Compatibility of Mentoring Pairs in an Undergraduate Peer Mentoring Program

Elyse K. Zurawski; Suzanne Zurn-Birkhimer; Mayari I. Serrano; Lavanya Swaminathan

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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: Informal Education and Outreach Programs for Women Engineering Students
Tagged Division: Women in Engineering Division (WIED)
Tagged Topic: Diversity
Page Count: 17
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/56128

Paper Authors

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Elyse K. Zurawski Purdue University at West Lafayette (COE)

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Elyse Zurawski earned her Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering and Certificate in Collaborative Leadership in May 2024 and her Master of Science in Biomedical Engineering in May 2025. Zurawski is currently a Graduate Assistant for Purdue University’s Women in Engineering Program. Her work focuses on developing effective methods of pairing mentors with mentees and measuring program success in student retention.

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Suzanne Zurn-Birkhimer Purdue University at West Lafayette (COE)

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Dr. Suzanne Zurn-Birkhimer is Associate Director of the Women in Engineering Program and Associate Professor (by courtesy) in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences at Purdue University. She conducts research around student success.

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Mayari I. Serrano Purdue University at West Lafayette (PPI) orcid.org/0000-0003-1033-6459

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Mayari Serrano Anazco is a visiting clinical assistant professor in the Honors College and College of Engineering at Purdue University. She has authored, co-authored, implemented, and assessed learning activities, outreach activities, and workshops focused on modifying negative attitudes towards technology and engineering and increasing knowledge of several topics of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). Her publications show interdisciplinary interest and cover multimodal learning environments, embodied cognition, complex concepts, user experience, spatial abilities, gender bias, gender stereotypes, e-mentoring, sense of belonging, campus climate, and exergaming.

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Lavanya Swaminathan Purdue University at West Lafayette (COE)

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Lavanya is a Graduate Research Assistant for the Women in Engineering Program at Purdue University - West Lafayette, where she is researching participant engagement and how to optimize mentor-mentee pairings. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering at Purdue University and is currently pursuing her Master’s degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics, for which her research focuses on fracture mechanics models for composite materials. She hopes to pursue a career in developing cutting-edge composite materials for aerospace applications.

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Abstract

Whether a student is navigating the transition into university, formulating post-graduation plans, or somewhere in between, peer mentoring programs can be a great source of support. Many factors contribute to creating a beneficial program, but research shows that the matching process for assigning mentoring pairs has significant influence on the students’ success and satisfaction.

The Women in Engineering Program at R1 UNIVERSITY offers a peer network mentoring structure for women undergraduate engineering students with a focus on personal and professional development. Program participants can apply for an optional paired mentoring opportunity where First-Year Engineering (FYE) students are paired with an upperclass student in their desired major.

Currently, these pairs are matched manually using information from their application. This includes the participants’ desired (for FYE) or declared (for upperclass women) majors, how they self-identify on a spectrum of introverted to extraverted personality types, and responses to lifestyle questions. The purpose of this study is to determine the impact of this set of characteristics in a mentoring match.

There are 327 pairs in the Fall 2024 cohort. Of these pairs, 83.8% (274 pairs) have an FYE participant matched with an upperclass woman in their first desired major. Additionally, 84.4% (276 pairs) have matching self-identified personality types. Overall, 232 (70.9%) of the 327 pairs match on both major and personality type.

This paper will explore feedback collected from the participants (both the mentors and the mentees) to assess their satisfaction with both the program and their unique pairing. The initial study uses a mixed-methods approach to investigate what characteristics the participants believe make an ‘ideal’ mentoring pair and how that compares to their assigned pair. With this information, the goal is to optimize the matching process for peer mentoring pairs and to develop an understanding of how certain characteristics can impact a pair’s self-reported satisfaction with the mentoring relationship.

Citation
Format

Zurawski, E. K., & Zurn-Birkhimer, S., & Serrano, M. I., & Swaminathan, L. (2025, June), Compatibility of Mentoring Pairs in an Undergraduate Peer Mentoring Program Paper presented at 2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Montreal, Quebec, Canada . https://peer.asee.org/56128