Colón-Rivera, K., & Santiago, N. G., & Santiago-Roman, A. I., & Papadopoulos, C., & Dika, S. L. (2025, February), Learning and Adopting Principles of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice through the Development of a Sustainability Mindset Among First Year Engineering Students  Paper presented at 2025 Collaborative Network for Engineering & Computing Diversity (CoNECD), San Antonio, Texas. https://peer.asee.org/54102

\bibitem{asee_peer_54102}
  Colón-Rivera, K., \& Santiago, N. G., \& Santiago-Roman, A. I., \& Papadopoulos, C., \& Dika, S. L. (2025, February), \emph{Learning and Adopting Principles of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice through the Development of a Sustainability Mindset Among First Year Engineering Students}
  Paper presented at 2025 Collaborative Network for Engineering \& Computing Diversity (CoNECD), San Antonio, Texas.
  https://peer.asee.org/54102

Krystal Colón-Rivera, Nayda G. Santiago P.E., Aidsa I. Santiago-Roman, Christopher Papadopoulos, and Sandra Loree Dika.  "Learning and Adopting Principles of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice through the Development of a Sustainability Mindset Among First Year Engineering Students".  2025 Collaborative Network for Engineering & Computing Diversity (CoNECD), San Antonio, Texas, 2025, February.  ASEE Conferences, 2025.  https://peer.asee.org/54102 Internet.  25 Mar, 2025

\bibitem{asee_peer_54102}
  Krystal Colón-Rivera, Nayda G. Santiago P.E., Aidsa I. Santiago-Roman, Christopher Papadopoulos, and Sandra Loree Dika.
  "Learning and Adopting Principles of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice through the Development of a Sustainability Mindset Among First Year Engineering Students".
  \emph{2025 Collaborative Network for Engineering \& Computing Diversity (CoNECD), San Antonio, Texas, 2025, February}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2025.
  https://peer.asee.org/54102 Internet.  25 Mar, 2025

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_54102
author = "Krystal Colón-Rivera, Nayda G. Santiago P.E., Aidsa I. Santiago-Roman, Christopher Papadopoulos, and Sandra Loree Dika"
title = "Learning and Adopting Principles of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice through the Development of a Sustainability Mindset Among First Year Engineering Students"
booktitle = "2025 Collaborative Network for Engineering \& Computing Diversity (CoNECD)"
year = "2025"
month = "February"
address = "San Antonio, Texas"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://peer.asee.org/54102}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Sustainability has emerged as a paramount theme in engineering, and thus the need to foster a 'sustainability mindset' among engineering students has become imperative.  Such a mindset must include principles of equity, diversity, inclusion, and justice (EDIJ).  Indeed, negative consequences of climate change disproportionately affect marginalized peoples.  Sustainable solutions must benefit everyone, through engaging diverse ideas, perspectives, and experiences, breaking down paternalistic attitudes of who ‘knows’, and opening pathways for members of local and indigenous communities in a co-design process.

The sustainability engineering initiative at our institution involves the development of a suite of academic programs, beginning with a minor (curricular sequence) and followed by a program major, other minors in specific engineering disciplines, and a professional certificate program. With a mission to “develop professionals to work under the People, Prosperity, Planet paradigm that strives to foster human well-being in balance with the biosphere,” our initiative responds to two gaps: (1) the emerging sustainability skills gap, expressed by many engineering employers; (2) the gap between “environmental engineering” and “sustainability studies”, in which a balance of breadth of sustainability context and disciplinary depth is sought.

The pedagogical philosophy of this initiative is to foster a “sustainability mindset”, which acts as a compass to orient academic studies and career development toward addressing sustainability imperatives.  While notions of sustainability mindset have been articulated in the context of management education, there has been limited work in engineering education to define and examine how sustainability mindset can be developed as part of professional preparation. In parallel to developing curricular materials designed to develop this mindset, we are undertaking research to define and to measure its evolution.  Our sustainability initiative team has synthesized literature regarding competencies, outcomes, and mindsets to adopt a four-pronged model consisting of Knowledge, Skills, Behaviors, and Attitudes (KSBA).

Our initiative, supported by an NSF-funded project, contributes to the advancement of EDIJ in two distinct ways.  First, the initiative directly serves to broaden participation among marginalized groups due to the institutional mission (Hispanic Serving Institution with bilingual instruction) and the project goals related to recruitment of women and first generation college students. Second, the initiative uses design thinking to train students to seek creative and effective solutions according to the marriage of sustainability and EDIJ cited in the opening paragraph. 

In the conference paper, we will elaborate on the development and evaluation of EDIJ across the overall planning and implementation of the initiative. Next, we will provide a detailed examination of a new EDIJ seminar that was created and delivered for the first time during the Spring 2024 semester.  Using the KSBA framework we have developed in our ongoing research, this study will explore how first-year engineering students develop their understanding and adoption of EDIJ principles as part of their overall growth as sustainability-focused engineers.  The study uses a multi method approach (qualitative and quantitative), using data from surveys, interviews, direct observations, and evaluations of written work.

Notes:

This abstract responds most closely to the following listed example topics in the Call for Abstracts:

* Integration of social justice into curricular and co-curricular activities
* Innovative curricular issues including inclusive pedagogies

The abstract is ‘blind’


AU  - Krystal Colón-Rivera
AU  - Nayda G. Santiago P.E.
AU  - Aidsa I. Santiago-Roman
AU  - Christopher Papadopoulos
AU  - Sandra Loree Dika
CY  - San Antonio, Texas
DA  - 2025/02/09
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Learning and Adopting Principles of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice through the Development of a Sustainability Mindset Among First Year Engineering Students
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/54102
ER  -