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Board 339: Mentoring Competencies From the Perspective of Mentors and Their Racially Marginalized STEM Mentees

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Conference

2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Baltimore , Maryland

Publication Date

June 25, 2023

Start Date

June 25, 2023

End Date

June 28, 2023

Conference Session

NSF Grantees Poster Session

Tagged Topics

Diversity and NSF Grantees Poster Session

Page Count

15

DOI

10.18260/1-2--42954

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/42954

Download Count

97

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Paper Authors

biography

Vibhavari Vempala University of Michigan

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Vibhavari (Vibha) Vempala is a third year PhD student in Engineering Education Research at the University of Michigan. Her research interests include understanding access to opportunities, social networks, and career management of engineering students. Vibha received her B.S. in Engineering from the joint department of Biomedical Engineering at The North Carolina State University and The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a M.S. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Michigan.

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Emily Buten University of Michigan

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Emily (she/her) is a Ph.D. student in the Engineering Education Research program at the University of Michigan and received her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from University of Dayton. Her research focuses on individuals' development from students to professional engineers.

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Joi-lynn Mondisa University of Michigan Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0002-3959-6548

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Joi Mondisa, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Industrial & Operations Engineering Department and an Engineering Education Faculty Member at the University of Michigan. She earned her Ph.D. in Engineering Education and an M.S. degree in Industrial Engineering from Purdue University; an M.B.A. degree from Governors State University; and a B.S. degree in General Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Prior to her graduate studies, she worked as a professional in the areas of manufacturing, operations, technical sales, and publishing for ten years. She also served as an adjunct faculty in the Engineering Technology Program at Triton College in River Grove, IL for seven years.

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Abstract

Despite various efforts to broaden participation, racially marginalized students (i.e., Black, Hispanic/Latinx, and American Indian/Alaskan Native identifying people) continue to be underrepresented in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields and careers. Mentoring is recognized as a mechanism that has been shown to support the persistence and success of racially marginalized students in STEM through providing relevant resources, psychosocial support, and fostering identity development. This quantitative work aims to understand the mentoring competencies of mentors who support racially marginalized students in STEM. To promote effective mentoring, it is essential to understand the mentoring competencies of mentors from the perspective of both mentors and mentees. Understanding how mentees perceive various mentoring competencies can help mentors understand deficiencies in their skills to improve their mentoring practices.

Using survey data collected from mentors and racially marginalized mentees, we assessed the mentoring competencies of mentors from the perspective of both mentors and mentees. The survey data includes demographic and academic information about mentors and mentees. In addition, using a pre-validated survey instrument, mentors and mentees rated the mentoring competencies of the mentors on a Likert scale across five constructs of mentoring. The five mentoring constructs include maintaining effective communication, aligning expectations, assessing understanding, fostering independence, and promoting professional development. Each construct consists of multiple items for a total of 26 survey items. We compared the mentors’ self-rated competencies with the ratings provided by the mentees to identify differences across demographics. Preliminary findings identify differences in the mentoring competencies of mentors from the perspective of both mentors and mentees. Recommendations for research and practice are also presented.

Vempala, V., & Buten, E., & Mondisa, J. (2023, June), Board 339: Mentoring Competencies From the Perspective of Mentors and Their Racially Marginalized STEM Mentees Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--42954

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