2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Background:
A university-based Pre-Freshman Engineering Program (PREP) provides a four-week intensive STEM experience (June 10–July 10, 2025) for middle and high school students. Program assistants (PA) also serves as mentors to the students, offering psychosocial support and guidance. They play a key role in student engagement and success, yet many enter with limited experience in mentoring or facilitation. To strengthen the PA’s mentor preparedness, PREP introduced a structured training model integrating reflective practice, skill-based assessment, and peer-led mentoring sessions. Before the first training session, mentors completed a pre-survey assessing their perceived readiness and confidence in mentoring. After the orientation session, they reflected on the prompt: “What additional training and support do you need to be a better mentor?”
Purpose:
This study examines changes in mentors’ self-perceived competencies before and after the four-week program and explores how feedback from the orientation session informed targeted peer-mentoring activities embedded in the summer program. This paper reports initial findings from mentor training initiative aimed at improving mentoring, teaching, and coaching practices among program assistants (PA) who serve as mentors supporting pre-college STEM learners.
Methods:
PAs completed a 25-item “Mentoring Matters” Pre- and Post-Skill Survey measuring proficiency across domains such as communication, goal setting, feedback, and cultural awareness, using a 7-point confidence scale. In addition, participants responded to a post-orientation prompt—“What additional training and support do you need to be a better mentor?” Responses were analyzed through both descriptive and thematic methods, categorizing requests into mentoring, teaching, and coaching domains.
Results:
Orientation feedback highlighted recurring needs for more practice-based examples, classroom management tools, and strategies for fostering mentee motivation and inclusivity.
Findings indicate PAs valued structured reflection as a developmental tool and demonstrated increased clarity around their roles in fostering belonging, communication, and student engagement. Orientation feedback suggested a need for ongoing training in culturally responsive practices, conflict resolution, and learner-centered strategies. Together, these findings informed the design of daily 10-minute peer-led discussions and weekly 30-minute virtual group mentoring activities - an interactive method for sharing results with Pas to reinforce reflective feedback as a continuous learning process. By positioning mentor reflection as both assessment and professional growth, this work contributes to the design of scalable pre-college mentor development frameworks that enhance the quality of engineering outreach programs.
Implications:

Integrating structured reflection, feedback analysis, and applied mentoring opportunities enhances mentor self-efficacy and informs iterative improvement in pre-college STEM outreach.