A $1 million dollar grant from retired Valero CEO Bill Klesse's foundation will enable UTSA to start a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering, as the university moves more aggressively into the hard sciences, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
“By offering a chemical engineering degree, we certainly fill that emphatic call for a program that is not readily available at many schools in this region,” said JoAnn Browning, dean and David and Jennifer Spencer Distinguished Chair of the College of Engineering.
“And also of note, we are offering a new degree that traditionally attracts more aspiring female engineers. This will allow us to make a tremendous impact on the percentage of women in STEM.”
Even thought women make up only 20% of engineering enrollment across the country, 35% of chemical engineering students are female.
Brenda Rincon Trionis, a professor of engineering at UTSA, says engineering is essentially problem solving, and since men and women frequently approach a problem in different ways, having more women in engineering will lead to more robust innovation.
And she knows first hand the significance mentors can have on young women. She points out that her mother was a leading engineer when she was growing up in her native Venezuela."She was the first woman to graduate in chrmical engineering from an institution in my country, and that helps," Trionis said.
Klesse, who helped build Valero Energy into a global powerhouse and the largest refiner in North America, established the Klesse Foundation with his wife Margie, and the foundation has already supported the creation of scholarships at UTSA in the colleges of business and engineering.
“Chemical engineers are in high demand in Texas and have a great positive impact on their environments. Our country needs more engineering and a pragmatic approach to problem-solving,” Klesse said. “Chemical engineers’ careers can go in many directions, including manufacturing industrial goods as well as the refining and petrochemical industries, to help make people’s live better. We are very pleased to be able to support UTSA’s new program to enhance our community with a new generation of talented, top-tier engineers.”
PHOTO: UTSA