Research has shown that students who are involved in extra curricular or co-curricular activities, especially cultural or service oriented ones are able to maintain their prioritization of social responsibility after graduation with a bachelor’s. Centering these student groups will build community and help engineering students explore their orientation toward social responsibility. 

Previous research has shown that the academic department can impact students’ attitudes toward social responsibility through their ability to exert goals and through the resources provided to achieve those goals. Departments should emphasize re-politicizing the engineering curriculum by giving students the chance to contextualize their work through service learning courses has been shown to help develop students’ attitudes toward social responsibility. 

According to a study published in the American Society of Civil Engineers library in 2021, minority engineering students experience microaggressions that reduce their self-esteem, create a sense of otherness, and increase isolation that leads students to consider changing majors or leaving college altogether. According to research microaggression training is proven to work to alleviate these effects and can keep minority students involved in the academic engineering programs.