Presentation
How Professional Society Membership is Affected by Returning Student Status
2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
(2015)
Abstract
In recent years, several research efforts have aimed to understand the issues surrounding engineeringprofessionals returning to the academic environment for graduate degrees in engineering. This researchfocuses on a variety of issues: why they return, what they hope to do afterwards, and what theirexperiences are in the academic environment. While those are important issues, interaction withprofessional societies while in the workplace and pursuing graduate work are also of concern. Manyengineering professionals, both in industry and in academia, value activities with these organizationswhile advancing in membership levels as they advance through their careers.Advancement may be complicated, when a professional society member returns to school for full timestudy; they often find themselves choosing between paying the higher dues of a professional or returningto student status. We discuss the options available in a sampling of different professional engineeringsocieties, including several engineering disciplinary societies and interdisciplinary societies focused onunderrepresented minorities within engineering. The intent is to examine the differences, and highlightsuccessful policies for use by professional societies and other organizations serving the returning studentpopulation.
Disciplines
Publication Date
June 14, 2015
DOI
https://doi.org/10.18260/p.24196.
Comments
ASEE PEER pp. 26.859.1 - 26.859.7
© 2015 American Society for Engineering Education
Citation Information
Anne M. Lucietto and Diane Peters. "How Professional Society Membership is Affected by Returning Student Status" 2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition (2015) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/diane-peters/20/