ASPIRE West Texas Regional Collaborative: A Mentoring Model For Future Faculty

Agniprava Banerjee; Sara Rodriguez; Benjamin Flores

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Conference: 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Publication Date: August 23, 2022
Start Date: June 26, 2022
End Date: June 29, 2022
Conference Session: Transfer Programs at Two-Year Colleges in Engineering and Engineering Technology
Page Count: 17
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--41521
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/41521
Download Count: 392

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Paper Authors

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Agniprava Banerjee University of Texas at El Paso

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PhD Student in Materials Science and Research Associate for Inclusive future faculty preparation for STEM

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Sara Rodriguez University of Texas at El Paso

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Educator and Higher-Ed administrator with a focus on grant and program development. Extensive experience with federal funding management and student professional advancement. Currently, coordinator for the UT System Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) and Co-PI for the Aspire Alliance West Texas Regional Collaborative (WTxRC)

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Benjamin Flores University of Texas at El Paso

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Abstract

Community colleges focus on the recruitment of faculty who embrace effective teaching strategies and who are culturally aware and sensitive to the broad diversity of their student population. With this goal in mind, the ASPIRE West Texas Regional Collaborative is a multi-institutional partnership of community colleges and universities dedicated to prepare future community college faculty through a program focused on professional development and inclusive mentoring. Since 2019, we have engaged three cohorts by matching thirty-one (31) graduate students (fellows) with community college faculty in similar disciplines who shared their effective teaching strategies and encouraged fellows into meaningful careers in higher education in STEM areas. This one-semester experience included a series of biweekly seminars that address professional development topics like the mission of community colleges, teaching philosophies, inclusive teaching goals and strategies, community college faculty responsibilities, developing effective courses and lesson plans, and building a professional network. A mentor-protégé (dyad) model allowed for open conversations on topics such as two-year institution student socio-economic backgrounds, differences in institutional missions and core values, and meaningful teaching philosophies. Finally, fellows developed their personalized teaching portfolios, which their mentors then reviewed. The evaluation of the ASPIRE program was conducted via end-of-term surveys for participating faculty and graduate students to gauge the quality of the experience. An external evaluator, who provided a report with aggregated data, analyzed these surveys. Fellows reported a very positive experience and major gains in the understanding of the mission of community colleges, the roles of community college faculty, and the importance of having a teaching philosophy. Fellows represented multiple disciplines: ten in engineering and computing, seven in physical sciences, seven in biological sciences, three in environmental science, two in mathematics, and two in other disciplines. By gender, participants were distributed almost evenly.

Citation
Format

Banerjee, A., & Rodriguez, S., & Flores, B. (2022, August), ASPIRE West Texas Regional Collaborative: A Mentoring Model For Future Faculty Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--41521

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Community colleges focus on the recruitment of faculty who embrace effective teaching strategies and who are culturally aware and sensitive to the broad diversity of their student population. With this goal in mind, the ASPIRE West Texas Regional Collaborative is a multi-institutional partnership of community colleges and universities dedicated to prepare future community college faculty through a program focused on professional development and inclusive mentoring.
Since 2019, we have engaged three cohorts by matching thirty-one (31) graduate students (fellows) with community college faculty in similar disciplines who shared their effective teaching strategies and encouraged fellows into meaningful careers in higher education in STEM areas. This one-semester experience included a series of biweekly seminars that address professional development topics like the mission of community colleges, teaching philosophies, inclusive teaching goals and strategies, community college faculty responsibilities, developing effective courses and lesson plans, and building a professional network.  A mentor-protégé (dyad) model allowed for open conversations on topics such as two-year institution student socio-economic backgrounds, differences in institutional missions and core values, and meaningful teaching philosophies. Finally, fellows developed their personalized teaching portfolios, which their mentors then reviewed.
 
The evaluation of the ASPIRE program was conducted via end-of-term surveys for participating faculty and graduate students to gauge the quality of the experience. An external evaluator, who provided a report with aggregated data, analyzed these surveys. Fellows reported a very positive experience and major gains in the understanding of the mission of community colleges, the roles of community college faculty, and the importance of having a teaching philosophy.  Fellows represented multiple disciplines: ten in engineering and computing, seven in physical sciences, seven in biological sciences, three in environmental science, two in mathematics, and two in other disciplines. By gender, participants were distributed almost evenly. 

AU  - Agniprava Banerjee
AU  - Sara Rodriguez
AU  - Benjamin Flores
CY  - Minneapolis, MN
DA  - 2022/08/23
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - ASPIRE West Texas Regional Collaborative: A Mentoring Model For Future Faculty
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/41521
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--41521
ER  -