We see our mission in very particular terms here in engineering at LeTourneau. We’re in the formation business, specifically to help create ‘t-shape engineers.’ For nearly 50 years, the engineering profession has been wrestling with the need to develop and display better ‘professional’ or soft skills. Here we’d define those skills (motivation, grit, drive, communication, ethics, emotional intelligence, conflict resolution) as relational skills, skills that help us connect genuinely to other people. And we define a t-shaped engineer as one who has technical prowess (the lower portion of a lower cased t), relational adeptness (the cross piece of the t), all animated by and toward Christ-centered purpose (the upper portion of the t). And the cross-shape of this lower case t model is a theological claim of its own – God is at the center of all good things.
Our over XXXX square feet of space across 7 buildings dedicated to engineering house over xx laboarotories, allowing us to ensure a radically hands-on technical experience from the moment students set foot on campus. And we combine this with a relationally focused approach to teaching engineering , where our students rate the care that they receive from professors as even deeper than they get from their own friend group.
National studies of what ‘matters’ in college, leading to an encouraging and meaningful life after graduation (link the Purdue study) indicate that only a very small percentage of alumni around the country experience the 6 most impactful practices, which include things such as finding an encouraging mentor, having teachers who care about students as individuals, and working on long term projects. LeTourneau engineering students are more than 10 times as likely to experience these life changing xxx. Furthermore, while national studies indicate that studying engineering in college is associated with a decline in faith (link Astin), LeTourneau recently published a first of its kind study that shows that students studying engineering at LeTourneau experience meaningful growth in every faith dimension assessed (link).
We believe that the common definition of engineering (the use of math and science to solve problems) must itself be redeemed. If you are interested in becoming a t-shaped engineer, pursuing a vocation defined as ‘working out of the greatest commandment – to love God and love people through application of math and science to solve problems to benefit the Kingdom,’ then the LeTourneau engineering community is the right one for you. Welcome.
