The letters and photos worked on two levels: they offered support to incoming students and let them know this was a warm and inviting campus, and they helped the organization increase visibility among students. This has resulted in a strong increase in the group’s membership, and positive relationships have been formed among new and existing students. The 19 percent increase in the Hispanic student population this year — about 3.6 percent of the nearly 3,500-student body — could be credited in part to the proactive telephone outreach; however, it cannot be proven that this program is the only cause of the increase in the number of Hispanic students attending Wentworth. What is not in question is that students feel a stronger sense of pride and community because of the program.
Building on the program’s success, it is being expanded to Wentworth’s student chapters of the Society of Women Engineers and the National Society of Black Engineers. (Blacks make up 3.5 percent of the student body.) Students will join in the recruiting efforts, to empower both current and prospective students and further create a stronger sense of pride and community.
— Carissa Durfee advises the Wentworth Institute of Technology’s chapter of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers and is the Intercultural Center coordinator and associate director of Student Leadership Programs at Wentworth. Vanessa Foote is Wentworth’s assistant director of admissions.
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