Empowering Hispanic Engineering Students for Success in Graduate Education with Hybrid Mentorship

Federico Cifuentes-Urtubey; Paola Alexandra Baldaguez Medina; Julie E Lorenzo; Natasha Mamaril

Download Paper | Permalink

Conference: 2025 Collaborative Network for Engineering & Computing Diversity (CoNECD)
Location: San Antonio, Texas
Publication Date: February 9, 2025
Start Date: February 9, 2025
End Date: February 11, 2025
Conference Session: Track 6: Technical Session 2: Empowering Hispanic Engineers' Success Towards Graduate Education with Hybrid Mentorship
Tagged Topics: Diversity and 2025 CoNECD Paper Submissions
Page Count: 19
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/54081
Download Count: 9

Paper Authors

biography

Federico Cifuentes-Urtubey University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

visit author page

Federico Cifuentes-Urtubey is a Ph.D. Candidate in Computer Science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His research develops wireless system privacy enhancements for Wi-Fi protocols. While at Illinois, he interned at Apple, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, and Sandia National Labs. He served as the Graduate Ambassador in the SHPE chapter on campus to support a community of Hispanic graduate students in engineering. He has also been recognized by the Siebel School of Computing and Data Science as an Outstanding Teaching Assistant. Federico earned his B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County in 2018.

visit author page

biography

Paola Alexandra Baldaguez Medina University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez orcid.org/0000-0003-3080-8046

visit author page

Dr. Paola A. Baldaguez Medina is an Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez. Her research focuses on developing electrochemical sensors to identify heavy metals in water. With a strong passion for teaching and mentoring, Dr. Baldaguez Medina served as Co-Principal Investigator in the PMVUS mentoring program during her Ph.D. studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, fostering the next generation of Hispanic engineers.

visit author page

author page

Julie E Lorenzo University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign

biography

Natasha Mamaril University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign orcid.org/0000-0003-4883-471X

visit author page

Natasha Mamaril is currently the Associate Director for Undergraduate Research in The Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research interests include academic motivation and the assessment of student learning. She has a B. S. in Chemical Engineering and obtained her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Educational Psychology from the University of Kentucky. She also has nine years of industry experience.

visit author page

Download Paper | Permalink

Abstract

Students from underrepresented communities in STEM often face challenges of cultural biases and systemic barriers that can hinder their academic and professional advancement. As these students navigate their academic journey, mentorship is key to providing them with guidance, support, and a sense of belonging to overcome such hurdles. Faculty are often a source of mentorship for setting academic and career goals, serving as a role model for attaining a career in STEM, and finding research opportunities. However, they may not always have the bandwidth to directly mentor undergraduate students specifically. Previous work on peer mentorship focuses on how mentoring exposes and prepares undergraduates for graduate education, and we contribute to this discussion by analyzing specific traits and strategies that make peer mentoring effective towards cultivating students’ interest in graduate school. Our study explores success factors in peer mentoring of students from underrepresented groups in STEM.

We developed a mentoring program between Hispanic graduate and Hispanic undergraduate students to identify aspects of peer mentoring that may increase Hispanic representation in advanced STEM degree programs. We aim to address these questions: 1) How do interactions between mentoring pairs affect access to professional resources? 2) Which mentor qualities are successful in graduate school guidance? and 3) How can virtual activities engage students to build leadership skills and confidence in their academic pathways and future careers? The program structure has three key features to enrich the peer mentorship experience: (i) goal setting and reflections, (ii) academic/professional development, and (iii) community building. We evaluated the program through a series of surveys and interviews to collect information about undergraduates’ knowledge on graduate admissions items, reflections on mentoring interactions, and accomplishments made during the program.

We recruited participants through in-person promotion during meetings of student organizations, referrals, and written/electronic advertising (e.g., newsletters, websites). Our cohort of 16 included 8 graduate student mentors and 8 undergraduate mentees. Three of the four graduating seniors in the cohort enrolled into STEM graduate programs with fellowship offers, one is working as an engineer, whereas the other 4 students are continuing their undergraduate studies.

