Self-Advocacy Professional Programming as a Framework to Support Non-Academic Outcomes of STEM PhD Graduate Education

Carmen Maria Lilley

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Conference: 2024 Collaborative Network for Engineering & Computing Diversity (CoNECD)
Location: Arlington, Virginia
Publication Date: February 25, 2024
Start Date: February 25, 2024
End Date: February 27, 2024
Conference Session: Track 3: Technical Session 8: Self-Advocacy Professional Programming as a Framework to Support Non-Academic Outcomes of STEM PhD Graduate Education
Tagged Topics: Diversity and CoNECD Paper Sessions
Page Count: 7
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--45476
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/45476
Download Count: 7

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Carmen Maria Lilley The University of Illinois at Chicago orcid.org/0000-0001-5225-6145

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Dr. Lilley's research interests in engineering education focus on professional development of engineering students at the undergraduate and graduate level. She is interested in studying the effects of the intersection of gender and race/ethnicity on the professional formation of engineers and how institutions of higher education can transform to support student's sense of belonging.

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Abstract

Using the framework of servingness as conceptualized in research of Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI), measures of student’s success can be characterized using academic and non-academic outcomes or liberatory outcomes (Garcia, Nunez, Sansone 2019). Academic outcomes are commonly institutional quantitative measures such as GPA, time to graduation and retention. However, within the framework of an servingness of an institution, there area additional indicators, including validating experiences for students and non-academic measures. Examples of non-academic measures are academic self-concept, civic engagement, social agency, racial/ethnic identity salience, and leadership identity. In addition, culture of the institution is also an important characteristic because it impacts both the experiences of students, and can be categorized as validating or racialized within HSI servingness. A self-advocacy professional development program has been developed that focuses on non-academic outcomes (Garcia 2022) of PhD graduate students in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programs at an Urban R1 HSI. Self-advocacy originates from the American Counseling Association (ACA) and the Learning Disabilities (LD) communities for effective counseling that promotes academic success and is based on a social justice framework (Ratts and Hutchins 2009). The pillars of the self-advocacy program are centered on (i) Empowerment, (ii) Promoting self-awareness and (iii) Social Justice. Thus, the programming in the GRaduate Education for Academically Talented Students (GREATS) is aligned to these three pillars. The current professional development program completed its third year and the fourth year is in progress. To date thirty-four students have participated in the program. References Garcia, G. A., Núñez, A.-M., & Sansone, V. A. (2019). Toward a Multidimensional Conceptual Framework for Understanding “Servingness” in Hispanic-Serving Institutions: A Synthesis of the Research. Review of Educational Research, 89(5), 745–784. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654319864591 Garcia, Gina (2022) Beyond graduation rates: Conceptualizing liberatory educational outcomes for colleges and universities. In: Pitt Momentum Fund 2022. M. J. Ratts and A. M. Hutchins, "ACA Advocacy Competencies: Social Justice Advocacy at the Client/Student Level," Journal of counseling and development, vol. 87, no. 3, pp. 269-275, 2009, doi: 10.1002/j.1556-6678.2009.tb00106.x.

Citation
Format

Lilley, C. M. (2024, February), Self-Advocacy Professional Programming as a Framework to Support Non-Academic Outcomes of STEM PhD Graduate Education Paper presented at 2024 Collaborative Network for Engineering & Computing Diversity (CoNECD), Arlington, Virginia. 10.18260/1-2--45476

TY - CPAPER
AB - Using the framework of servingness as conceptualized in research of Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI), measures of student’s success can be characterized using academic and non-academic outcomes or liberatory outcomes (Garcia, Nunez, Sansone 2019). Academic outcomes are commonly institutional quantitative measures such as GPA, time to graduation and retention. However, within the framework of an servingness of an institution, there area additional indicators, including validating experiences for students and non-academic measures. Examples of non-academic measures are academic self-concept, civic engagement, social agency, racial/ethnic identity salience, and leadership identity. In addition, culture of the institution is also an important characteristic because it impacts both the experiences of students, and can be categorized as validating or racialized within HSI servingness.
A self-advocacy professional development program has been developed that focuses on non-academic outcomes (Garcia 2022) of PhD graduate students in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programs at an Urban R1 HSI. Self-advocacy originates from the American Counseling Association (ACA) and the Learning Disabilities (LD) communities for effective counseling that promotes academic success and is based on a social justice framework (Ratts and Hutchins 2009). The pillars of the self-advocacy program are centered on (i) Empowerment, (ii) Promoting self-awareness and (iii) Social Justice. Thus, the programming in the GRaduate Education for Academically Talented Students (GREATS) is aligned to these three pillars. The current professional development program completed its third year and the fourth year is in progress. To date thirty-four students have participated in the program.
References
Garcia, G. A., Núñez, A.-M., &amp;amp; Sansone, V. A. (2019). Toward a Multidimensional Conceptual Framework for Understanding “Servingness” in Hispanic-Serving Institutions: A Synthesis of the Research. Review of Educational Research, 89(5), 745–784. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654319864591
Garcia, Gina (2022) Beyond graduation rates: Conceptualizing liberatory educational outcomes for colleges and universities. In: Pitt Momentum Fund 2022.
M. J. Ratts and A. M. Hutchins, &quot;ACA Advocacy Competencies: Social Justice Advocacy at the Client/Student Level,&quot; Journal of counseling and development, vol. 87, no. 3, pp. 269-275, 2009, doi: 10.1002/j.1556-6678.2009.tb00106.x.

AU - Carmen Maria Lilley
CY - Arlington, Virginia
DA - 2024/02/25
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Self-Advocacy Professional Programming as a Framework to Support Non-Academic Outcomes of STEM PhD Graduate Education
UR - https://peer.asee.org/45476
DO - 10.18260/1-2--45476
ER -