Towards a global virtual community of female engineering students and professionals: I. Impacts of grassroots international partnerships of student organizations on U.S. Engineering undergraduate cultural competency

Abstract

From this study, we assert that the grassroots approach to creating an international partnership of student organizations is successful in achieving the important global competencies for engineering students. This approach gave more control to the tailor the program to drive the participants to achieve the desired effect of cultural competency. As evidenced by the PSOC framework, having an all female (SWE) camp introduced reasons for identification within the community and fostered a sense of belonging that made cultural differences less drastic, and fostered the motivation and connection. In addition, by priming the U.S. students for peer collaboration and establishing a flat camp structure where all of the students worked together to organize the camp, participants were able to more readily enter into and continue this international community.