2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

The purpose of this work in progress (WIP) research paper is to explore the ways that belongingness training provided to student leaders within STEM universities can create not only a more inclusive space within the field, but also improve retention rates for underrepresented students. The continued gatekeeping and social exclusion of minoritized individuals from engineering must be continually challenged to begin addressing the damage that years of institutional denial created. The BASE Camp program was developed to build such a measure into the foundation of the university itself via educating peer leaders on inclusion topics in-depth. The program operates with the goal of not only educating students on the complexity of the human experience, but ultimately creating a space that values the skills and resources that are not traditionally recognized in STEM.

Nationwide, students coming from underrepresented and underserved groups (URG) receive bachelor’s degrees in STEM at lower rates. A part of the task that needs to be done, beyond just educating peer leaders on social exclusion and the way it exists in American social spheres, lies in teaching students about funds of knowledge. Funds of knowledge (FoK) are the skills individuals learn most often through their culture and home and family life that are deeply valuable yet often overlooked. Avenues to help train both peer educators and students on FoK are rooted in making the connection from FoK to valuable engineering skills. By recognizing and calling attention to the social violences that occur in STEM education, this program seeks to go beyond teaching about categories and instead help create connections between theory and lived experiences in ways that feel relevant to students from more privileged circumstances.

The three overarching research questions to gauge success of the program center on 1) education, 2) comprehension and implementation, and 3) a resulting increase in a sense of belonging on campus. The program is structured into four tiers students can move through to gain further knowledge and experience. Preliminary findings suggest that student leaders who have undergone the first module of training are entering with less social knowledge than their faculty mentors hoped. They know broad themes like privilege and microaggression, but do not feel confident in their deeper knowledge on any particular topic and have a desire to better understand what actions can be taken on their part to challenge social norms. This finding promises space to grow the program within both the home university and similar STEM institutions across the US.

Through this technical session, the focus will be on discussing the development of assessments, the importance of using mixed methods to effectively grow the program, safety in inclusive program building to protect minoritized students in majority white male training spaces, and the overarching long-term goals of the program development. Further preliminary results will be available to discuss at the time of the conference.