-generation, low-income student whose family emigrated from Thailand when he was 6 years old—was accepted into a UWM program that would help him toward his dream of an engineering career.
The program—Preparing Engineering and Computer Scientists, or PECS—is funded through the National Science Foundation and has provided scholarships, mentoring, research experience and internship opportunities for 35 UWM students from underrepresented groups who, like Lor, are academically talented and face financial challenges. Many become the first in their families to attend college.
13 students built “community of scholars” while at UWM
Lor was one of 13 engineering and computer science students who this spring completed the PECS program and graduated from UWM, ready for their first jobs or graduate school. (After an intimate PECS Program celebration, the students received their diplomas along with about 3,500 other UWM graduates at the 2022 Spring commencement.)
At UWM, the students completed their studies in the College of Engineering & Applied Science, where they earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in six different disciplines. Congratulations to:
Computer Science, BS: Jacob Dymond
Civil Engineering, BSE: Evan Callow, Cassie Wilke
Civil Engineering, BS, MS: Brynn Glennon
Electrical Engineering, BSE: Lauren Chingway, Rediet Tesfu
Industrial Engineering, BSE: Diego Avila, Alison Danison, Yareth Meza, Jake Smith
Materials Engineering, BSE: Selena Cao
Mechanical Engineering, BSE: Lue Lor, Carly Rowe
“The experience has given all students an opportunity to build a community of scholars as they work together to complete their degrees in a challenging field,” says Wilkistar Otieno, director of the UWM PECS program and chair of industrial and manufacturing engineering.
“In high school, I didn’t have the opportunity to talk to college engineering students”
Lor agrees, noting that the PECS program did more than help him meet financial challenges. “It allowed me to build connections with other engineering and computer science students,” he says.
He now hopes to inspire teens from unrepresented groups to pursue STEM careers. Through the PECS program, he recently participated in a panel discussion for Milwaukee Public School students who were applying to college.
“I was very grateful for this experience,” Lor says. “My family moved from Thailand to the U.S. to pursue a better future. My parents are Hmong and grew up in a refugee camp. While they had no schooling, they encouraged me and my siblings to attend college, and I wanted to pursue a career that could financially support me and my family.” (Lor is now the third UWM alumni among his siblings.)
“But when I was a high school student, I didn’t have the opportunity to talk to any college engineering students,” he adds.
Without the financial and extra-curricular support from the PECS program, he says, this may never have become a reality.
Extra-curricular activities—which can include stepping into the community as Lor did—is a significant component of the program and seen as essential to helping students prepare to be successful in the job market.
UWM’s commitment to increasing diversity in STEM fields goes beyond classroom
The program requires students to attend at least two professional development workshops and participate in at least two community engagement activities each semester.
This year, for example, the PECS students participated in Discovery World’s Girls & STEM Day, the Wisconsin MATE ROV Competition, the Milwaukee Public Schools STEM Fair, the Milwaukee Maker Faire and the Contrapt! Wisconsin Competition.
Chris Beimborn, PECS program coordinator, connects students with volunteer and collaborative activities. “Roles in STEM outreach offer communication and leadership experience,” she says. “Interactions with community members give the students well-deserved recognition, reminding them that they are on challenging paths and their hard work inspires others.”
PECS leadership also collaborated with UWM’s STEM-Inspire Program to bring a speaker to campus – Vanessa Hill, a mathematics professor at Springfield Technical Community College in Springfield, MA who has studied ways to revamp remedial math education to enable inclusivity and to ensure more students progress into college -level courses and graduate.
Her talk reinforced the message that regardless of students’ backgrounds or initial aptitudes in their STEM major, they can succeed with the right support.
“Peer networking, which is woven into both programs, enhances students’ sense of belonging on campus and their sense of belonging in their chosen profession,” Otieno says. “It can play an integral role in their success once they leave campus.”
Eighteen PECS students have graduated since the program began 2017.