This phenomenological study examined the experiences of twelve female African Americans enrolled as fulltime undergraduate engineering students at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, an historically Black university, and seven female African Americans enrolled as undergraduate engineering students at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, a traditionally White institution. Interviews provided insights into the "lived" experiences of these young women and the factors they believe have contributed to their success in their respective engineering programs. Data analysis involved coding each participant's responses to interview questions using Atlas.ti, a powerful qualitative data analysis tool. This generated 181 codes that were further categorized into nine emergent themes, indicating the potential for extensive associations among the variables. The emergent themes are as follows: (1) Demographic information/special circumstances, (2) Personal attributes and characteristics, (3) Personal insights, (4) Sense of mission, (5) Sources of negative stress, (6) Success strategies, (7) Various forms of support, (8) Would/would not have made it to where she is now, and (9) Being African American and female in engineering. Analysis of these themes and their relationships led to the development of the Frillman Model of Emergent Themes in Female African American Engineering Students. Success. In addressing similarities and differences, three overriding theme categories emerged. These were: (1) Four personhood themes and dual social identity theme; (2) Environmental input and response theme; and (3) Outcome emergent theme of Would/Would not have made it to where she is now. Recommendations were made for future research to expand upon this exploratory study. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]