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Developing a Culturally Adaptive Pathway to Success: Implementation Progress and Project Findings

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Conference

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Location

Virtual On line

Publication Date

June 22, 2020

Start Date

June 22, 2020

End Date

June 26, 2021

Conference Session

NSF Grantees: S-STEM 4

Tagged Topics

Diversity and NSF Grantees Poster Session

Page Count

14

DOI

10.18260/1-2--34412

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/34412

Download Count

392

Paper Authors

biography

Eun-Young Kang California State University, Los Angeles

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Eun-Young Elaine Kang, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Computer Science of the College of
Engineering, Computer Science, and Technology at Cal State LA and currently serves as Chair of the Computer Science Department. Her research interests are in Computer Vision, Computer Graphics, Augmented/Mixed Reality, and Game Programming. She has served as principal undergraduate advisor for the Computer Science department for several years. Also, she has served as PI/Co-PI on multiple educational projects sponsored by NSF programs including NSF S-STEM, NSF GK-12, and NSF TUES.

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biography

Jianyu Jane Dong California State University, Los Angeles

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Jianyu Dong is a professor in electrical and computer engineering and currently serves as the Associate Dean for the College of Engineering, Computer Science, and Technology at Cal State LA. Her area of expertise is video compression/communication, multimedia networks, QoS, etc. With a strong passion in Engineering Education, she has been engaged in multiple funded projects and initiatives to increase the participation and success of students from undeserved, low-income communities in engineering areas.

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Matthew Jackson Ph.D. California State University, Los Angeles

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Matthew Jackson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at California State University,
Los Angeles. His research examines how the intersections of social identities shape the academic attitudes and behaviors of students.

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Emily L. Allen California State University, Los Angeles

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Emily L. Allen, Ph.D., is Dean of the College of Engineering, Computer Science, and Technology at California State University, Los Angeles. She believes in a collaborative, student-centered approach to research, education, academic administration and leadership. She currently chairs the ASEE Engineering Deans Council Diversity Committee, and serves on the ABET Academic Affairs Council, the TMS Accreditation Committee, and the National Board of Directors for the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers. Dr. Allen earned her BS in metallurgy and materials science from Columbia University, and her MS and PhD in materials science and engineering from Stanford University. She previously served as faculty, chair and Associate Dean at San Jose State University's College of Engineering.

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Daniel Galvan California State University, Los Angeles

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Dr. Daniel Galvan is Director of Acceleration Initiatives and Student Engagement in the College of Engineering, Computer Science, and Technology at California State University, Los Angeles. He has an extensive background in facilitating asset-based approaches towards teaching through equity-minded workshops in community colleges, public, and private four-year institutions. He received his BA in Sociology from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, his MA in Higher Education and Student Affairs from New York University, and his Ed.D. in Educational Leadership from University of Southern California.

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Abstract

With support from NSF Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM), the Culturally Adaptive Pathway to Success (CAPS) program aims to build an inclusive pathway to accelerate the graduation for academically talented, low-income students in Engineering and Computer Science majors at [University Name], which traditionally serves the underrepresented and educationally disadvantaged minority students in the [City Name area]. CAPS focuses on progressively developing social and career competence in our students via three integrated interventions: (1) Mentor+, a relationally informed advising strategy that encourages students to see their academic work in relation to their families and communities; (2) peer cohorts, providing social support structure for students and enhancing their sense of belonging in engineering and computer science classrooms and beyond; and (3) professional development from faculty who have been trained in difference-education theory, so that they can support students with varying levels of understanding of the antecedents of college success. To ensure success of these interventions, the CAPS program also places great emphasis on developing culturally responsive advisement methods and training faculty mentors to facilitate creating a culture of culturally adaptive advising.

This paper presents the CAPS progress in the past two project years. In particular, we will share several changes that we have made after the first project year to improve several key components of the program - recruitment, cohort building, and mentor training. The program strengthened the recruitment by actively involving scholars and faculties in reaching out to students and successfully recruited more scholars for the second cohort (16 scholars) than the first cohort (12 scholars). Also, the program has initiated new activities for peer-mentoring and cohort gathering within each major. As continuous development of the mentor training, the program has added a training session focusing on various aspects of intersectionality as it relates to individual’s social identities, and how mentors can use these knowledge to better interact with mentees. In addition to these changes, we will also report findings on how the program impacted on scholars’ academic growth and mentors’ understanding about the culturally adaptive advisement to answer the CAPS research questions (a) how these interventions affect the development of social belonging and engineering identity of CAPS scholars, and (b) the impact of Mentor+ on academic resilience and progress to degree. The program conducted qualitative data collection and analysis via focus group meetings and interviews as well as quantitative data collection and analysis using academic records and surveys. Our findings will help enhance the CAPS program and establish a sustainable Scholars Support Program at the university, which can be implemented with scholarships funded by other sources, and which can be transferred to similar culturally diverse institutions to increase success for students who have socio-economic challenges.

Kang, E., & Dong, J. J., & Jackson, M., & Allen, E. L., & Galvan, D. (2020, June), Developing a Culturally Adaptive Pathway to Success: Implementation Progress and Project Findings Paper presented at 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual On line . 10.18260/1-2--34412

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