About Us
General Meetings
We gather weekly on Tuesdays at 5:30 PM in ECCR 151.
Please refer to our calendar for exact dates and details.
Chapter History
The University of Colorado at Boulder established a student
chapter of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) in
1983. The chapter had its humble beginnings with 10 members and has
since grown to over double in size becoming SHPE / MAES, Society of
Hispanic Professional Engineers and Mexican American Engineers and
Scientists.
The CU-Boulder SHPE / MAES chapter has faced many challenges
along the way. There have been periods when recruiting and retaining
members becomes the most difficult task. In spite of all of this, the
chapter has continued with its goals of expanding the membership and
providing its members with professional and academic development in a
friendly environment.
Active membership has fluctuated throughout the
years and has relied highly on the number of Hispanic students attending
CU-Boulder. Currently, there are a total of 29,000 students attending
the University of Colorado at Boulder of which 14% are minorities, and
from which 6-7% is of Hispanic/Latino decent. Considering the size of
the student body this is a small percentage and posed a large challenge
to the growth of our membership.
Major sources of inspiration for the
CU-Boulder SHPE / MAES chapter have been the strong support from advisor
Gilbert Saenz, the CU-Boulder Multicultural Engineering Program (MEP).
These sources have provided encouragement and continuous support for the
chapter. The students recognized the strong bond that MEP and Gilbert
Saenz have with the chapter and have become increasingly motivated to
participate and achieve chapter goals.
Most of the membership is
composed of students who belong to the local MEP. At the beginning of
every fall semester, strong advertising and recruiting efforts are made
to publicize SHPE / MAES in engineering as well as on campus.