2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Women and minortized groups share a common sense of belonging or, more accurately, lack of a sense of belonging in STEM, which exacerbates their underrepresentation in STEM education and careers. Furthermore, an abundance of literature demonstrates that this shared lack of belonging negatively influences their academic performance and persistence. In engineering education specifically, research indicates that a lack of belonging contributes to undergraduate student attrition regardless of gender and race/ethnicity.
Therefore, we propose a project entitled “Promoviendo el Éxito Estudiantil a través de un Sistema de Apoyo (PromESA): Promoting Student Success through a Social, Academic, and Institutional Support System in Engineering Education.” This initiative will implement a holistic, socio-culturally responsive peer-mentoring program by adapting the Promotores de Educación Program (PED) and its evidence-based practices developed at California State University at Long Beach. Literature indicates that peer-mentoring is particularly beneficial for helping LatinX students develop a sense of belonging. Moreover, formal mentoring programs effectively and positively impact student satisfaction within their program, academic performance, motivation to persist in a program, and completion of degree. Although some research exists in STEM education that affirms the benefits of such programs, little research explores the impact of these programs on historically minoritized/marginalized students, particularly in engineering education.
The proposed offers educational and personal support for students by providing assistance such as tutoring, advising, and linking to available university services and, equally important, emotional support through building friendship, confirmation, and affirmation to improve students’ sense of belonging, particularly for LatinX students inclusive of their intersectionalities (e.g., gender, nationality, first-generation college). As such, the purpose of this proposal is to enhance “servingness” for historically minoritized/marginalized students in engineering education at HSIs by developing a sustainable model for an academic, institutional, and social support system (i.e., formal peer-mentoring program) for first-year engineering students.