BOARD # 318: A Thrive Mosaic-based S-STEM Program to Enhance the Educational Success of Diverse Students in Mechanical, Electrical, and Computer Engineering

Jennifer S Atchison; Ahmad R. Najafi; Gail Rosen

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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: NSF Grantees Poster Session II
Tagged Topics: Diversity and NSF Grantees Poster Session
Page Count: 6
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/55684

Paper Authors

biography

Jennifer S Atchison Drexel University

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Jennifer Atchison received her Ph.D in Materials Science and Engineering in 2012 from Drexel University. Dr. Atchison's professional interests include engineering education particularly creativity in engineering design and broadening participation in engineering.

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biography

Ahmad R. Najafi Drexel University

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Ahmad Raeisi Najafi is the P.C. Chou Endowed Assistant Professor in the Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics Department and the director of the Multiscale Computational Mechanics and Biomechanics LAB (MCMB LAB). He is an internationally recognized researcher in the field of design optimization and bone biomechanics. He also serves as the director of the NSF S-STEM AMIE Scholarships at Drexel University.
Najafi’s research focuses on design optimization, damage and fracture, and orthopedic materials and implants. His group develops computational algorithms for the design of multifunctional multiscale materials and structures for use in mechanical, biomedical, aerospace, and infrastructure applications. His research also advances the fundamental understanding of the underlying mechanics of fracture in multifunctional biological and synthetic composite materials. He also integrates computational mechanics approaches into orthopedic biomechanics to study human skeletal diseases and injuries and design new orthotropic materials and implants. To conduct these studies, he closely collaborates with experts in mechanics, biomechanics, civil engineering, manufacturing, and material engineering and science. Sponsors of his research have included the NSF, NIH, PA Department of Community & Economic Development, Coulter Foundation, and DARPA.
Najafi is a recipient of the NSF Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) Award (2022), the Drexel Provost Award for Outstanding Early Career Scholarly Productivity (2023), the College of Engineering Outstanding Early-Career Research Award (2023), and the Drexel University Career Development Award (2019). He is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineering (ASME), the US Association for Computational Mechanics (USACM), the International Society for Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimization (ISSOM), and the American Society of Biomechanics (ASB). He served as the Editorial Board member of the Multifunctional Materials journal (2019-2022).
Najafi received his first Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from the Tehran Polytechnique in 2006. He then studied at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, receiving his second Ph.D. in theoretical and applied mechanics in 2016.

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Gail Rosen Drexel University

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Abstract

The objective of the Awards to Increase Mechanical (ME) and Electrical/Computer Engineering (ECE) Diversity (AIME) S-STEM program is to increase sustainable gender and ethnic diversity by (a) financially supporting talented Underrepresented Minority (URM) students at Drexel University (DU), (b) activating networks that will support the AIME scholar’s intellectual growth, sense of belonging, socialization to their discipline, cultural capital, and (c) transforming the departmental culture that has structurally marginalized URM students in the past. Over six years, the program will award 23 four-year scholarships across two cohorts, with the first cohort of 9 students beginning in 2023-2024. This project is designed to drive institutional changes in how ME and ECE programs recruit and retain URM students, by not only providing financial support, but also examining how comprehensive services can enhance disciplinary learning and foster positive identity development. Specifically, AIME has cultivated strategic recruitment partnerships with local stakeholders in STEM education to recruit talented, under-resourced students from URM and women populations in the Philadelphia School District (PSD) and offer resources both financial through scholarships and academic through mentorship, tutoring, and undergraduate research opportunities, to scaffold their success at DU and eventually entering a rewarding lucrative engineering field. Additionally, AIME will explore the use of podcasting to explore themes our AIME Scholars find relevant including interviews of recent graduates and URM engineers in the workforce as a potential resource for supporting the authoring of positive disciplinary identities for the identified student population.

