NACME’s principal outreach effort, consuming 70 percent of the annual budget, is the awarding of scholarship grants to minority engineering students through a powerful network of college and university partners. In 2006, nearly one-third of minority students in the nation graduating with engineering degrees received their diplomas from NACME partner institutions. Since the mid-1990s, the retention-to-graduation rate of NACME Scholars has exceeded 85 percent, which is more than twice the average retention rate for minority engineering students nationwide and nearly 20 percentage points higher than that of all engineering students regardless of ethnicity.

In 2006–2007, the number of scholars NACME supported increased by 21 percent, for a total of $1.7 million awarded in scholarships and $2.5 million given through institutions’ in-kind support. Even so, NACME has established the aggressive goal of benefiting 1,400 students by the year 2010, nearly 30 percent more than the current number served.

According to NACME research, underrepresented minority engineering students tend to thrive in colleges and universities where the leadership strongly supports initiatives for inclusion. NACME currently commits block grants of $100,000 to $125,000 to each of 40 selected universities that have demonstrated a thorough commitment to diversity. These Partner Institutions (see university partners) use the grants as part of financial aid packages to recruit and retain underrepresented minority engineering students, and, in turn, serve as models for “culturally competent campuses.” NACME plans to grow the number of these university partners to 54 by the year 2010. Partner schools are expected to graduate at least 80 percent of the NACME Scholars and 90 percent of the scholars who have transferred from a community college.

Many partner schools have achieved that goal. NACME Scholars have achieved an 83 percent retention-to-graduation rate, compared to the national average of 39 percent (for minorities in engineering). In addition, 31 percent of our students are women; the national average is 25 percent.

As NACME works to grow the base of scholarship grants toward the 2010 goal of $2.1 million, it does so with a renewed commitment to what NACME president and CEO Dr. John Brooks Slaughter calls “a new terminology...of competitiveness and winning.” Knowing that NACME’s best practices are understood and being applied throughout a national network, the organization looks forward to measuring the success of its university scholarship programs student by student in the coming years.