Monterrey Tech is Closer Than You Think...

In researching Monterrey Tech, officially Instituto Tecnológico de Monterrey, I have come across some interesting pieces of information that I would like to zero in on. This private university offers what is considered a very prestigious and world-class education in the STEM field.

Monterrey’s location, in the state of Nuevo Leon, borders with Texas. On an informative tangent, I am not sure if people are turned on to the fact that Mexico is composed by states, just like the United States. Mexico’s official name is Estados Unidos Mexicanos; “Mexican United States”. This location is what facilitates two intertwined aspects of Monterrey Tech: 1) English is used to teach courses. It is foreseeable that English would be an influence on Mexican education as a neighboring country, but I feel that this influence is evermore intensified by the fact that the state of Nuevo Leon shares a border with the U.S. Noteworthy as well, is the fact that Monterrey Tech’s native city is the capital of this state. 2) Because English pays an important role in instruction at Monterrey Tech, the university seeks to legitimize its education by inviting American professors, amongst other nationalities, to serve as visiting faculty. This has played a significant role in allowing Monterrey Tech to be accredited by the United States’s Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). These two aspects serve to elevate Monterrey Tech’s status from nationally-competitive Mexican technological-institute, to internationally recognized institution.

To make this statement concrete for the moment, I would like to provide a tie between Monterrey Tech and Cal Poly. An acquaintance of mine, now a graduate from Cal Poly’s nationally-ranked College of Architecture and Environmental Design, who majored in Architectural Engineering, studies abroad for a year at Monterrey Tech, at its satellite campus site in the state of Queretaro. Indeed, if one goes to the official CSU International Programs website, and looks up the exchange partners universities that the CSU has with different countries, Monterrey Tech is the only officially recognized partner institution located in Mexico. I wanted to add this information, because to me, it speaks volumes. My acquaintance with knowledge about Monterrey Tech comes from my family being from Chihuahua City, in the state of Chihuahua, Mexico. A Monterrey Tech campus is established in this city, and when my parents reminisce about their college days, they always mouth off about how all the schools located in Chihuahua exist in the shadow of Monterrey Tech. Having emigrated to Los Angeles, and sent off me, their daughter, to a respected polytechnic school in San Luis Obispo, I find that this same school that I have been hearing about ever since I was growing up, is actually tied to some of the students at the university we now all attend. I wanted to lend some of that tangibility to this project by sharing this information with you. I figured it would drive home that our education is being guided toward a direction of internationalization, and that this aspect is somehow being used as a criteria for the legitimization of what it means to be a world-class educational institute.

The Engineering Curriculum

My original project idea was to research the engineering education in Mexico to find the reasons why students drop out of the engineering pipeline. After conducting some research, I realized that there was too much information lacking that prevented me from going really in depth into the subject. I then decided to change my topic into why latino women drop out of the engineering pipeline in the U.S. Through my research, I found many parallels between African American women and Latino women who want to pursue a career in engineering. Therefore, my project started heading more into a compare and contrast scenario between both ethnicities. The issue now is narrowing the subject further. There are many aspects I can focus on, such as culture or household portraits of these minorities.

During one of our classes, Dr. Lehr also mentioned the middle school curriculum effects on students pursuing a higher education. I decided to do further research on this project with a stronger focus on women, and it is interesting to note that more girls are enrolled in Pre-Algebra and Algebra courses, which is perfect to continue the mathematics curriculum in high school, but once they reach high school, majority do not take the next level of mathematics, in fact, they retake some of these courses. It is most predominantly found in specific regions where the infrastructure for a rigorous mathematics and science education is extremely lacking. I am taking a closer look at this issue because I think it could lead to the effects of the engineering pipeline.

Coming from a small town where the highest mathematics course was Statistics and the highest science course was conceptual physics, my research has really opened my eyes and made me realize that I am amongst the small percentage of latino women who have not yet leaked out the engineering pipeline. What is most alarming is that even after I graduate and work in industry, there is still a risk of me leaving industry and deviating from engineering. I attended the Google Talk featuring one of the first female engineers at google, Marissa Mayer, and her journey is quite tumultuous, yet she still holds one of the most prestigious positions in the engineering industry, proving that is more than possible and plausible for a woman to hold high positions in industry. Ultimately, I would be thrilled if my research could serve as a stepping stone for educators to fortify their curriculum in hopes to increase the number of latino women in engineering.