Catalyzing and Supporting Minority Talent Development in STEM fields: A structured mentoring model to inspire young engineering minds

Abstract

The identification and development of science minority talent is important for the future vitality of scientific research. This development is essential because demographic trends show that in the next 20 years minorities will constitute an increasing portion of the US population, especially in the pool of potential college students. Despite the growing number of STEM careers in the American economy, education statistics suggest that far too few Hispanic students are being encouraged and enabled to take advantage of opportunities in technical disciplines. According to national statistics, Hispanics are not only the largest minority in the United States but also one of the fastest growing. This paper describes the Catalyzing and Supporting Minority Talent Development model developed to attract and retain minority students in STEM related fields. The proposed model spans the educational engineering spectrum, impacting high school students and teachers, undergraduate and graduate students through structured education, research and mentoring activities. The main components of the present model are: 1) Teaching Teachers to Teach Engineering (T3 2) Peer Undergraduate Mentoring Program (PUMP) E) program 3) Optimization Models for Engineering Research Class 4) Summer Research Experiences for Undergraduates in Engineering Optimization 5) Speaker Seminar Series & Graduate School Seminar First, through the participation of high school teachers in the Teaching Teachers to Teach Engineering (T3E) program, teachers benefit by having a tested set of standards-based curricula to take back into their classrooms, coupled with the confidence of having learned how to teach engineering content. Secondly, through the Peer Undergraduate Mentoring Program (PUMP), sophomore students are able to be part of a supportive peer environment, in which a sense of belonging, and a exposure to role models facilitate their growth and development as engineers. Thirdly, through the development of the new Optimization Models for Engineering Research Class, students are introduced to mathematical thinking and optimization modeling. A strong emphasis is given to learning optimization software. Additionally, a requirement for this class is that students are involved in research projects with applications in some of our College of Engineering strategic areas such as Sustainability Engineering, Border Security, Energy Sustainability, and Biomedical Engineering. Through the Summer Research Experiences for Undergraduates in Engineering Optimization, students acquire a variety of research skills and participate in a research project. Finally, through attendance to the Speaker Seminar Series and the Graduate School Seminar students gain an understanding of the expectations, demands, role requirements, and necessary strategies within research as an academic profession. The ultimate goal of these structured seminar series is to generate student interest in graduate school. Two main types of evaluations are used to ensure that the key objectives of this work are met: 1) formative evaluations are used to provide continuous feedback on whether our initial stated objectives are met or not, and 2) summative evaluations are used to measure how effectively the proposed model accomplished its stated goals. © 2011 American Society for Engineering Education.