The lab started three years ago when co-creators and administrators Nancy Holmes and Gail Howell started a Mentor UPP Program.
Holmes said the program was designed for underclassmen to learn from experienced graduate or upperclassmen students in the same field.
After success with the program, the dean of the engineering school contacted Holmes and Howell about finding a space for the program.
“The dean was pleased with all the work we had done with the Mentor UPP program and wanted us to give it a home,” Howell said.
Holmes and Howell decided on a place in Paty.
“The charge that the two of us were given was to expand the tutoring ability beyond math and beyond the freshman class,” Howell said. “This way the space can be used for a multitude of reasons.”
Holmes said the goal in this project was to increase student retention.
“I know that engineering is a difficult major, and we wanted this to be a space where students aren’t afraid to come to do work or to get any outside help,” she said. “I thought the name was a clever play on words, being that the students who were going to use this place as a tool were engineering students.”
Today, the ENGenuity Lab is the home of the Mentor UPP tutoring program, the college-wide tutoring program and a space for students in the engineering department to go to when they need help or want to study.
“We would like to think of the [ENGenuity Lab] as interactive space. It’s a place of innovation, collaboration and exploration,” Holmes said.
Holmes wants the lab to be a place without constraints for students.
“We want our students to know that this place is opened and it is their home,” she said.
