Brown, N. N., & Velarde, J., & Mascaro, D. J. (2016, June), Using Peer Mentoring to Enhance Transfer Student Experience and Increase Student Success in Mechanical Engineering  Paper presented at 2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, New Orleans, Louisiana. 10.18260/p.27158

\bibitem{asee_peer_27158}
  Brown, N. N., \& Velarde, J., \& Mascaro, D. J. (2016, June), \emph{Using Peer Mentoring to Enhance Transfer Student Experience and Increase Student Success in Mechanical Engineering}
  Paper presented at 2016 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, New Orleans, Louisiana.
  10.18260/p.27158

Nicolas N Brown, Joy Velarde, and Debra J Mascaro.  "Using Peer Mentoring to Enhance Transfer Student Experience and Increase Student Success in Mechanical Engineering".  2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, New Orleans, Louisiana, 2016, June.  ASEE Conferences, 2016.  https://peer.asee.org/27158 Internet.  30 Jun, 2024

\bibitem{asee_peer_27158}
  Nicolas N Brown, Joy Velarde, and Debra J Mascaro.
  "Using Peer Mentoring to Enhance Transfer Student Experience and Increase Student Success in Mechanical Engineering".
  \emph{2016 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, New Orleans, Louisiana, 2016, June}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2016.
  https://peer.asee.org/27158 Internet.  30 Jun, 2024

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_27158
author = "Nicolas N Brown, Joy Velarde, and Debra J Mascaro"
title = "Using Peer Mentoring to Enhance Transfer Student Experience and Increase Student Success in Mechanical Engineering"
booktitle = "2016 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition"
year = "2016"
month = "June"
address = "New Orleans, Louisiana"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://peer.asee.org/27158}
number = {10.18260/p.27158}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  -      This paper describes a new peer mentor program for transfer mechanical engineering students at a large public institution in the intermountain west.  The program was initiated to help address issues transfer students have when transitioning from two-year institutions to a four-year mechanical engineering program.  For example, transfer students frequently encounter issues with course articulation, registration, larger class sizes, higher level coursework, access to professors, and a lack of peer network to create study groups.
     Peer mentor programs have been shown to increase levels of student success higher education transistions, and higher likelihood of students identifying with the university community in multiple studies.  In an effort to help new students feel included, this department of mechanical engineering has implemented a peer-mentoring program to serve all students new to the major, including incoming first year and transfer students.  This paper will focus on the transfer students, which comprise about 40% of a typical junior class.  The program is an “opt-out” program that is administered by the mechanical engineering department with peer mentors recruited on a volunteer-only basis. Students and peer mentors are paired based on common demographics and interests.
     During the summer of 2015, a call for volunteers and application form was emailed out to all junior and senior-level students in the mechanical engineering major.  24 volunteers were recruited, comprised of juniors, seniors, international students, men, women, honors students, transfer students, and veterans.  Next, all newly admitted students to the major were sent a survey asking optional demographic questions and questions regarding interests and hobbies that were also asked of the mentors on their application, in order to match students with mentors with similar backgrounds.  Questions were also asked to help gauge the effectiveness of the program.  New students were then matched with mentors based on the demographic and interest data, and students who did not answer the survey, or indicated that they did not want their answers to be used when pairing them with a mentor, were randomly assigned a mentor.  Transfer students were assigned to five specific mentors, all of whom were transfer students themselves.  In all, about 70 transfer students were assigned a peer mentor, with each mentor assigned between 10-15 students.
     The initial anecdotal response from new students, mentors, faculty and staff has been overwhelmingly positive.  This paper will describe the outcomes of the first academic year of the program, based on survey outcomes, and open interview question sessions conducted with both the peer mentors and their mentees to determine the overall effectiveness of the program.  We will also analyze the data to determine if there was any difference in effectiveness of pairing a student with a mentor based on similar demographics or interests, versus randomly pairing student with mentors.  The program will be deemed effective if students indicate an increased sense of belonging in the department and at the university and if we see an increase in student satisfaction and success.  

AU  - Nicolas N Brown
AU  - Joy Velarde
AU  - Debra J Mascaro
CY  - New Orleans, Louisiana
DA  - 2016/06/26
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Using Peer Mentoring to Enhance Transfer Student Experience and Increase Student Success in Mechanical Engineering
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/27158
DO  - 10.18260/p.27158
ER  -