2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Unraveling Intersecting Hispanic and Latiné Engineering Student Identities to Understand Sense of Belonging at a Hispanic Serving Institution

Presented at Minorities in Engineering Division(MIND) Technical Session 13

The climate in engineering is often thought of as “chilly” for students that are underrepresented in this space. This is further exacerbated by the lack of engineering in K-12 curricula, systemic barriers to entry, and engineering’s fast-like nature. Studying the support of Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI) within students’ engineering identity is crucial in understanding how these engineering spaces contribute to students’ perceived competency and sense of belonging. HSIs, as defined by Title V of the Higher Education Act, comprise a full-time student body that is at least 25% Hispanic. Despite positive intentions of bolstering diversity on college campuses, the HSI distinction fails to ensure that qualifying universities enact effective methods to support the Hispanic-identifying portion of their student body. In this study, Hispanic and Latiné student experiences in engineering are studied at the University of California-Irvine, an R1 HSI. First year students in various engineering disciplines were interviewed as part of an overarching project titled the UBelong Collaborative project. Follow-up interviews are still being conducted with these students to investigate their perceived sense of belonging throughout their undergraduate experience. This paper will focus on analyzing a subset of the first set of interviews, which were conducted at the start of students’ introductory programming course. A qualitative analysis is conducted on nine students who self-identified as Hispanic and/or Latiné and their interviews are analyzed via a thematic analysis. Through this study, students introspect on the identities they deem most important as an engineer. The following are used to gain an understanding of how they draw comparisons with their engineering peers through language, rating of skill sets, and interactions. The intersectionality of their identities is explored by analyzing their engineering successes as well as the biases and barriers they encounter or perceive. Our findings indicate the most influential factors in students’ sense of belonging are peer interactions, peer demographics, faculty interactions and identity-based student organizations. Differences among genders also emerged, such that women and non-binary students were more likely than their men peers to identify disparities within engineering, especially among interactions with peers and differences in perceived stereotyping. Latiné students who are not men are more likely to experience the “double bind in higher education”, referencing the added challenges that come with navigating multiple underrepresented identities while pursuing engineering. Finally, results indicate mixed perspectives among Hispanic and Latiné students and their perceived support from HSIs. Although belonging to a culturally inclusive community enhances one’s college experience, the university itself could certainly implement better ways to support its Hispanic population.

Authors

Melissa Lepe http://orcid.org/https://0000-0001-5701-7354 University of California, Irvine [biography]

Melissa Lepe is a Ph.D. student at the University of California-Irvine. Her research interests include aircraft sustainability, aeroacoustics, and engineering education. Through her work at the UCI Aircraft Systems Laboratory and the STREAM Laboratory, she has worked on merging her interests in aviation and education to promote inclusivity, equity, and diversity in the aerospace field.
Spencer Currie University of California, Irvine
Kevin Jay Kaufman-Ortiz http://orcid.org/https://0000-0001-6488-7104 Purdue University/Cornell University [biography]

Kevin Jay Kaufman Ortiz holds a B.S. and M.S. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez Campus and Purdue University respectively. He is also a licensed mathematics teacher by the Department of Education in Puerto Rico. Kevin is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Engineering Education at Purdue University. His interests center around national identity, engineering culture, acculturation, and inclusion of colonial migrants from the U.S. territories who are looking to pursue engineering careers in the contiguous United States.
Charlie Díaz University of Pittsburgh [biography]

Charlie Diaz is a PhD student studying Higher Education at the University of Pittsburgh. He is a recipient of the K. Leroy Irvis Fellowship. His research interests include minoritized student experiences in Higher Ed, student activism, and the development of inclusive policy and practice in Higher Ed.
Gerard Dorvè-Lewis http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5542-2057 University of Pittsburgh [biography]

Gerard Dorvè-Lewis (he/him) is a higher education PhD student and scholar at the University of Pittsburgh. His broad research interests include emerging adulthood, diversity, equity, and inclusion in higher education, first-generation college students, Black students, higher education policy, and student success. Prior to beginning his doctoral journey, he worked full-time in student affairs at the University of Florida where he also earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Family, Youth, and Community Sciences.
Dr. Linda DeAngelo http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8508-5909 University of Pittsburgh [biography]

Linda DeAngelo is Associate Professor of Higher Education, and Director of Graduate Studies and secondary faculty in the Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Program at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. DeAngelo studies social stratification, investigating how social inequities are produced, maintained, and interrupted. Currently her scholarship focuses on access to and engagement in faculty mentorship, the pathway into and through graduate education, and gender and race in engineering.
Prof. Natascha Trellinger Buswell http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8503-5787 University of California, Irvine [biography]

Natascha Trellinger Buswell is an associate professor of teaching in the department of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University of California, Irvine. She earned her B.S. in aerospace engineering at Syracuse University and her Ph.D. in engineering education at Purdue University. She is particularly interested in inclusive teaching conceptions and methods and graduate level engineering education.

Note

The full paper will be available to logged in and registered conference attendees once the conference starts on June 22, 2025, and to all visitors after the conference ends on June 25, 2025

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