Berrett, J. V., & Armstrong, C. S., & Frazier, C. G. (2016, June), Native American Mentorships: Industry's Next Step to Assist Native Americans' Transition into STEM Careers?  Paper presented at 2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, New Orleans, Louisiana. 10.18260/p.25773

\bibitem{asee_peer_25773}
  Berrett, J. V., \& Armstrong, C. S., \& Frazier, C. G. (2016, June), \emph{Native American Mentorships: Industry's Next Step to Assist Native Americans' Transition into STEM Careers?}
  Paper presented at 2016 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, New Orleans, Louisiana.
  10.18260/p.25773

Jared V. Berrett, Cedale Sage Armstrong, and Curtis G Frazier.  "Native American Mentorships: Industry's Next Step to Assist Native Americans' Transition into STEM Careers?".  2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, New Orleans, Louisiana, 2016, June.  ASEE Conferences, 2016.  https://peer.asee.org/25773 Internet.  25 Dec, 2024

\bibitem{asee_peer_25773}
  Jared V. Berrett, Cedale Sage Armstrong, and Curtis G Frazier.
  "Native American Mentorships: Industry's Next Step to Assist Native Americans' Transition into STEM Careers?".
  \emph{2016 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, New Orleans, Louisiana, 2016, June}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2016.
  https://peer.asee.org/25773 Internet.  25 Dec, 2024

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_25773
author = "Jared V. Berrett, Cedale Sage Armstrong, and Curtis G Frazier"
title = "Native American Mentorships: Industry's Next Step to Assist Native Americans' Transition into STEM Careers?"
booktitle = "2016 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition"
year = "2016"
month = "June"
address = "New Orleans, Louisiana"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://peer.asee.org/25773}
number = {10.18260/p.25773}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Key Problem:  How can we develop a better pathway to help Native American students to become competitive and excel in Industry?

Internships are a well-established gateway for traditional students to get their foot in the door to Industry.  Both stakeholders benefit.   Industry partners create a pipeline for talent and students hopefully perform well enough to secure them a future job and/or get a good resume experience.   At our institution, we feel most of our students are ill-prepared for internships.  Many factors contribute including self-confidence and lack of skills.  If thrown into the internship too early, both stakeholders loose.  For this reason, we have pilot tested a program to provide a 4 week summer “mentorship” experience on the main parent campus for Native students to be mentored by professors and lab directors in STEM fields.  Native American students are the lowest performing minority group of all minority categories in the U.S. in higher education and need this extra measure to help ensure success.  This program has focused on academic preparedness, but we feel it could be a great fit for Industry.  The success grew from four students the first year to over twenty who recently successfully completed the program. The participants both students, staff, and faculty have had great feedback from the 84 people that participated and helped make it happen in.  This case study has occurred at a branch campus of a land grant institution in the western United States, 70% students served are Native American.  The site is located on the border of the largest reservation in the US.  This Native American Serving Non Tribal Institution (NASNTI) has the highest retention of any of its competitors.  

The lead professor will provide pertinent information about student demographics including the impoverished circumstances that exist within our own country from whence students succeed.  The paper details the two year program including what has worked and how this model might have a place beyond academia will be considered.  Specifics about the differences between "mentorships" and "internships" will be explored in the paper and discussed with the attendees through an interactive active learning approach.  Bridging the gap in skills necessary for Native American students to become competitive and excel in industry is the ultimate goal.  Exploring how to assist and making connections with Industry and creating pathways is key to students success.  In addition to sharing information via the paper and presentation, feedback will be sought on how Industry partners might feel the program would need to be tweaked to succeed in industry.  Connections will be made by those whom may be interested in leveraging the current experience and case study format completed in 2015 and considers piloting a mentorship program with Native students from this campus in industry.  

AU  - Jared V. Berrett
AU  - Cedale Sage Armstrong
AU  - Curtis G Frazier
CY  - New Orleans, Louisiana
DA  - 2016/06/26
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Native American Mentorships: Industry's Next Step to Assist Native Americans' Transition into STEM Careers?
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/25773
DO  - 10.18260/p.25773
ER  -