Published: Sept. 27, 2016
Professors from universities across the USA recently visited the Engineering Center.

The CU Boulder Engineering GoldShirt program in the BOLD Center helps students from underserved backgrounds prosper in engineering -- and now it's being adopted outside Colorado.

GoldShirt works like red shirting in athletics. Motivated students who want to be engineers, but didn’t have the opportunity to get fully prepared in high school, are admitted and given an extra year to take math and science courses, turning the four-year engineering program into a five-year program.

Students in the program might be the first in their families to attend college, English-language learners, or those who went to high schools with limited math and science resources.

Six universities, including CU Boulder, are sharing a $5 million federal grant to start, expand, or study their programs.

Mechanical engineering professor Jana Milford is serving as Principal Investigator for the project, working with Tanya Ennis, the Director of the GoldShirt program at the BOLD Center. Faculty from multiple engineering programs across the country recently visited Boulder to meet with Ennis and Milford to learn more about GoldShirt and how it works.

Find out more from the Seattle Times.