2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Title: FACE to FACE with Leadership: A Work in Progress

This work-in-progress paper presents evidence-based practices for designing, implementing, and sustaining leadership development programs. The Bureau of Labor Statistics stressed the need for a 15% increase in the engineering profession [1]. The increased demand for engineers is to support the demand and replacement of the baby boomer generation [1]. Despite this growing need for engineers, many institutions face attrition among their engineering undergraduate student population. Understanding why students do not persist in engineering degrees is the first step in designing solutions to address the gap between higher education institutions and the engineering industry.

Previous research has shown that around 50% of engineering students withdraw or change to other majors mainly due to poor teaching and advising, difficulty with the curriculum, and a lack of belonging within engineering [2]. Persistence, at a student level, is a derivative of motivation defined by their perception of how meaningful their interactions with others and the institution are, their sense of belonging, and the value they perceive of their engineering curriculum [3].

By viewing persistence from the student lens, institutions can develop programs to influence students' motivation to persist towards graduation. Western University Accelerated Community Engagement program is a year-long program that aims to increase student persistence towards graduation by promoting a sense of belonging [4] and fostering an engineering identity [4] amongst first-year students (FYS) engineering majors. By allowing students to perceive themselves as engineers, by fostering their engineering identity, we are providing them with space to develop as leaders within engineering. This program is an innovative engineering leadership development educational practice to help FYS in engineering develop their engineering leadership identity.

The program supports FYS by creating opportunities to develop leadership skills and connect with resources that promote career and educational goal achievement while providing financial compensation. The program participants learn and apply professional skills identified to aid their leadership journey. The program aims for the cohort to explore answers to the following questions about themselves as a leader: What do leaders do, why do you want to be a leader, how do you want to be a leader, how do you plan to get there, and how do you create an inclusive community as a leader?  The program aims to develop leadership skills, to create opportunities for students to engage in co- and extracurricular activities, and to promote career and educational goal achievement within our engineering FYS to aid in retention to their programs.

Data collection includes participant perceptions, participation, and longitudinal retention and engagement. Preliminary finds show that most of our cohorts agreed that they can articulate the value of being an engineering student, that participating in the program helped them secure an on-campus student leader position, they are able to describe their own leadership profile, and they can reflect upon the application of leadership skills.

References

[1] J. Roman, “How to Meet the Increasing Demand for Engineers,” PE Magazine: NSPE Today, vol. Spring 2021, 2021

[2] M. Morris, R. Hensel, and J. Dygert, “Why do students leave? an investigation into why well-supported students leave a first-year engineering program,” 2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Jun. 2019. doi:10.18260/1-2—33559

[3] V. Tinto, “Through the Eyes of Students,” Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Practice, vol. 19, no. 3, pp. 254–269, Dec. 2017. doi: 10.1177/1521025115621917.

[4] W. J. Schell and B. E. Hughes, “Developing an engineering leadership identity,” New Directions for Student Leadership, vol. 2022, no. 173, pp. 129–137, Mar. 2022. doi:10.1002/yd.20484