Conference Session

Mentoring First Year Students

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Rose Marra, University of Missouri; Whitney Edmister, Virginia Tech; Bevlee Watford, Virginia Tech; Barbara Bogue, Pennsylvania State University; Chia-Lin Tsai, University of Missouri; Fleur Gooden, Virginia Tech

Tagged Divisions

First-Year Programs

underrepresentedminorities derive greater benefit from models that involve social and networkinginformation in addition to more mechanistic career development information (e.g.,Learning to negotiate the politics of an organization as well as understanding thesteps to advancement) 11,12,8.Ongoing research on mentoring identifies and investigates a broader range ofmodels. Chesler and Chesler 6, a team comprising sociology and engineeringexpertise, investigate how existing gender roles and dynamics impact the creationof effective mentoring programs. They report that a prevalent model, the HeroicJourney, emphasizes organizational and technical information and guidance butneglect psychosocial issues such as self-efficacy or sense of belonging. This isimportant because

Conference Session

Potpourri of First-Year Issues

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Farid Farahmand, Sonoma State University; Saeid Moslehpour, University of Hartford

Tagged Divisions

First-Year Programs

promoting racial understanding),self-efficacy, leadership, choice of a service career, and plans to participate in serviceafter college 2.In the past few years service-learning has become increasingly common pedagogy inengineering programs around the globe. One reason for its popularity is the industry’sdesire for individuals with the communication and collaboration skills who are betterequipped for working in a global context 3,4.In the United States, many different universities have also incorporated service-learninginto their curricula5. Perhaps the best well-known example is the Engineering Projects inCommunity Service (EPICS) program8 created by Purdue University in 1995 and now itincludes 18 universities. Under this program freshman to senior

Conference Session

Research on The First Year II

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Catherine Pieronek, University of Notre Dame; Kerry Meyers, University of Notre Dame; Sara Skiles, University of Notre Dame; Sean Kelly, University of Notre Dame; Leo McWilliams, University of Notre Dame

Tagged Divisions

First-Year Programs

better in the course,and found most significantly that poor performance in chemistry or physics courses predicteddifficulties in that course.10 Finally, issues of self-efficacy have been linked to persistence, as “self-reported confidence in college-level math/science ability and the belief that an engineering degreeenhances career security at a respectable salary were found to be significant predictors of bothshort and long term persistence in engineering.”11The Center for the Advancement of Engineering conducted the Academic Pathways Study (APS),which focused on questions relating to skills identify, education and workplace.12 A nationalsurvey that resulted from APS, the Persistence in Engineering (PIE) survey13 (subsequently theAcademic