How to Join

What is SEEK?

Student Engineers Educating Kids (SEEK) is an engineering organization that organizes an after-school program where college engineers are paired up with middle school students, who they mentor once a week for a semester. Mentoring consists of helping students with homework and doing engineering-related workshops with the students.

Mentors:

Mentoring is the primary focus of the SEEK program and was our first initiative. As a mentor, you will be working one-on-one with at-risk middle school students to complete engineering projects such as sailing carts, roller coasters, LED flashlights, ice cream in a bag, and many more. You will meet with your student once a week in an after-school program setting.

Tutors:

Tutoring is a relatively new program that SEEK has taken on in response to the growing need in our community. As a tutor, you will be working one-on-one with middle school students in preparation for the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) test. Normal SEEK projects will be mixed in every few weeks with the tutoring activities to promote regular attendance and interest. You will meet with your student once a week during the school day which willgenerally be earlier in the day.

NOTE: All tutoring and mentoring roles are a nominal 2 hour commitment which includes drive time. Class, work, research, and other volunteering obligations should be scheduled around this 2 hour time block.

Project Revisions:

Revisions is the newest program that SEEK has started in an effort to get our projects more organized and uniform. As a project revisor, you will work at your own pace to complete and revise an assigned project. You will be in charge of sourcing vendors for supplies, physically completing the project, and rewriting the instructions that currently exist. This group will meet on a weekly or biweekly basis. However, the biggest difference with this position is that you will NOT be attending a middle school to work one-on-one with the students. The position is more behind the scenes and helps in the overall operation of SEEK.

Who can join SEEK?

Any engineering student can participate in SEEK, as long as you are a current student in the Cockrell School of Engineering. However, you can only join SEEK at the beginning of a fall or spring semester. This is meant to keep the consistency of the current mentors and to allow SEEK members to register for class credit if they choose to do so.

Who will be accepted to SEEK?

Returning mentors and alternates are automatically re-accepted into SEEK unless there is discretion against it, which is very rare. Acceptance of new mentors is subject to approval and availability. If you are approved but space is unavailable, then you will be put on our alternate-mentors list and will be contacted when a vacancy arises.

When is SEEK?

Mondays: 3:30 - 5:30 pm (Lamar Middle School [1])
Tuesdays: 3:30 - 5:30 pm (Pearce Middle School [2])
Wednesdays: 2:30 - 4:30 (Kealing Middle School [3]) and 3:30 - 5:30 pm (Webb Middle School [4])
Thursdays: 2:00 - 4:00 (Lamar Tutoring) and 3:30 - 5:30 (Gus Garcia)

Do not worry if you have a class that ends when SEEK begins or a class that starts when SEEK ends. Such situations have been worked out in the past, but the accommodation depends individually on the mentor.

Attention: If you are unable to mentor during the scheduled SEEK times, you can still contribute to SEEK! We are looking for individuals to test and document potential projects for future use. Interested parties can apply through the normal SEEK application.

How do we get to the middle schools?

SEEK officers and mentors who have cars will provide carpools to and from the middle schools. If you have a car, please consider carpooling because it is essential to our organization.

What is GE 218C?

GE 218C is an option for all mentors to get class credit for participating in SEEK. You may do SEEK as a pure volunteer activity, or you can take advantage of the engineering credit. The class can be taken by ANY engineer. The class counts toward the 14-hour rule, meaning you can take 12 hours of classes and have SEEK fulfill the 14-hour requirement.

GE 218C students must complete short weekly journals, 2 hours of SEEK volunteer activities, and a short paper about your experiences in SEEK. Another requirement is to create an Engineering Student Project, but it can be completed throughout the entire semester.

Who can be a SEEK officer?

You must be part of SEEK for at least one semester to be eligible for an officer position. New officers are first interviewed and then selected at the end of each spring semester by the current group of officers.