Amplifying the impact of leadership development for first-year engineering students through community-engaged team projects: a work in progress

Yuting W. Chen

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Conference: 2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Publication Date: June 22, 2025
Start Date: June 22, 2025
End Date: August 15, 2025
Conference Session: Mentorship in Engineering Leadership Development
Tagged Division: Engineering Leadership Development Division (LEAD)
Page Count: 8
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--57597
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/57597
Download Count: 12

Paper Authors

biography

Yuting W. Chen University of Illinois Urbana - Champaign

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Dr. Yuting W. Chen received the B.S. degree from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2007, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2009 and 2011, all in Electrical Engineering. She is currently a Teaching Associate Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Director of Women in Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her current interests include recruitment and retention of under-served students in STEM, leadership development for undergraduate and graduate students, and curriculum innovation in Electrical and Computer Engineering.

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Abstract

This work-in-progress paper presents a semester-long first-year engineering leadership course, in which students participate in interactive seminars and apply their learnings through a community-engaged team project. Working in cross-disciplinary teams, students develop STEM lessons for a K-12 audience under the guidance of pre-service teachers. These projects allow students to actively contribute to the local community while improving teamwork and leadership skills. Additionally, the instructor provides mentorship, offering resources and opportunities for leadership development beyond the classroom. The leadership course is part of the Grainger First-Year Experience (GFX) program at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, designed to provide a small-cohort experience for first-year engineering students. Participants are selected through an application process, in which they identify a topic for further development. Most students enrolled in the course have prior leadership experience, having served as team leaders in various high school activities. The course focuses on leadership development through weekly interactive seminars, with guest speakers from different campus units sharing their areas of expertise. To apply their learning, students form cross-disciplinary teams so that they are working with peers from various engineering majors. Each team, mentored by a pre-service teacher, develops an interactive K-12 STEM lesson, concluding in a lesson delivery and final presentation at the end of the semester. Preliminary findings reveal that students were more enthusiastic about their team projects compared to the earlier seminars and reflections, despite the additional time commitment needed outside of class. They highly valued the opportunity to engage with the local community and had a deeper appreciation for the effort put in by their instructors after going through the process of creating and delivering a lesson themselves. This course can serve as a practical template for universities looking to develop or pilot leadership programs for first-year engineering students, particularly those with limited resources. The course’s structure demonstrates how to effectively foster leadership skills and community engagement without requiring extensive resources.

Citation
Format

Chen, Y. W. (2025, June), Amplifying the impact of leadership development for first-year engineering students through community-engaged team projects: a work in progress Paper presented at 2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Montreal, Quebec, Canada . 10.18260/1-2--57597

TY - CPAPER
AB - This work-in-progress paper presents a semester-long first-year engineering leadership course, in which students participate in interactive seminars and apply their learnings through a community-engaged team project. Working in cross-disciplinary teams, students develop STEM lessons for a K-12 audience under the guidance of pre-service teachers. These projects allow students to actively contribute to the local community while improving teamwork and leadership skills. Additionally, the instructor provides mentorship, offering resources and opportunities for leadership development beyond the classroom.
The leadership course is part of the Grainger First-Year Experience (GFX) program at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, designed to provide a small-cohort experience for first-year engineering students. Participants are selected through an application process, in which they identify a topic for further development. Most students enrolled in the course have prior leadership experience, having served as team leaders in various high school activities. The course focuses on leadership development through weekly interactive seminars, with guest speakers from different campus units sharing their areas of expertise. To apply their learning, students form cross-disciplinary teams so that they are working with peers from various engineering majors. Each team, mentored by a pre-service teacher, develops an interactive K-12 STEM lesson, concluding in a lesson delivery and final presentation at the end of the semester.
Preliminary findings reveal that students were more enthusiastic about their team projects compared to the earlier seminars and reflections, despite the additional time commitment needed outside of class. They highly valued the opportunity to engage with the local community and had a deeper appreciation for the effort put in by their instructors after going through the process of creating and delivering a lesson themselves.
This course can serve as a practical template for universities looking to develop or pilot leadership programs for first-year engineering students, particularly those with limited resources. The course’s structure demonstrates how to effectively foster leadership skills and community engagement without requiring extensive resources.
AU - Yuting W. Chen
CY - Montreal, Quebec, Canada
DA - 2025/06/22
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Amplifying the impact of leadership development for first-year engineering students through community-engaged team projects: a work in progress
UR - https://peer.asee.org/57597
DO - 10.18260/1-2--57597
ER -