Undergraduates shared that interactions with their mentor were key for providing information about graduate school, including advice on writing strong personal statements and finding external resources. Graduate students noted the importance of their role as mentors especially if they have similarities with their mentees. Participants’ responses indicated that accountability, openness, and good communication are necessary in graduate school guidance. Their feedback at the end revealed that the program activities helped improve their leadership and communication skills. They also showed interest in expanding events and maintaining the program's initiatives to enable the Hispanic engineering community on campus to serve as a self-reliant resource. Our mentoring program demonstrates a promising structure in addressing Hispanic students’ access to mentorship towards promoting interest in graduate school and the importance of ongoing support in this effort.

Citation
Format

Cifuentes-Urtubey, F., & Baldaguez Medina, P. A., & Lorenzo, J. E., & Mamaril, N. (2025, February), Empowering Hispanic Engineering Students for Success in Graduate Education with Hybrid Mentorship Paper presented at 2025 Collaborative Network for Engineering & Computing Diversity (CoNECD), San Antonio, Texas. https://peer.asee.org/54081

TY - CPAPER
AB - Students from underrepresented communities in STEM often face challenges of cultural biases and systemic barriers that can hinder their academic and professional advancement. As these students navigate their academic journey, mentorship is key to providing them with guidance, support, and a sense of belonging to overcome such hurdles. Faculty are often a source of mentorship for setting academic and career goals, serving as a role model for attaining a career in STEM, and finding research opportunities. However, they may not always have the bandwidth to directly mentor undergraduate students specifically. Previous work on peer mentorship focuses on how mentoring exposes and prepares undergraduates for graduate education, and we contribute to this discussion by analyzing specific traits and strategies that make peer mentoring effective towards cultivating students’ interest in graduate school. Our study explores success factors in peer mentoring of students from underrepresented groups in STEM.

We developed a mentoring program between Hispanic graduate and Hispanic undergraduate students to identify aspects of peer mentoring that may increase Hispanic representation in advanced STEM degree programs. We aim to address these questions: 1) How do interactions between mentoring pairs affect access to professional resources? 2) Which mentor qualities are successful in graduate school guidance? and 3) How can virtual activities engage students to build leadership skills and confidence in their academic pathways and future careers? The program structure has three key features to enrich the peer mentorship experience: (i) goal setting and reflections, (ii) academic/professional development, and (iii) community building. We evaluated the program through a series of surveys and interviews to collect information about undergraduates’ knowledge on graduate admissions items, reflections on mentoring interactions, and accomplishments made during the program.

We recruited participants through in-person promotion during meetings of student organizations, referrals, and written/electronic advertising (e.g., newsletters, websites). Our cohort of 16 included 8 graduate student mentors and 8 undergraduate mentees. Three of the four graduating seniors in the cohort enrolled into STEM graduate programs with fellowship offers, one is working as an engineer, whereas the other 4 students are continuing their undergraduate studies.

Undergraduates shared that interactions with their mentor were key for providing information about graduate school, including advice on writing strong personal statements and finding external resources. Graduate students noted the importance of their role as mentors especially if they have similarities with their mentees. Participants’ responses indicated that accountability, openness, and good communication are necessary in graduate school guidance. Their feedback at the end revealed that the program activities helped improve their leadership and communication skills. They also showed interest in expanding events and maintaining the program&#39;s initiatives to enable the Hispanic engineering community on campus to serve as a self-reliant resource. Our mentoring program demonstrates a promising structure in addressing Hispanic students’ access to mentorship towards promoting interest in graduate school and the importance of ongoing support in this effort.
AU - Federico Cifuentes-Urtubey
AU - Paola Alexandra Baldaguez Medina
AU - Julie E Lorenzo
AU - Natasha Mamaril
CY - San Antonio, Texas
DA - 2025/02/09
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Empowering Hispanic Engineering Students for Success in Graduate Education with Hybrid Mentorship
UR - https://peer.asee.org/54081
ER -