Promoting Student Success through a Social, Academic, and Institutional Support System in Engineering Education

在改善本科生 STEM 教育：西班牙裔服务机构 (HSI) 计划的支持下，该第二轨道项目将为德克萨斯大学埃尔帕索分校一年级工程专业学生开发和研究可持续的学术、机构和社会支持系统（即正式的同伴指导计划）。 Promoviendo el Éxito Estudiantil a través de un Sistema de Apoyo (PromESA) 模式通过为学员提供辅导、建议和与现有大学服务的联系，为学生提供教育和个人支持。同样重要的是，该项目将提供社会情感支持，提供建立友谊的机会，并肯定学生的归属感，特别是拉丁裔学生。 PromESA 组成部分将专门考虑学生的交叉身份（例如性别、第一代大学生身份、文化遗产）。研究结果将有助于为服务不足的人群提供学术、机构和社会支持，同时解决拉丁裔学生在工程教育中缺乏归属感的问题。该项目将实施一项全面的、社会文化敏感的同伴辅导计划，该计划改编自加州州立大学长滩分校开发的循证教育促进者计划。这一多层面举措将遵循四个目标。首先是通过将整体的、社会文化响应的实践纳入教师和同伴导师的培训和专业发展中来增强学生的归属感。其次是将拉丁裔文化资产和价值观的意识纳入试点部门的景观中。第三是提高参与学生在工程学位课程中的保留率、毅力和学业成绩。第四是建立结构和政策，使奖励期之外的主要项目组成部分制度化。嵌入式行动研究工作将结合定性和参与性研究方法，以更全面地了解同伴辅导计划对历史上少数/边缘化群体学生的影响。 该研究将专门研究此类项目如何影响参与者，并缩小同伴指导项目对攻读工程学位的拉丁裔学生的影响的知识差距，特别是在利用他们的文化优势和交叉身份时。此外，所产生的知识将使工程教育研究界更深入地了解拉丁裔学生的独特经历和观点。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI) Program, this Track 2 project will develop and study a sustainable system of academic, institutional, and social supports (i.e., formal peer-mentoring program) for first-year engineering students at the University of Texas El Paso. The Promoviendo el Éxito Estudiantil a través de un Sistema de Apoyo (PromESA) model offers educational and personal support for students by providing mentees with tutoring, advising and connections to available university services. Equally importantly, the project will provide social-emotional support, provide opportunities to build friendships, and affirm students’ sense of belonging, particularly for Latinx students. PromESA components will specifically account for students’ intersecting identities (e.g., gender, first-generation college student status, cultural heritage). Research findings will inform efforts to provide academic, institutional, and social support for under-served populations while addressing the lack of a sense of belonging experienced by Latinx students in engineering education.This project will implement a holistic, socio-culturally responsive peer-mentoring program adapted from the evidence-based Promotores de Educación Program developed at California State University at Long Beach. This multidimensional initiative will be guided by four objectives. First is to increase students’ sense of belonging by incorporating holistic, socio-culturally responsive practices into training and professional development for faculty and peer mentors. Second is to build awareness of Latinx cultural assets and values into the landscape of the piloting department. Third is to increase participating students’ retention, persistence, and academic performance in their engineering degree programs. Fourth is to establish structures and policies to institutionalize major project components beyond the award period. The embedded action research effort will use a combination of qualitative and participatory research methods to offer a fuller understanding of the impact of peer-mentoring programs for students from historically minoritized/marginalized populations. The research will specifically examine how such programs can impact participants and narrow the knowledge gap on the impacts of peer-mentoring programs for Latinx students pursuing engineering degrees, particularly when leveraging their cultural strengths and their intersectional identities. Furthermore, the knowledge generated will provide the engineering education research community with a deeper understanding of the unique experiences and perspectives of Latinx students.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.