Online Session Locator

Session Description

Free ticketed event
This workshop will benefit faculty and mentors who are exploring additional options for mentoring, increasing their toolbox of activities to help students accomplish career milestones, and excel in their performance. The Program for Engineering Access, Retention, and LIATS Success (PEARLS) developed an Individual Development Plan (IDP) for undergraduate engineering students as one of the mentoring tools designed to increase retention and graduation rates of participating low-income students. The main objective of completing an IDP was to assess, design, and execute a plan to reach the professional goals set by each student. Mentors and mentees worked together, considering the mentee's self-assessment of skills, abilities, and knowledge, and identified strategies and actions to reach the student's goals. Through the IDP, students were encouraged to apply to summer programs, cooperative education, or industry internship. Data collected from students and mentors via self-reports show its advantages. [1]

[1] Bartolomei-Suárez, S. M., et al. (2021, July). Work in Progress: Building Career Goals and Boosting Self-efficacy in Engineering Students. In 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access.

Speakers

1. Dr. Aidsa I. Santiago-Roman

   University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez Campus

   Dr. Santiago earned a BS and MS in Industrial Engineering from UPRM and Ph.D. in Engineering Education from Purdue University. She has over 20 years of experience in academia and has been successful in obtaining funding and publishing for various research projects. She's also the founder and advisor of the first ASEE student chapter in Puerto Rico. In this project, she has incorporated theories on social cognitive career choices and student attrition mitigation to investigate the effectiveness of institutional interventions in increasing the retention and academic success of talented engineering students from economically disadvantaged families.

2. Dr. Luisa Guillemard

   University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez Campus

   Currently, she is the evaluator for two NSF projects: Resilient Infrastructure and Sustainability Education – Undergraduate Program (RISE-UP) and Program for Engineering Access, Retention, and LIATS Success (PEARLS). She has more than 15 years of experience as a program evaluator and grant writer. Her portfolio as an evaluator includes projects funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Besides evaluation, her interests included mentoring undergraduate students, developing instruments and educational tools, and training faculty in assessing students’ learning.

3. Dr. Sonia M. Bartolomei-Suarez

   University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez Campus

   Dr. Sonia M. Bartolomei Suárez received her Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from The Pennsylvania State University (MSU) in 1996, MSIE from Purdue University in 1985, and BSIE from the University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez Campus in 1983. Her teaching and research interests include Discrete Event Simulation, Facilities Planning, Material Handling Systems, Women in Academia in STEM fields, Engineering in Education, and Access to Post-Secondary Education. From August 2006 through February 2008, she served as the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs of the College of Engineering. She was Co-PI of the NSF’s UPRM ADVANCE IT Catalyst Project awarded in 2008. From 2008-2016, she was Co-PI of the USDE’s Puerto Rico College Access Challenge Grant Project. In this project, she designed the website exito.upr.edu and organized open houses and FAFSA days for the UPR system. In 2015, she was recognized by the USA’s First Lady Michelle Obama’s Reach Higher Initiative as one of the leaders in Puerto Rico working to eliminate the barriers facing first-generation students to access a college education. From 2015-2018, she was the Coordinator of the UPRM College of Engineering Recruitment, Retention, and Distance Engineering Education Program (R2DEEP). She is Co-PI of the project "Recruiting, Retaining, and Engaging Academically Talented Students from Economically Disadvantaged Groups into a Pathway to Successful Engineering Careers," sponsored by NSF DUE. In this project, she is the leader for the Outreach, Access, and Recruitment (OAR) Core and the mentor for all Industrial Engineering PEARLS Students.