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Exploring the Incorporation of Diversity and Inclusion Curriculum in Engineering Living and Learning Community Programs: A Work in Progress

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Conference

2018 CoNECD - The Collaborative Network for Engineering and Computing Diversity Conference

Location

Crystal City, Virginia

Publication Date

April 29, 2018

Start Date

April 29, 2018

End Date

May 2, 2018

Conference Session

Undergraduate Track - Technical Session III

Tagged Topics

Diversity and Undergraduate Education

Page Count

18

DOI

10.18260/1-2--29539

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/29539

Download Count

317

Paper Authors

biography

Elizabeth R. Kurban University of Maryland, College Park

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Elizabeth Kurban serves as the Assistant Director of Retention for the Women in Engineering Program at the University of Maryland Clark School of Engineering. Elizabeth's professional and research interests broadly surround STEM-field access and persistence for women and underrepresented minoritized student populations. She is passionate about equity, diversity, and inclusion in higher education, particularly in the context of engineering. Elizabeth recently earned her Ph.D. in Higher Education from the University of Maryland College of Education. Prior to her journey at UMD, Elizabeth worked in higher education policy research in Washington, DC and earned an M.S.Ed in Higher Education Administration from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.A. in Cognitive Science from the University of Delaware.

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biography

Paige E. Smith University of Maryland, College Park

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Paige Smith, Ph.D. is the director of the Women in Engineering Program in the A. James Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland. Paige has over 20 years of experience with recruiting and retaining diverse populations in engineering. Under her leadership, the Women in Engineering Program received the 2008 National Engineers Week Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day Award. She is the principal investigator for a National Science Foundation's Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Talent Expansion Program (STEP) grant called the Successful Engineering Education and Development Support (SEEDS) Program. SEEDS extends successful women in engineering retention programs to all first-year and new external transfer students in the Clark School. Paige is the co-lead for the Mid-Atlantic Girls Collaborative (MAGiC), a regional collaborative within the NSF-funded National Girls Collaborative Project which brings together girl-serving organizations across Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. that are committed to increasing the number of young women pursuing science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers. Currently, Paige is serving as the Immediate Past President for the Women in Engineering ProActive Network (WEPAN). Paige earned her Ph.D. and M.S. in industrial and systems engineering and B.S. in engineering science and mechanics from Virginia Tech.

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Abstract

Aligned with the mission and vision of our Women in Engineering Program at the University of Maryland College Park, our engineering Living and Learning Community (LLC) programs seek to cultivate inclusive and diverse communities of support and success. Over the past year, we have revised, piloted, and implemented intentionally-crafted diversity and inclusion curriculum into our LLC programs seminars. This content includes understanding diversity and inclusion concepts and terminology, social identities, the importance of diversity and inclusion in the engineering context, socialization, unconscious bias, and tools for interrupting implicit bias. In addition, our curriculum incorporates ethics in engineering and engineering social responsibility. Our paper will describe our strategies, challenges, and experiences in developing and implementing diversity and inclusion curriculum within our engineering living and learning programs, and discuss ways to consider incorporating diversity and inclusion programs and practices in various engineering contexts.

Kurban, E. R., & Smith, P. E. (2018, April), Exploring the Incorporation of Diversity and Inclusion Curriculum in Engineering Living and Learning Community Programs: A Work in Progress Paper presented at 2018 CoNECD - The Collaborative Network for Engineering and Computing Diversity Conference, Crystal City, Virginia. 10.18260/1-2--29539

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