2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Peer Mentor Program Strategy for Improvement in First-Year Student Retention

Presented at First-Year Programs Division Technical Session 8: Peers as Mentors & Instructors

This work is a Complete Evidence-based Practice Paper studying students in a small, private school in the Midwest that recently developed a peer mentoring program. The goal of the program is to improve retention among first-year engineering students by forming a strong sense of community within the school. The first year in college can be challenging, especially in engineering programs. Feelings of isolation are common and can negatively affect student success and mental health. To combat this impact on students, experienced college students (sophomores, juniors, and seniors) were paired with first-year students based on common interests in order to meet outside of the classroom in social environments.
Each individual peer mentoring group was composed of a single peer mentor guiding a small cohort of students. At the start of each fall semester, mentors were asked to write a brief bio segment introducing themselves and their interests. Each first-year student was required to join a peer mentor group. Mentees were then grouped based on shared interests with mentors. Once paired with a mentor, the mentees were strongly encouraged to engage in weekly interactions, either through attendance at a one-hour event or by maintaining regular communication with their mentor. With the goal of improving community bonds amongst first-year students, these events were typically fun, social events: meals together, game nights, sporting events, and so on. This arrangement provided first-year students with the opportunity to develop strong connections with peers and upper-class students, enabling them to ask questions they might not feel as comfortable posing to professors. Mentors were instructed to tabulate attendance, write brief descriptions of their events, and note any concerns they had.
In the academic year immediately following the initiation of the peer mentor program (Fall 2021 - Fall 2022), this program saw 14.5% points increase in overall first-year to second-year retention. This paper investigates changes in retention numbers at various points in time to better understand the success of this program and excavate its relevance for other programs seeking to implement peer mentoring. In addition to quantitative data, we gathered qualitative, open-ended survey data from mentees on how they feel the program helped them. This helps to understand experiences from the students’ perspectives. Additionally, metrics were analyzed to help optimize mentee attendance and participation in the peer mentor events.
Between the academic years, the peer mentoring program underwent significant enhancements. Program information was distributed to incoming students prior to the start of classes, and peer mentors were incorporated into ‘welcome to campus’ type events. These changes improved incoming engagement with the program. Next steps are to implement a similar peer mentoring program in other academic units across the university. If the success is realized in other disciplines, then the model presented here could be successful at other institutions.

Authors

Ms. Joan Matutes University of Indianapolis [biography]

Joan Matutes is currently an undergraduate mechanical engineering major at the University of Indianapolis. Joan enjoys research, and intends to continue research in graduate school and beyond.
Miss Shelby Hacker University of Indianapolis [biography]

Shelby Hacker is currently an undergraduate general engineering major with a focus in computer engineering and mathematics at the University of Indianapolis.
Dr. Patricia Snell Herzog Indiana University Indianapolis [biography]

Patricia Snell Herzog, PhD is a sociologist, associate professor in the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, and affiliated faculty in the Department of Human-Computer Interaction within the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering in Indianapolis.
Dr. Stephen J. Spicklemire University of Indianapolis [biography]

Has been teaching physics at UIndy for more than 35 years. From the implementation of "flipped" physics class to the modernization of scientific computing and laboratory instrumentation courses, Steve has brought the strengths of his background in physics, engineering and computer science into the classroom. Steve also does IT and engineering consulting.
Dr. Kenneth Reid http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2337-7495 University of Indianapolis [biography]

Kenneth Reid is the Associate Dean and Director of Engineering at the R. B. Annis School of Engineering at the University of Indianapolis. He and his coauthors were awarded the Wickenden award (Journal of Engineering Education, 2014) and Best Paper award, Educational Research and Methods Division (ASEE, 2014). He was awarded an IEEE-USA Professional Achievement Award (2013) for designing the B.S. degree in Engineering Education. He is a co-PI on the “Engineering for Us All” (e4usa) project to develop a high school engineering course “for all”. He is active in engineering within K-12, (Technology Student Association Board of Directors) and has written multiple texts in Engineering, Mathematics and Digital Electronics. He earned a PhD in Engineering Education from Purdue University, is a Senior Member of IEEE, on the Board of Governors of the IEEE Education Society, and a Member of Tau Beta Pi.
Dr. Joan Martinez http://orcid.org/0009-0002-9753-9346 University of Indianapolis [biography]

Joan Martinez is an assistant professor in the R.B. Annis School of Engineering at the University of Indianapolis. He received his Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from Western Michigan University. His research interest lies in developing data-driven models within the fields of production systems, financial systems, decision sciences, and engineering education.
Brett Leonard University of Indianapolis
Dr. Joseph B. Herzog http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2441-6169 University of Indianapolis [biography]

Joseph B. Herzog is an Associate professor in the R.B. Annis School of Engineering at the University of Indianapolis. He chose to come to the University of Indianapolis because he is passionate about teaching, is excited about the direction of the new R.B. Annis School of Engineering, is glad to return to his engineering roots, and is happy to be close to his extended family. Previously he was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Arkansas. He is truly grateful for his time at the University of Arkansas, and enjoyed his department, students, and the campus. While in Fayetteville, he also served as a faculty in the Microelectronics-Photonics Program and the Institute for Nanoscience and Engineering. He received his PhD from the University of Notre Dame working in the Nano-Optics Research Lab with J. Merz and A. Mintairov. After this he was a Welch Postdoctoral Research Associate, researching plasmonic nanostructures at Rice University with Douglas Natelson in the Department of Physics & Astronomy. In the summer of 2017 he was a Fellow at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in Washington, DC working with Jake Fontana on tunable subnanometer gap plasmonic metasurfaces as part of the Office of Naval Research Summer Faculty Research Program. At the NRL he worked in the Center for Biomolecular Science and Engineering, which is a division of the Materials Directorate at the NRL. His experience also includes working for Intel Corporation both in Hillsboro, OR and Santa Clara, CA; and he worked at the Berliner Elektronenspeicherring-Gesellschaft für Synchrotronstrahlung m.b.H. (BESSY - Berlin electron storage ring company for synchrotron radiation) in Berlin, Germany, researching ultra thick high-aspect-ratio microfabrication. His research focuses on experimental nano-optics, including plasmonics, nanofabrication, computational modeling, photonic crystals, and engineering education.

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