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2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

NSF EEC: Establishing UTRGV's Center for Broadening Participation in Engineering: Engage, Educate, Enrich

Presented at NSF Grantees Poster Session II

Hispanics are one of the fastest growing populations in the US, yet they are underrepresented in engineering. University X, a major Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) with a student population over 95% Hispanic, is well-positioned to address this disparity. University X established a Center for Broadening Participation in Engineering: Engage, Educate, Enrich (CBPE-E3) to enhance Hispanic participation in engineering from early awareness through professional employment. The CBPE -E3 aims to increase enrollment, retention, and advancement rates of Hispanic students in higher education engineering, especially Latinas facing intersectional barriers of race and gender. The CBPE -E3 envisions becoming the leading national model for inclusion, professional preparation, and successful advancement of Hispanic engineers. Drawing on the community wealth asset framework, the CBPE -E3 is grounded in culturally relevant programming and pedagogy. It encompasses three objectives and related focus areas: 1) ENGAGE (K-12 Outreach): Provide early exposure to engineering content and role models for students, their families and communities, and teachers and counselors; 2) EDUCATE (Education & Training): Create an inclusive college experience that promotes students' success through curricular reform and trainings for faculty and students; and 3) ENRICH (Professional & Research Experiences): Provide the next generation of engineers with critical professional, leadership, and research development opportunities. The CBPE -E3 builds on University X's long-standing commitment to supporting Latinx students, as recognized with a 2021 Seal of Excelencia, and in broadening participation through successful NSF ADVANCE IT, INCLUDES, and ECR grants. It also leverages partnerships with 14 entities, including major universities, engineering professional societies, community colleges, K-12 systems, non-profits, and engineering employers and alumni. The CBPE -E3 expands University X's student educational opportunities through an R1 institution collaboration to create the Alliance for Student Participation in Research Experiences for Hispanics (ASPIRE Hispanics). It also introduces students to role models, professional networks, and ongoing personal and career development through professional society partners. Finally, the CBPE -E3 shares promising practices with institutions serving largely Hispanic populations so that they can replicate or adapt best practices at their home campuses through an "Equity in Engineering Education Summit." Infrastructure in phase I will be expanded for national scale-up in phase II. The authors will present the work in progress and preliminary results from a pilot implementation. This project is funded by NSF award 2217780.

Authors
  1. Dr. Ala Qubbaj The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley [biography]
  2. Laura Benitez The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley [biography]
  3. Dr. Noe Vargas Hernandez The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley [biography]
  5. Dr. Arturo A Fuentes The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley [biography]
  6. Dr. Nazmul Islam The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
  7. Edna orozco-leonhardt Orcid 16x16http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2561-3407 The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley [biography]
  8. Thuy Vu The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
  9. Angela Chapman The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
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  • 1st Generation
  • Broadening Participation in Engineering and Engineering Technology
  • engineering
  • race/ethnicity
  • Socio-Economic Status
  • undergraduate