Although one of the purposes of the AIME program is to provide financial support to talented URM and women students with unmet financial need in ME and ECE disciplines, we recognize that there are other obstacles URMs and women face in an academic environment. To increase the likelihood of equitable educational experiences for our AIME Scholars and to interrupt the current policies and departmental culture that compromise learning opportunities and participation in academic programs, we adopted the Thrive Mosaic (TM) Scholar Development Framework. This framework is a conceptual toolkit for equitable STEM identity and leadership development that centers the student’s development of social capital, community and cultural wealth, and academic capital within an ecosystem of partners (associates, advocates, mentors, coaches, connectors, targeting trainers) who will provide specific support throughout the undergraduate experience. We are adopting this evidence-based framework because it disrupts the well-established obstructions to equity and inclusion in most institutions. It builds cultural competence among the TM partners responsible for providing services and guidance to URMs and women while supporting the educational goals of our AIME scholars by nurturing a sense of belonging, supporting intellectual growth, socializing them to their academic discipline, assigning value to their cultural differences and creating a welcoming environment. This project and its findings will inform engineering programs as they explore ways to support URM students' intellectual growth, while also fostering a sense of belonging in ME, ECE, and the broader engineering community.

Citation
Format

Atchison, J. S., & Najafi, A. R., & Rosen, G. (2025, June), BOARD # 318: A Thrive Mosaic-based S-STEM Program to Enhance the Educational Success of Diverse Students in Mechanical, Electrical, and Computer Engineering Paper presented at 2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Montreal, Quebec, Canada . https://peer.asee.org/55684

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - The objective of the Awards to Increase Mechanical (ME) and Electrical/Computer Engineering (ECE) Diversity (AIME) S-STEM program is to increase sustainable gender and ethnic diversity by (a) financially supporting talented Underrepresented Minority (URM) students at Drexel University (DU), (b) activating networks that will support the AIME scholar’s intellectual growth, sense of belonging, socialization to their discipline, cultural capital, and (c) transforming the departmental culture that has structurally marginalized URM students in the past. Over six years, the program will award 23 four-year scholarships across two cohorts, with the first cohort of 9 students beginning in 2023-2024. This project is designed to drive institutional changes in how ME and ECE programs recruit and retain URM students, by not only providing financial support, but also examining how comprehensive services can enhance disciplinary learning and foster positive identity development. Specifically, AIME has cultivated strategic recruitment partnerships with local stakeholders in STEM education to recruit talented, under-resourced students from URM and women populations in the Philadelphia School District (PSD) and offer resources both financial through scholarships and academic through mentorship, tutoring, and undergraduate research opportunities, to scaffold their success at DU and eventually entering a rewarding lucrative engineering field. Additionally, AIME will explore the use of podcasting to explore themes our AIME Scholars find relevant including interviews of recent graduates and URM engineers in the workforce as a potential resource for supporting the authoring of positive disciplinary identities for the identified student population.  

Although one of the purposes of the AIME program is to provide financial support to talented URM and women students with unmet financial need in ME and ECE disciplines, we recognize that there are other obstacles URMs and women face in an academic environment. To increase the likelihood of equitable educational experiences for our AIME Scholars and to interrupt the current policies and departmental culture that compromise learning opportunities and participation in academic programs, we adopted the Thrive Mosaic (TM) Scholar Development Framework. This framework is a conceptual toolkit for equitable STEM identity and leadership development that centers the student’s development of social capital, community and cultural wealth, and academic capital within an ecosystem of partners (associates, advocates, mentors, coaches, connectors, targeting trainers) who will provide specific support throughout the undergraduate experience. We are adopting this evidence-based framework because it disrupts the well-established obstructions to equity and inclusion in most institutions. It builds cultural competence among the TM partners responsible for providing services and guidance to URMs and women while supporting the educational goals of our AIME scholars by nurturing a sense of belonging, supporting intellectual growth, socializing them to their academic discipline, assigning value to their cultural differences and creating a welcoming environment. This project and its findings will inform engineering programs as they explore ways to support URM students&#39; intellectual growth, while also fostering a sense of belonging in ME, ECE, and the broader engineering community. 

 
AU  - Jennifer S Atchison
AU  - Ahmad R. Najafi
AU  - Gail Rosen
CY  - Montreal, Quebec, Canada 
DA  - 2025/06/22
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - BOARD # 318: A Thrive Mosaic-based S-STEM Program to Enhance the Educational Success of Diverse Students in Mechanical, Electrical, and Computer Engineering 
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/55684
ER  -