Help Me Help You: Building a Support Network for Minority Engineering Students

Walter C. Lee; Kelly J Cross

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Conference: 2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Atlanta, Georgia
Publication Date: June 23, 2013
Start Date: June 23, 2013
End Date: June 26, 2013
ISSN: 2153-5965
Conference Session: Mentoring Minority Students
Tagged Division: Minorities in Engineering
Page Count: 12
Page Numbers: 23.656.1 - 23.656.12
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--19670
Permanent URL: https://strategy.asee.org/19670
Download Count: 482

Paper Authors

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Walter C. Lee Virginia Tech orcid.org/0000-0001-5082-1411

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Walter Lee is a PhD student in the Department of Engineering Education at Polytechnic Institute and State University, where he also serves as a program assistant for the Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Diversity. His research interests include student retention & recruitment, diversity, motivation and first-year experiences in engineering. Mr. Lee received an NSF-GRFP Fellowship in Spring 2012 focusing on how student support centers impact the experience of undergraduate engineering students, specifically women and underrepresented minorities. He is working towards a M.S. in Industrial & Systems Engineering and he received his B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Clemson University.

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Kelly J Cross Virginia Tech

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Kelly Cross earned her Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from the Purdue University in 2007. She earned her Master’s of Science in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Cincinnati in 2011. Ms. Cross is currently in the third year of the Engineering Education PhD program at Virginia Tech. She is currently involved with multiple educational research projects with faculty at Virginia Tech. Her research interests include assessment, diversity, teamwork and communication skills, and identity construction.

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Abstract

Innovative retention/development programs for undergraduate minority engineering students Help Me Help You: Building a Support Network for Minority Engineering StudentsIn an attempt to retain undergraduates from underrepresented population, engineering colleges –and universities in a broader sense – often offer support to these students in various forms.However, students are not always aware of these resources and their academic problems can gounnoticed until it is too late to intervene. To ensure students are not only aware of the availableresources but also have the access and rapport to encourage them to seek the necessaryassistance, a student centered support group was developed. The voluntary program, Help MeHelp You (HMHY), commenced by inviting first-year African-American engineering students toparticipate and focused on encouraging students to accomplish the program theme: gettingP.A.I.D. This included (1) establishing Priorities, (2) holding themselves Accountable, (3) takingInitiative, and (4) having Discipline regarding their academic choices. The idea is that followingP.A.I.D. would ultimately result in improved academic performance and an enhancedundergraduate experience. The program was designed as a community of practice to create anenvironment that provided first-year engineering students with a resource that may be otherwiseunavailable, an academic and social support network of other young black students who areworking towards similar goals (i.e. earning an engineering degree or completing their degreeprogram). The program coordinator envisioned the program as a means to augment the culturewithin the college where helping one another and seeking support become a social norm andcommon practice among student peers or cohorts.During the 2005-2006 academic year, the College of Engineering developed the PACT, aretention program for first-year African-American men in engineering. After the graduation ofthe first-cohort, the program lost momentum and was discontinued. HMHY was developed to bea revamped and updated version of the PACT program. The focus and goals of program werespecifically designed to promote self-sustaining components and prevent the discontinuity fromoccurring again. The impacts of HMHY on the inaugural group of students were assessed with acombination of quantitative and qualitative approaches including surveys and interviews.Though no quantitative gains were made in the area of GPA, students did report academic andsocial support resulting from their participation in the program. Other features assessed withinthe program include the development of a community of practice, the level of identification withthe program, and the overall participation. The purpose of this paper is to discuss thedevelopment and assessment of this innovative retention program. The paper begins with a briefoverview of the program. Next, the assessment strategy will be discussed. The paper concludeswith how the support program impacted the participating African American students inengineering for the 2011-2012 academic year and future recommendations.

Citation
Format

Lee, W. C., & Cross, K. J. (2013, June), Help Me Help You: Building a Support Network for Minority Engineering Students Paper presented at 2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Atlanta, Georgia. 10.18260/1-2--19670

TY - CPAPER
AB - Innovative retention/development programs for undergraduate minority engineering students Help Me Help You: Building a Support Network for Minority Engineering StudentsIn an attempt to retain undergraduates from underrepresented population, engineering colleges –and universities in a broader sense – often offer support to these students in various forms.However, students are not always aware of these resources and their academic problems can gounnoticed until it is too late to intervene. To ensure students are not only aware of the availableresources but also have the access and rapport to encourage them to seek the necessaryassistance, a student centered support group was developed. The voluntary program, Help MeHelp You (HMHY), commenced by inviting first-year African-American engineering students toparticipate and focused on encouraging students to accomplish the program theme: gettingP.A.I.D. This included (1) establishing Priorities, (2) holding themselves Accountable, (3) takingInitiative, and (4) having Discipline regarding their academic choices. The idea is that followingP.A.I.D. would ultimately result in improved academic performance and an enhancedundergraduate experience. The program was designed as a community of practice to create anenvironment that provided first-year engineering students with a resource that may be otherwiseunavailable, an academic and social support network of other young black students who areworking towards similar goals (i.e. earning an engineering degree or completing their degreeprogram). The program coordinator envisioned the program as a means to augment the culturewithin the college where helping one another and seeking support become a social norm andcommon practice among student peers or cohorts.During the 2005-2006 academic year, the College of Engineering developed the PACT, aretention program for first-year African-American men in engineering. After the graduation ofthe first-cohort, the program lost momentum and was discontinued. HMHY was developed to bea revamped and updated version of the PACT program. The focus and goals of program werespecifically designed to promote self-sustaining components and prevent the discontinuity fromoccurring again. The impacts of HMHY on the inaugural group of students were assessed with acombination of quantitative and qualitative approaches including surveys and interviews.Though no quantitative gains were made in the area of GPA, students did report academic andsocial support resulting from their participation in the program. Other features assessed withinthe program include the development of a community of practice, the level of identification withthe program, and the overall participation. The purpose of this paper is to discuss thedevelopment and assessment of this innovative retention program. The paper begins with a briefoverview of the program. Next, the assessment strategy will be discussed. The paper concludeswith how the support program impacted the participating African American students inengineering for the 2011-2012 academic year and future recommendations.
AU - Walter C. Lee
AU - Kelly J Cross
CY - Atlanta, Georgia
DA - 2013/06/23
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Help Me Help You: Building a Support Network for Minority Engineering Students
UR - https://strategy.asee.org/19670
DO - 10.18260/1-2--19670
ER -