Conference Session

Engineering Empowered Communities: Place-Based Community Engaged Learning

Collection

2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Juan C. Lucena, Colorado School of Mines; Mateo Rojas; Casey Gibson, National Academy of Engineering; Jaime Elizabeth Styer, Colorado School of Mines; Sofia Lara Schlezak, Colorado School of Mines

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Community Engagement Division (COMMENG)

differentinstitutions.As described in [1], US graduate engineering research remains focused on preparing students fora shrinking pool of academic jobs and most students are dissatisfied by the lack of socialrelevance of their research. An article detailing the state of graduate education points out, “mostgraduate programs will, in fact, fail to deliver the training that students desire and societydesperately needs. Graduate training remains focused on preparing students to addressdisciplinary knowledge gaps valued in a shrinking pool of faculty positions. While we invitestudents to apply for degrees based on their motivations to change the world, once they arrive,we do not prepare them to be successful change-makers. Current students report beingdiscouraged from

Conference Session

Empowering Students and Strengthening Community Relationships

Collection

2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Samuel A Acuña, George Mason University; Nathalia Peixoto, George Mason University; Holly Matto, George Mason University; Siddhartha Sikdar, George Mason University

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Community Engagement Division (COMMENG)

example, teams can gothrough multiple rounds of ideating, prototyping, and testing their designs to iteratively developa solution that is co-created with community members. As another example, during producttesting the teams may learn more about the users and the community that may support anupdated definition of the problem statement. Thus, teams must document their design process tocreate a compelling set of evidence to support their design decisions and tell an impactful designnarrative.Community stakeholder participation is crucial for a successful design project. Students aretaught to use a stakeholder map to identify how individual community members are involved inthe design process. For example, some community members are highly involved

Conference Session

Engineering Empowered Communities: Place-Based Community Engaged Learning

Collection

2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Paula Alvarez Pino, University of Alabama, Birmingham; Fouad H. Fouad, University of Alabama, Birmingham; Andrew J. Sullivan, University of Alabama, Birmingham; Mona N Fouad, University of Alabama, Birmingham

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Community Engagement Division (COMMENG)

have meaningful impact and benefit the most from. Student projects vary depending on the level of involvement whether they are doing an internship, capstone project, thesis projects, or registered in a class. 2. Student Recruitment: Attract a diverse group of students who are interested in community engagement and solving challenges close to home. We employed a combination of strategies to engage students including hosting information sessions, presenting our work in front of student organizations, and encouraging faculty members to refer interested students. 3. Training and Orientation: Provide students with training and orientation sessions, explain the goal of our neighborhood revitalization work, and