2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

In this paper supporting a poster for the ASEE NSF grantee session, CISTAR and NSBE SEEK celebrate four years of successfully partnering in a combined summer Research Experience and Mentoring (REM) program funded, in part, by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The summer REM program begins in the first 6 weeks of summer with participating students receiving a stipend and engaging in the summer research program for the Engineering Research Center for Innovative and Strategic Transformation of Alkane Resources (CISTAR). For their last 4 weeks of summer, REM students receive a stipend and are part of the National Society of Black Engineer’s Summer Engineering Experiences for Kids (NSBE SEEK) program.

The rationale for this combined summer program rests on the Identity-Based Motivation literature showing positive outcomes for students who identify more as an engineer and feel a sense of belonging in the field. Further, the design of the REM program aligns with research specifically showing that a diverse, inclusive culture, and a culture that reinforces having altruistic cultural values (i.e., giving back to one’s community; valuing social justice; helping others), is motivating, particularly for students from racial/ethnic groups underrepresented in engineering/STEM. It is these commonalities across the two summer experiences that, we argue, are critical to the success of the REM program.

In other papers, the positive outcomes of CISTAR’s part of the REM program have been well documented based on external evaluation reports that include a host of pre- and post-surveys and interviews. Similarly, NSBE SEEK’s program outcomes have been described in papers, and document the positive outcomes for SEEK kids, mentors, parents, and stakeholders. In this paper, we focus on the success of the partnership by turning the lens only on the REM students–first as CISTAR researchers and then as NSBE SEEK mentors–and capture the synergies across both parts of the REM program.

Overall, the REM program has helped to increase the number of Blacks and other underrepresented groups in engineering. Reflecting the applicant pool, CISTAR has been able to attract a diverse cohort of engineering students (~75% are Black; ~50% are female) who are curious about research, but also want to spend part of their summer “giving back” by mentoring kids. Similarly, the partnership has helped NSBE SEEK offer their SEEK mentors, who are passionate about mentoring kids, an option to spend part of their summer learning research skills that will help them grow professionally. Most importantly, the REM program is a win for participating students who want to have two experiences in one summer that:

(i) grow their engineering identities;
(ii) increase their feelings of inclusion and belonging in engineering; and
(iii) support altruistic cultural values by showing that mentorship and “giving back” is
an integral part of being a good engineer.

Coming up on our fifth year, CISTAR and NSBE SEEK are excited to continue this partnership and grow this program to scale. In closing, we hope that reading about this partnership between CISTAR and NSBE SEEK–why and how it has been successful–will inspire and help to propagate similar types of programs in other Centers that share goals of broadening representation and supporting altruistic cultural values in engineering.