More than 70% of engineers are white, and more than 80% are male, according to the Pew Research Center. A new initiative at Chicago’s community colleges could help diversify the profession.
Leaders at City Colleges of Chicago announced Thursday they are expanding the reach of their engineering education program, from one location at Wilbur Wright College, to at least two more colleges across the city, with the hope of adding two more in 2026.
The expansion starts this fall with Harold Washington College downtown and Harry S. Truman College on the North Side. By fall of 2026, officials said, those students who live on the Far South Side should be able to complete engineering credits at Olive-Harvey College or Richard J. Daley College instead of traveling two hours to Wright College on Chicago’s Northwest Side to do so.
“We will be the instrument for us to change that framework of diversity in engineering,” said Doris Espiritu, who helped start the associate engineering program at Wright College and serves as the program’s dean. “We're doing just that right now. Our students are very, very successful, so we're contributing to the economic upward mobility of each student. But really, as we change each of the students, we also change their community. And as we change their community, we change the city.”
City Colleges offers students the chance to complete two years of an engineering degree at a much lower cost — or in some cases at no cost — than what they would pay at a four-year university. It’s also a good option for Chicago students who need to live at home to help care for family, or work while they attend school.
All three reasons led Jonathan Cifuentes Barrios to City Colleges.
“Students, people, everyone: They may have big dreams, but sometimes we don't have the support, we don't have the resources — especially students like me,” said Barrios, who immigrated to Chicago from Guatemala in 2015. “But when I went to Wright College, that was different. I felt like I could do everything.”
Barrios had wanted to become an engineer since he was 4, when he would take his toys apart to see how they worked. After graduating from high school, he tried to attend University of Illinois Chicago, only to find out he was ineligible for financial aid. His mother was undergoing treatment for cancer at the time, and he could not afford to pay for tuition out of pocket. Then he found out from friends he could attend Wright College for free.
He completed his associate degree in engineering there in 2020 and transferred to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, with Espiritu’s help. He graduated with his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering in 2022 and now works at Eaton, a power management company. The position has allowed him to support his mother, whose cancer is in remission, so that she can retire.
“I know that I got a strong foundation from Wright College, because right after I moved to Champaign, it didn't seem like, ‘Oh my God, what am I going to do now?’” Barrios said. “I was not lost.”
Barrios may have felt academically prepared for the University of Illinois, but he said he was not prepared to be in a much less racially diverse environment.
“Sometimes I was the only Latino in the classroom. At the same time, I was happy that I was there, because even though I was the only one, I was representing my culture,” Barrios said. “It’s nothing against them, of course, but I wish that there were more Latinos there.”
The growth of the associate degree engineering program at City Colleges could help make his wish a reality by diversifying the pipeline of engineering students entering the state’s universities. Students who graduate with their associate degree in engineering have to transfer to a four-year university to get their bachelor’s degree.
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has entered into an agreement that will allow some students who enroll in the engineering program at City Colleges to simultaneously enroll at the university, too, so they can take any classes they need that are not offered at their community college and receive additional advising from the university’s staff.
Espiritu said the partnership will ensure the credits that students take at City Colleges are accepted when they transfer to the Univeristy of Illinois' Grainger School of Engineering.
“Our students can perform at the level of the students at Grainger. They are already their students,” she said. “So there's really no, ‘Oh, well, I'm not going to be prepared.’”
There’s another element that is key to the success of the City Colleges engineering students, Espiritu said: Building their confidence and sense of belonging through mentoring from peers and alumni.
When Espiritu got the associate degree in engineering program off the ground at Wright College in 2015, she said, there were just nine students enrolled. Now, there are more than 650. With the expansion to more colleges across Chicago, Espiritu has a new enrollment goal: 2,030 by 2030.
Lisa Kurian Philip covers higher education for WBEZ, in partnership with Open Campus. Follow her on X @LAPhilip.
