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In the Fall of 2002, the Graduate, Undergraduate Initiative for Development and Enhancement (GUIDE) program was started at Michigan Technological University. GUIDE's major goal is to provide first year engineering students from underrepresented groups with skills to succeed academically. To meet this objective, the program provides first year students with: • Undergraduate and graduate mentors • Seminars with Engineering Faculty where various aspects of engineering career options are presented • Career development workshops to develop interviewing skills, resumés and cover letters • Academic scholarships to help with tuition expenses (Undergraduate scholars receive an annual scholarship of $2,500 for two years; graduate scholars are awarded a $3,125 scholarship.)In the Fall, the first year students are placed in teams with a second year student and a Masters student. The sophomore mentor is a person who participated in the GUIDE program the previous year and successfully completed their first year of engineering school. The graduate student mentor provides mentoring to both undergraduates and is the team leader. Throughout the year, these student/mentor teams meet weekly at the seminars and socially. The engineering seminars provide the GUIDE scholars with opportunities to meet faculty from different engineering departments. These contacts are a way for first year students to become acquainted with faculty in an informal setting. They also provide a contact person when students have questions regarding a given discipline. The topics for the seminars focus on different aspects of engineering careers (i.e.: engineering consulting, graduate school, undergraduate research opportunities, managing your career and personal life, working in industry, engineering for social change, engineering in your community). The seminars are informal and students are encouraged to ask questions and to give comments. The career development workshops are designed to give students skills they need to obtain summer internships or co-ops. The income from these jobs helps the students fund their education after they have completed the GUIDE program. This paper details the GUIDE program and outlines how the students have benefited from the program during its first year.

The Graduate, Undergraduate Initiative for Development and Enhancement (GUIDE) program creates a supportive environment for first year engineering students from underrepresented groups. This 4 year NSF program has just completed its second year of funding. GUIDE provides first year students with student mentors, financial assistance and faculty advisors to assist them with the transition to university life. In addition, the GUIDE scholars attend engineering seminars and career workshops. This paper describes the GUIDE program and the skills students gain from participating in the program. It also outlines the logistics involved in a student mentoring program that is coupled with seminars and workshops.

In the fall of 2000, Michigan Tech made a calendar conversion from quarters to semesters and, in conjunction with this, simultaneously overhauled the engineering curricula. One of the changes that we adopted was the development of a common first year engineering program. Prior to the calendar conversion, each academic department in the College of Engineering established its own curriculum for the entire four-year degree program. During the course of the curricular revamping, we also received funding from the NSF under the Action Agenda program with a portion of the grant dedicated to the implementation of the common first year engineering program. In designing our first year program, we "borrowed" ideas from several engineering schools, primarily those universities involved in the various NSF coalitions. This paper describes the procedure we followed to implement this sweeping curricular change and highlights the features that we incorporated into our first-year engineering program. Preliminary feedback and assessment from the first-year program as well as "lessons learned" will also be presented in the paper. The Timeline and Procedure for ChangeStep 1: Establishing the Leadership. In December of 1996, a new Dean of Engineering was hired at Michigan Tech. Soon after arriving on campus, he met with one of the authors (Sorby) to discuss his desire to develop a common first-year engineering program. Shortly thereafter, the decision was made to convert from quarters to semesters at Michigan Tech. The initiative to change the academic calendar to semesters was faculty driven, based primarily on educational objectives, and was not imposed by the administration or state government. In our quarter calendar, the winter term was disjointed with several breaks during its 10-week duration. The sentiment among the faculty was that this disjointed calendar along with the fast pace of 10-week quarters in the fall and spring did not allow students enough time for reflection on the material they were learning. There was a commitment on the part of the faculty and administration in the College of Engineering (COE) to look critically at existing programs and develop new, innovative curricula rather than "cut and paste" our quarter courses to fit the new academic calendar. In the coming months, the dean appointed Sorby to be the Director of General Engineering, charged with developing and implementing a common first-year engineering program at Michigan Tech. At about the same

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