Building Leadership Capacity in Rising Engineering Professionals through Engagement as Career Mentors: Influencing a Self-Directed Learning Mindset
- Conference
- Location
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Portland, Oregon
- Publication Date
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June 23, 2024
- Start Date
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June 23, 2024
- End Date
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July 12, 2024
- Conference Session
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College Industry Partnerships Division (CIP) Technical Session 3
- Tagged Division
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College Industry Partnerships Division (CIP)
- Permanent URL
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https://strategy.asee.org/48427
Paper Authors
J. Eliseo De León New Mexico State University
Eliseo De León serves as a Professor of Practice in the Chemical and Materials Engineering department and provides support to the Engineering Education Enrichment Initiative, e3, at New Mexico State University. Previously, he served at Iowa State University (ISU) and is a lifetime member of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE). Since 2009, De León has delivered STEM programming throughout Iowa and nationally through SHPE during the Covid-19 pandemic, to underrepresented students and their families to raise awareness of the possibilities available in STEM higher education fields. De León served the ISU Office of the Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for seven years, leading the Lazos retention and graduation program for Hispanic men on the ISU campus. De León is committed to increasing the success of STEM students through extracurricular learning experiences and industry job placement. De León received his bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from the University of California at Davis and his PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from Iowa State University.
Patricia A. Sullivan New Mexico State University
Patricia Sullivan currently serves as associate dean in the College of Engineering at New Mexico State University with a joint appointment as Director for Workforce and Strategic Engagement in the Office of the Vice President of Research, Creativity, and Economic Development. Dr. Sullivan received her PhD in industrial engineering, and a master’s degree in economics from New Mexico State University. She is a recognized leader in STEM-based workforce development and outreach programming where she leads efforts to align academic programs with employer needs to foster economic benefits at the community level. She serves as lead for a National Science Foundation grant to advance engineering student career-readiness through augmented self-directed micro-credential learning.
Sara Patricolo New Mexico State University
Abstract
Mentoring is widely recognized as a means of cultivating leadership skills for current and future leaders (Dziczkowski, 2013). Entering the fourth year of a National Science Foundation IUSE grant focused on engineering education and enrichment, the integration of industry-led mentoring has been identified as an important asset for enriching career development for undergraduate engineering students. However, while the benefits of the mentoring process are well documented in literature, a gap exists regarding the potential to build leadership capacity among rising engineering professionals who serve in the role of mentor. Preliminary feedback from industry mentors involved in the program suggests an interest in the creation of leadership pathways for rising engineering professionals serving as mentors to undergraduate engineering students. That feedback has provided the impetus for creating a professional development micro-credential comprised of a sequence of online “digital badges”, which guide rising engineering professionals in utilizing mentoring as a leadership development tool that helps navigate career advancement in their respective engineering fields. Integrated within the digital badges are guiding principles designed to positively influence the development of a self-directed learning mindset, building leadership capacity among rising engineering professionals as future leaders.
The literature conveys that mentors often cite the ability to increase their professional skills as personal benefits gained through the mentoring process, stating that serving as mentors caused them to reflect on and sharpen their own skills, including coaching, communicating, and reflecting (Hopkins-Thompson, 2000). In this paper, we report on our efforts to scale a novel leadership development model for rising engineering professionals through engagement as mentors. We further share progress to date on the development of a series of professional development digital “badges” that can be stacked toward a leadership micro-credential, and offer a reflective insight from current industry mentors on how engagement in the program has provoked aspirations for advanced leadership roles in the engineering profession.
As a work in progress, some of the challenges and breakthroughs achieved in developing this curriculum are shared. Further, preliminary strategies for overcoming known challenges for an effective mentor-mentee relationship are shared (e.g., time management, creating positive professional relationships with mentees, cultural and demographic nuances, organizational commitment) as insight into future direction of the program.
De León, J. E., & Sullivan, P. A., & Patricolo, S. (2024, June), Building Leadership Capacity in Rising Engineering Professionals through Engagement as Career Mentors: Influencing a Self-Directed Learning Mindset Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. https://strategy.asee.org/48427
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