A nationwide initiative to encourage engineering majors to stick with the subject and earn a degree in the field was unveiled Wednesday at Georgia Tech.

The Stay With It campaign creates an online community and provides other resources to connect students with peer engineering majors and experienced engineers. The program is part of the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, which is working to produce 10,000 more engineering graduates each year.

Nationally, only 14 percent of undergraduate students enroll in math, science, technology, engineering and mathematics programs and 40 percent leave after their first year.

At Georgia Tech 94 percent of the freshmen stay after their first year and 80 percent graduate within six years.

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Angie McBrayer, ex-wife of James Aaron McBrayer, leans her head on her son Sam McBrayer as she and her three children and two grandchildren (from left) Jackson McBrayer, 3, Piper Jae McBrayer, 7, Katy Isaza, and Jordan McBrayer, visit the grave of James McBrayer, Thursday, November 20, 2025, in Tifton. He died after being restrained by Tift County sheriff's deputies on April 24, 2019. His ex-wife witnessed the arrest and said she thought the deputies were being rough but did not imagine that McBrayer would die. (Hyosub Shin/AJC)

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC