College of Engineering official wins Presidential Award

November 19, 2007

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The associate dean of student affairs in the University of Florida College of Engineering is one of fewer than a dozen people nationwide to receive a Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring.

Jonathan Earle received the award in a White House ceremony Friday. He and the other awardees also met with President George W. Bush in the Oval Office.

“I was humbled by it because I didn’t do this work for the award — I was just thinking about how to make my students successful,” Earle said. “For me the award is really a way of saying, ‘You made your students successful.’”

The award is aimed at recognizing educational leaders or programs that have demonstrated outstanding achievement in mentoring minority, female or disabled students who are traditionally underrepresented in science, mathematics or engineering. Friday’s awardees, who included 10 individuals and one organization, The Ecological Society of America, received grants of $10,000 and a presidential commemorative certificate. The award is administered by the National Science Foundation.

“I am extremely pleased that Dr. Jonathan Earle is being recognized by this Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring. He has done absolutely wonderful work in the area of mentoring of minority students,” said College of Engineering Dean Pramod Khargonekar.

Earle, a 20-year veteran at UF who earned both his master’s and doctoral degrees here, began his career as an UF associate professor of agricultural and biological engineering. He joined the dean’s office in 1992 and quickly began focusing on improving the performance of all engineering students.

His work was cut out for him: At the time, Earle said, only about 25 percent of minority engineering students eventually earned their bachelor’s degrees. By comparison, about 40 percent of the general engineering student population graduated.

In 1994, under Earle’s direction, the college created the Successful Transition through Enhanced Preparation for Undergraduate Program, or STEPUP program. The program seeks to give admitted minority students extra assistance with, in Earle’s words, “college survival skills,” including study habits, study skills and extra preparation and assistance with common engineering assignments such as working in teams.

“It’s really a matter of working with students to instill confidence, and then equipping them with time management and other success skills,” Earle said.

Today, at least 60 percent of the annual class of roughly 40-50 STEPUP students graduate, while 52 percent for the general population graduates, Earle said. Importantly, he said, the program has raised the level of all engineering students, thanks to the Engineering Freshmen Transition Program, which is modeled on STEPUP’s process.

“The good thing is that, because of STEPUP, we’ve learned that this type of intervention is useful for all students,” Earle said. “So we have raised graduation rates across the board.”

STEPUP is also the model for two universitywide programs, one for African-American students and one for Hispanic students, and other programs nationwide. “I think what drove this award is that we’ve had not just a local impact,” he said, “but a national impact.”

STEPUP is not Earle’s only innovation. He and his colleagues have also been instrumental in the creation of the Gator Engineering Outreach Program, Engineering In Action! and Engineering GatorTRAX. The first two programs help introduce secondary school students to engineering careers, while GatorTRAX provides students in sixth- through 12th grades with extra assistance with science and mathematics.

Earle is a proposal reviewer for the National Science Foundation, a member of the 2006-10 National Executive Council of Tau Beta Pi, the Engineering Honor Society, and the UF Engineering Faculty Consultant for the Science, Engineering, Communication, Mathematics Enhancement Program. His other awards include the Wolfson Faculty Award for Outstanding Service to Students at the University of Florida, the SECME Global Vision Award and the Faculty of the Year Award. He is the current president of the Kiwanis Club of Gainesville.

Earle plans to retire at the end of the year, but, said Khargonekar, “Dr. Earle’s positive impact on our students will be felt for a long time.”