2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

GRADS (Graduate & Advance Degree Students) Mentoring Groups: Building a Supporting Community for Hispanic Graduate Students in STEM

Presented at Graduate Studies Division (GSD) Technical Session 4: Mentoring Programs in Graduate Education

Research shows the importance of mentoring for student success, and this is particularly important for graduate students in engineering. However, most graduate students do not have a mentorship relationship outside of their faculty advisor and many times this relationship might not go beyond academics. Results from a recent Needs Assessment SHPE conducted during 2021-2022 show that approximately 25% of SHPE graduate students do not have a mentorship relationship at all.

Hispanic graduate students have specific needs and challenges when earning an engineering graduate degree. Examples include having a lack of understanding of hidden curriculum, living in the US for the first time, having English as a second language, being one of the few or only Hispanic students in their graduate program, and unfortunately, even racial discrimination.

To better support our GRADS (GRaduate & Advanced Degree Students), SHPE created the GRADS MentorSHPE Groups (GMG). These groups utilize a mentoring circles framework and focus on the need for our graduate students to develop skills that can help them survive and thrive in graduate school and beyond. GMG provides our GRADS with a safe space where they have the opportunity to create community and also discuss professional experiences and challenges with more experienced colleagues and facilitators.

Groups are offered in cohorts that engage for 8 to 10 weeks during the Fall and Spring semesters. GMG are facilitated by faculty or professionals with advanced degrees and are kept small (3-5 students per group) to allow for the development of meaningful relationships between mentors and mentees. The groups are created and matched to a mentor based on topic preference, time zone, and availability for meetings. Each group focuses on a different topic, some previous topics include writing, applying for a job in academia/industry, collecting data and keeping a lab notebook, and conflict resolution. These topics are just offered as a guideline for group discussions, but groups often add other topics based on the specific needs and challenges of mentees.

Overall, this program has been very successful with 72.5% of mentees and 80% of mentors saying they were very satisfied with the program in the Spring of 2022. Mentees reported that the program created an open space for them to able to ask questions and be connected with other people in academia while mentors recognized that the program has made significant progress in filling an unmet need for engineering Hispanic graduate students. This paper will focus on the purpose, design, execution, and results of the Spring 2022 and Fall 2022 cohorts of SHPE GMG.

Authors

Dr. Dayna L. Martínez Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, Inc. [biography]

Dr. Dayna L. Martínez currently serves as a Director of Research & Innovation at SHPE. In this role, she oversees the Equipando Padres program, pre-college programming, graduate programming, faculty development, as well as different aspects of research and data analysis.

An industrial engineer by training, before joining SHPE, Dayna was a faculty member in the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department at Northeastern University in Boston, MA after working at their Healthcare Systems Engineering Institute (HSyE) as a post-doctoral research fellow.

Native from San Juan, Puerto Rico, Dayna graduated with a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez Campus and then she completed a master’s and PhD degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of South Florida in Tampa.

Being Hispanic and an engineer herself, Dayna has a passion for increasing Hispanic representation in STEM. She currently lives with her husband Andrés, their two sons David and Sebastián, and their miniature schnauzer Lucca in Winter Garden, Florida.
Susan Arnold Christian Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, Inc. [biography]

Susan Arnold Christian currently serves the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers as a Manager for the Research & Innovation office. She helps lead the MentorSHPE and InternSHPE programs in this role.
In her former roles she has served as the Assistant Director for the Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Diversity (CEED) at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA from 2010-2020. Prior to joining Virginia Tech in September of 2010, she served as the Outreach Program Coordinator for the Women in Engineering & Science Program at Kansas State University from 2000-2010. She began her work in STEM outreach and student support at Girls to Women, a private not for profit in Kansas City, in the late 90’s. She has also served on the board for WEPAN from 2012-2014.
She earned her M.S. in Youth Development from the University of Nebraska and her B.S. in Family Studies at Kansas State University.
Esther Gonzalez [biography]

Esther González, MPA, MBA, ABD is a PhD Candidate at University of Southern California’s Price School of Public Policy with subject matter expertise in organization behavior and diversity management. Her research is multidisciplinary and applies methods and fields in public policy and management. She is a published author in several peer reviewed journals with media mentions in Forbes. Previously, she served as Director on the Research and Innovation team at the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE). She is a multifaceted servant leader, equity advocate, and researcher with experience across the non-profit, public, and private sectors.

Upon completion of her Bachelor of Arts degree in International Development Studies at UCLA, she began a successful career in banking and finance at Bank of America, Merrill Lynch. Driven to pursue a career in public service, she completed her MPA at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, and MBA at Cornell Tech. She was a leadership fellow in the Southern California Leadership Network’s Leadership LA program and recently completed her Diversity and Inclusion Certificate from eCornell. Currently, she is completing her doctoral studies at the USC Price School of Public Policy where she is a PhD Candidate.
Andrea D. Beattie Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, Inc. [biography]

Andrea D. Beattie is a graduate from Texas A&M International University in Laredo, Texas, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in Political Science in 2011 and 2012, respectively. Currently she serves as a Manager, Research and Innovation at SHPE. In this role, she assists the organization with research, program evaluation, and data analytics.
Ashleigh Tierney Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, Inc. [biography]

Ashleigh currently serves as a Director of Research & Innovation at SHPE. In this role, she leads the MentorSHPE, InternSHPE, ScholarSHPE, SHPE Academy, and professional development programs. She is passionate about helping college students form meaningful, goal-aligned connections with peers, professionals, and companies. To accomplish this, she uses a data-based approach to customizing best practices to fit the individual needs and goals of students and companies.

Ashleigh has worked for a variety of higher education institutions (large, public 4-year; small, private 4-year; community college) in a myriad of roles and offices. This varied experience has provided her with a first-hand understanding of the challenges and barriers college students face related to success, persistence, and degree completion. This understanding is key to the successful design and implementation of higher education adjacent programming at industry partners.

Ashleigh completed a BS in Biological Engineering at Kansas State University where she worked in the Women in Engineering and Science program. In this role, she witnessed the incredible impact targeted support and guidance can have for STEM students. She then completed an Med in Higher Education Administration and a Graduate Certificate in Institutional Research at Pennsylvania State University.
Dr. Kimberly D. Douglas Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, Inc. [biography]

Dr. Kimberly D. Douglas is SHPE’s Chief Research & Innovation Officer. She has over 25 years of experience as an engineering educator and designs programs and infrastructure for increasing the persistence and degree completion rates of STEM students, with a particular focus on the Hispanic and Latino community. Kimberly holds a Doctorate in Industrial and Management Systems Engineering from Arizona State University, and B.S. and M.S. degrees in Industrial Engineering and Management from Oklahoma State University. She has held tenured faculty appointments at Oregon State University and Kansas State University; her Professional Engineering license in the state of Oregon; and holds a DEI certificate from Cornell University. Dr. Douglas served as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering for 10 years and is a past President of WEPAN.

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