2024 Collaborative Network for Engineering & Computing Diversity (CoNECD)

Using the framework of servingness as conceptualized in research of Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI), measures of student’s success can be characterized using academic and non-academic outcomes or liberatory outcomes (Garcia, Nunez, Sansone 2019). Academic outcomes are commonly institutional quantitative measures such as GPA, time to graduation and retention. However, within the framework of an servingness of an institution, there area additional indicators, including validating experiences for students and non-academic measures. Examples of non-academic measures are academic self-concept, civic engagement, social agency, racial/ethnic identity salience, and leadership identity. In addition, culture of the institution is also an important characteristic because it impacts both the experiences of students, and can be categorized as validating or racialized within HSI servingness.
A self-advocacy professional development program has been developed that focuses on non-academic outcomes (Garcia 2022) of PhD graduate students in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programs at an Urban R1 HSI. Self-advocacy originates from the American Counseling Association (ACA) and the Learning Disabilities (LD) communities for effective counseling that promotes academic success and is based on a social justice framework (Ratts and Hutchins 2009). The pillars of the self-advocacy program are centered on (i) Empowerment, (ii) Promoting self-awareness and (iii) Social Justice. Thus, the programming in the GRaduate Education for Academically Talented Students (GREATS) is aligned to these three pillars. The current professional development program completed its third year and the fourth year is in progress. To date thirty-four students have participated in the program.
References
Garcia, G. A., Núñez, A.-M., & Sansone, V. A. (2019). Toward a Multidimensional Conceptual Framework for Understanding “Servingness” in Hispanic-Serving Institutions: A Synthesis of the Research. Review of Educational Research, 89(5), 745–784. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654319864591
Garcia, Gina (2022) Beyond graduation rates: Conceptualizing liberatory educational outcomes for colleges and universities. In: Pitt Momentum Fund 2022.
M. J. Ratts and A. M. Hutchins, "ACA Advocacy Competencies: Social Justice Advocacy at the Client/Student Level," Journal of counseling and development, vol. 87, no. 3, pp. 269-275, 2009, doi: 10.1002/j.1556-6678.2009.tb00106.x.