stEm PEER Academy: the Power of Human Capital

Jennifer Ocif Love; Claire Duggan; Elizabeth H. Blume

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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 1: Technical Session 6: stEm PEER Academy: the Power of Human Capital
Tagged Topics: Diversity and CoNECD Paper Sessions
Page Count: 29
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--45478
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/45478
Download Count: 19

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Paper Authors

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Jennifer Ocif Love Northeastern University orcid.org/0009-0009-0308-1014

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Dr. Jennifer Love is a full-time faculty member of Northeastern University's College of Engineering, most recently in the First Year Engineering program. She is currently the Associate Director for the Center for STEM Education. She has a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (1993), a Master of Science in Biomedical Engineering from The University of Iowa (1997) and a Doctorate in Education from Northeastern University (2022) where she recently completed her dissertation in elementary STEAM education. She also worked as a professional engineer in the athletic footwear and medical device industries for 10 years before joining the faculty at Northeastern University in 2006.

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Claire Duggan Northeastern University orcid.org/0000-0002-0676-9406

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Claire Duggan is currently the Executive Director for The Center for STEM Education at Northeastern University and Co-Principal Investigator for The Engineering PLUS Alliance. She is also current the Co-Principal Investigator for the REU site, REU Pathways and the S-STEM initiative, S-POWER.

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Elizabeth H. Blume Northeastern University Engineering PLUS Alliance

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Elizabeth Blume is Manager of the Dept. of Homeland Security PEERs, SENTRY and Engineering PLUS Alliance Collaborative Programs, Northeastern University. She is also a member of the Leadership team for the Engineering PLUS Alliance.

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Abstract

Currently in the second year of the NSF INCLUDES Engineering PLUS Alliance, stEm PEER Academy has leveraged the power of human capital to launch cross-institutional collaborations and high impact practices that will ultimately increase the number of BIPOC and women who earn undergraduate and graduate engineering degrees in the United States. As 1 of 5 key performance strategies of the Engineering PLUS Alliance, stEm PEER Academy is designed to train, empower, resource and support a national network of educational change agents who will accelerate implementation of high impact, evidence-based practices at their own institutions and beyond. This network of educational change agents includes administrators, faculty and professional staff who are committed to transforming systems in higher education that have historically marginalized BIPOC and women engineering students. These change agents are committed to removing students’ barriers to preparation, entry, retention, persistence, and success in engineering pathways. As a result of stEm PEER Academy, these change agents are creating cross-institutional transfer pathways and scholarship opportunities plus additional academic supports and learning communities that focus on fostering students’ sense of belonging, identity and self-efficacy in their academic careers. Moreover, these change agents themselves are now part of the stEm PEER Academy learning community and therefore benefit from their own improved sense of belonging, identity and self-efficacy in their individual academic and professional careers. As such, these change agents are vital to our shared mission as they represent the human capital in which stEm PEER Academy invests. Change agents benefit from hours of virtual interactions and mentoring, multiple in-person conference opportunities, and modest financial support. Academy change agents collaborate with each other and with allies at their own institutions and beyond to implement evidence-based practices in their courses, departments, colleges or institutions. This paper outlines several key focus areas that the first cohort of Academy change agents actually pursued including successful NSF proposals, summer programs, academic support programs and transfer pathways. These outcomes would never have been possible without the leadership, support and community of stEm PEER Academy. After incorporating improvements based on feedback from the first year, Academy leadership have begun to lead another cohort of change agents through their journey. Preliminary research indicates that both cohorts of change agents are making progress toward launching even more successful and innovative solutions to enable BIPOC and women to attain undergraduate and graduate degrees in the United States. Both cohorts have demonstrated professional growth in their understanding of the national engineering education pathway landscape, utilizing data to inform their broadening participation efforts, engaging in evidence-based practices that alleviate students’ barriers to success, and most importantly, building relationships that engage stakeholders at their own institutions, in their region and nationwide. These relationships that change agents have and will be developing across the Engineering PLUS Alliance are critical to leveraging the power of human capital to transform systems and policies of engineering education, one change agent at a time.

Citation
Format

Love, J. O., & Duggan, C., & Blume, E. H. (2024, February), stEm PEER Academy: the Power of Human Capital Paper presented at 2024 Collaborative Network for Engineering & Computing Diversity (CoNECD), Arlington, Virginia. 10.18260/1-2--45478

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Currently in the second year of the NSF INCLUDES Engineering PLUS Alliance, stEm PEER Academy has leveraged the power of human capital to launch cross-institutional collaborations and high impact practices that will ultimately increase the number of BIPOC and women who earn undergraduate and graduate engineering degrees in the United States. As 1 of 5 key performance strategies of the Engineering PLUS Alliance, stEm PEER Academy is designed to train, empower, resource and support a national network of educational change agents who will accelerate implementation of high impact, evidence-based practices at their own institutions and beyond. This network of educational change agents includes administrators, faculty and professional staff who are committed to transforming systems in higher education that have historically marginalized BIPOC and women engineering students. These change agents are committed to removing students’ barriers to preparation, entry, retention, persistence, and success in engineering pathways. As a result of stEm PEER Academy, these change agents are creating cross-institutional transfer pathways and scholarship opportunities plus additional academic supports and learning communities that focus on fostering students’ sense of belonging, identity and self-efficacy in their academic careers. Moreover, these change agents themselves are now part of the stEm PEER Academy learning community and therefore benefit from their own improved sense of belonging, identity and self-efficacy in their individual academic and professional careers. As such, these change agents are vital to our shared mission as they represent the human capital in which stEm PEER Academy invests. Change agents benefit from hours of virtual interactions and mentoring, multiple in-person conference opportunities, and modest financial support. Academy change agents collaborate with each other and with allies at their own institutions and beyond to implement evidence-based practices in their courses, departments, colleges or institutions. This paper outlines several key focus areas that the first cohort of Academy change agents actually pursued including successful NSF proposals, summer programs, academic support programs and transfer pathways. These outcomes would never have been possible without the leadership, support and community of stEm PEER Academy. After incorporating improvements based on feedback from the first year, Academy leadership have begun to lead another cohort of change agents through their journey. Preliminary research indicates that both cohorts of change agents are making progress toward launching even more successful and innovative solutions to enable BIPOC and women to attain undergraduate and graduate degrees in the United States. Both cohorts have demonstrated professional growth in their understanding of the national engineering education pathway landscape, utilizing data to inform their broadening participation efforts, engaging in evidence-based practices that alleviate students’ barriers to success, and most importantly, building relationships that engage stakeholders at their own institutions, in their region and nationwide. These relationships that change agents have and will be developing across the Engineering PLUS Alliance are critical to leveraging the power of human capital to transform systems and policies of engineering education, one change agent at a time. 
AU  - Jennifer Ocif Love
AU  - Claire Duggan
AU  - Elizabeth H. Blume
CY  - Arlington, Virginia
DA  - 2024/02/25
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - stEm PEER Academy: the Power of Human Capital
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/45478
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--45478
ER  -