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Understanding international graduate engineering students' well-being: What do they need to thrive? (Work in Progress)

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Conference

2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Baltimore , Maryland

Publication Date

June 25, 2023

Start Date

June 25, 2023

End Date

June 28, 2023

Conference Session

International Division (INTL) Technical Session #3: Student Perspectives

Tagged Division

International Division (INTL)

Page Count

12

DOI

10.18260/1-2--44539

Permanent URL

https://strategy.asee.org/44539

Download Count

152

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Paper Authors

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Manuel José Alejandro Baquero-Sierra Purdue University at West Lafayette (PPI)

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Alejandro Baquero-Sierra is a 2nd year Ph.D. student in Literacy and Language at Purdue. He got a bachelor's degree in Psychology and a Master's degree in Public Administration.

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Cristián Eduardo Vargas-Ordóñez Purdue University at West Lafayette (COE)

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Cristian Vargas-Ordóñez is a Ph.D. candidate in Engineering Education at Purdue University. His research interests include arts and engineering integration for epistemic justice and multicultural engineering education. He has experience in teaching and designing curricula for various educational programs, including first-year engineering and underrepresented pre-college students. Vargas-Ordóñez also has engineering experience in fields such as environmental control and operations management. He has published several papers on topics such as academic identity construction and transdisciplinary STEAM education.

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Jacqueline E McDermott Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0003-3435-4416

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Dr. Jackie McDermott joined Purdue University in August 2018. Jackie completed her B.S. in Biology from Hofstra University with minors in Spanish and Biochemistry, and her Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from Brandeis University. At Purdue, Jackie is enthusiastic about recruiting future graduate students as well as supporting current graduate students in Engineering. She recognizes that more Black Graduate Students in Engineering are needed, and therefore attends and recruits at the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) National Conference each year. To increase the number of Black Engineers coming to graduate school, Jackie helps lead the Pathways Scholars program, which supports underrepresented undergraduates in their summer research. In addition, she works closely with the Sloan Indigenous Graduate Engineering Scholars and is passionate about increasing the diversity and representation of future engineering faculty.

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Stephen Mark McBride Purdue University

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Stephen McBride is the Assistant Director of Graduate Student Success for the College of Engineering. With a strong background in leadership development and career preparation, he received many of the highest honors in the National 4-H and National FFA Organizations. During his year of service as the National FFA Southern Region Vice President, Stephen was trained as a professional facilitator and keynote speaker while representing the National FFA Organization on his visits to more than 30 states and Japan. He is passionate about student development and connecting students with the resources and training they need to achieve their career and professional goals.

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Abstract

International graduate engineering students (IGES) have unique challenges different from domestic students. At large land-grant institutions, these students may feel left out and experience anxiety or stress that hampers their ability to succeed academically. Understanding the antecedents to the challenges IGESs face can help colleges of engineering better support their international graduate students to ensure they thrive at their institutions. Previous studies have investigated the historical, cultural, and social factors that have impacted the construction of IGES's academic identities. However, broader efforts are needed to understand the population of engineering graduate students at universities with a strong engineering focus. This Work in Progress study presents the results of a pilot survey developed that seeks to understand the factors that impact the well-being of IGESs. For this, we developed a survey that evaluates this population's three main components of their Identity Fundations: (a) socially distributed resources, (b) historically accumulated experiences, and (c) culturally developed identities. The socially distributed resources component assesses social and institutional support, their relationships with advisors, institutional support, and networking capacities. The historically accumulated experiences component focuses on IGES experiences with others, daily life experiences, and their preparation to apply to universities. Finally, culturally developed identities refer to IGES's senses of belonging, recognition, and competence evaluated with the Measure of Engineering Identity (MEI). In addition to the dimensions mentioned earlier, we included the PERMA-profiler (Positive emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment) to assess the factors of flourishing and well-being of the IGESs and determine the impact of the components mentioned above. We plan to apply the refined survey version during the spring semester of 2023. The results will help identify the needs and resources of IGESs and their social determinants. Additionally, it will allow the design of programs, workshops, or events that the engineering faculty of [University] could create to support their IGES.

Baquero-Sierra, M. J. A., & Vargas-Ordóñez, C. E., & McDermott, J. E., & McBride, S. M. (2023, June), Understanding international graduate engineering students' well-being: What do they need to thrive? (Work in Progress) Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--44539

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