As Florida Polytechnic University prepares to welcome its fourth fall class of freshman students, it’s also working to improve the diversity of its students.

  • Florida Polytechnic University working to increase diversity
  • Staff members visit middle schools to talk about STEM careers
  • Florida Polytechnic recently received regional accreditation

The STEM-focused university has a student population that consists is 86 percent male and 66 percent white, according to its Spring 2016 enrollment numbers. STEM is a curriculum based on science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

In the beginning, director of admissions Lauren Willison said the university was focused on attracting quality students. Now, it’s branching out and looking for ways to make the student body more diverse. One of its strategies is giving tours to girl youth groups, such as Polk Vision’s Inaugural Youth Leadership Program.

"If we can really expose them to the stem majors and things we do here at Florida Poly, that really helps us to attract the females to campus,” said Willison.

Also, she said admissions staff members go into the community to talk to middle school students about pursuing careers in STEM.

According to the university’s online fact sheet, the average ACT score was 27 and the average high school grade point average is 3.95.

Willison said girls often aren’t exposed to the STEM careers as much as boys.

"I think the reason that we have such a small population is because they haven't been encouraged to go into these majors. So we try to do things to expose them to different stem opportunities,” Willison said.

Reba Coil said that’s exactly the goal of the Youth Leadership Program.

"We want to introduce these girls to the different types of career paths out there, college paths, we're introducing them to many different women in different fields,” said Coil.  “Hopefully they will experience some different job opportunities, go off to college or a career path and come back to Polk County.”

Willison said the university receiving its initial regional accreditation should make the university even more attractive to applicants. According to her, this year, each incoming student received a $3,500 scholarship.