We are interested in understanding the complexities associated with student navigation of engineering. As part of a study associated with a larger project, we interviewed five upper division, undergraduate women of color in engineering during the Fall 2022 semester. In this paper, we present preliminary results from one participant, Nadia, and discuss the codebook development process. Insights from this paper can inform practice and research. Notably, it can help develop more responsive support structures in engineering for students from marginalized groups, specifically WOC. Furthermore, insight about codebook development can help inform qualitative research practices in engineering education.

We are developing a Situational Judgment Inventory (SJI) to reveal student strategies for navigating the undergraduate engineering learning environment. In this paper, we discuss the development of the SJI. As part of our development process, we identify nine categories that capture students' typical responses. Implementation of the SJI will a) allow students to become familiar with common scenarios they may encounter in engineering; and b) aid support practitioners, such as instructors and advisors, and administrators, such as associate deans and department heads, in better understanding common student navigation strategies for navigating their respective learning environment.

Within engineering, internship experiences are upheld as a high-impact practice for students to increase practical knowledge and gain workforce preparation. The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of participating in an engineering internship on the career development of racially minoritized students. We used a quasi-experimental research design to examine the experiences of racially minoritized students who participated in an internship program, titled Corporate Scholars, hosted by the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering (NACME), during the Summer of 2022. We conducted a one-group pretest-posttest design followed by semi-structured interviews with a subset of the participants. Pre-and post-survey responses were collected for 33 students, and interviews were conducted with 10 of the 33 students. We found that students had a range of experiences with their company that influenced their perceptions of their internship, their company, and the field of engineering. The internship experience appeared to impact vocational identity and building occupational interest. Additionally, we found tensions in students' perceptions of engineering as a result of their internship and found that their perceptions of their company were dependent on mentor's and workplace support. The results of this work could provide useful insight into how to better support engineering students, inform program practices, and increase retention in the field of engineering.

This work-in-progress research paper stems from a larger project where we are developing and gathering validity evidence for an instrument to measure undergraduate students' perceptions of support in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The refinement of our instrument functions to extend, operationalize, and empirically test the model of co-curricular support (MCCS). The MCCS is a conceptual framework of student support that explains how a student's interactions with the professional, academic and social systems within a college could influence their success more broadly in an undergraduate STEM degree program. Our goal is to create an instrument that functions diagnostically to help colleges effectively allocate resources for the various financial, physical, and human capital support provided to undergraduate students in STEM. While testing the validity of our newly developed instrument, an analysis of the data revealed differences in perceived support among College of Engineering (COE) and College of Science (COS) students. In this work-in-progress paper, we examine these differences at one institution using descriptive statistics and Welch's t-tests to identify trends and patterns of support among different student groups.

The purpose of this work-in-progress research paper is to document the development of a coding process that can be used to critically examine the underlying assumptions and espoused approaches represented in diversity plans developed by administrators that signed the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) diversity pledge. In this paper, we report initial insight from developing a coding process for subsequently conducting a qualitative content analysis. We developed our coding process by reviewing a sample of engineering diversity plans (n=8) from institutions across the nation. Our future work will use this coding process to analyze a larger set of diversity, identify themes that can be used to improve efforts across the nation. This work is directly geared towards deans, department heads, faculty members, and other members of the engineering education community who should be responsible for improving diversity and inclusion in engineering.

This work-in-progress paper presents emerging results from a research study aiming to develop and gather validity evidence for an instrument that can be used by college administrators and student-support practitioners to assess the magnitude of undergraduate students' perceived institutional support received in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Our goal is to provide stakeholders with a validated tool to diagnose areas of strength and opportunities to better support students, particularly those from underserved populations. Over the past year, we have engaged in a systematic process of instrument development. We began by developing a prototype based on the newly developed Model of Co-Curricular Support (MCCS). We refined it by reviewing existing literature and instruments germane to student support, and soliciting stakeholder feedback. During the spring of 2018, we distributed the instrument to STEM undergraduate students at three U.S. institutions. In this paper, we report our process of instrument development and preliminary results.These results will inform the next revision of our instrument, ultimately providing the STEM education community with novel and theory-based ways to measure students' perceptions of support in STEM.

The purpose of this research study is to examine the motivations of undergraduate students, graduate students, and teaching professionals to serve as mentors for elementary school-aged kids participating in the Summer Engineering Experiences for Kids (SEEK) program hosted by the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE). Data collection was conducted through semi-structured interviews (n=25), which we analyzed using a two-pronged approach: 1) through attribute coding, we identified demographic information, and 2) through value coding, we identified the participant motivations for mentoring, which enabled us to identify the value attributed to the mentoring experience and thus each participant's rationale for participating in the mentoring experiences. The themes that emerged from this analysis were mentors valuing their roles as influencers for the younger generation, mentors' enjoyment in teaching and sharing their interest in science, and the belief that their roles in the camp enhanced their professional opportunities. The results of this study contribute to the literature on mentor motivation and provide empirical evidence for educators and administrators who aim to incentivize mentor engagement.

The rigorous, structured, and transparent review of literature on a particular topic can lead to promising insights about research directions, practical solutions, and potential policies. While the Systematic Literature Review (SLR) is a well-established methodology, it is rarely used in the field of engineering education. Though the use of the term “systematic” suggests a clear-cut process and there are resources available to describe the major steps of the method, the initial steps of a SLR are inherently messy - i.e., they heavily rely on the researcher's judgement and decision-making. Unfortunately, the messiness embedded in these steps is rarely discussed or described in existing resources. In this study, we reflect on the “messiness” of initiating a SLR on broadening participation in engineering and computer science. Informed by two existing approaches to reflection, we used the STAARA (Situation-Task-Affect-Action-Result-Aftermath) framework to reflect on the ways in which we resolved important decisions associated with one overarching situation and several corresponding tasks, affects, actions; the aftermath is also discussed. This paper includes insights from our experience that can help other researchers navigate the initial steps of a SLR.

If the field of engineering were more diverse, what would that mean for you? The ways in which answers to this question vary provide useful insight into how students view efforts to advance diversity & inclusion in engineering. In this paper, we use the Tripartite Model of Attitude to explore students' evaluative reactions to a hypothetical, more diverse engineering environment. We interviewed undergraduate (n=19) and graduate students (n=22) at a single institution. We asked each student to imagine a world in which the field of engineering were more diverse and, subsequently, describe how their personal experience might be different. Our findings highlight a range of attitude components such as engineering career changes at the personal and global levels as well as changes in interpersonal interactions. Across participants, themes suggest that majority students articulate more functional, cognitive elements (e.g., being exposed to more diverse ideas), while underrepresented students more often discuss affective elements (e.g., feeling more comfortable). Our results advance understanding of students' attitudes about diversity and enable us to provide practitioners with suggestions for discussing this topic with engineering students. This work is part of a larger effort to better integrate diversity into engineering education and is directly geared towards educators and researchers interested in inclusion and diversity.

Careers in the U.S. that require STEM knowledge have grown rapidly, reinforcing the need to develop a future workforce that is prepared to meet growing business needs and solve global challenges. Considering that there is a low number of students pursuing STEM degrees and the low percentages of minority students in the STEM pipeline, STEM education has been a focus of local and national education curriculum reform efforts. Extending beyond the classroom, university, industry, and other stakeholders have partnered to develop the future workforce by focusing on STEM K-12 outreach programming. We discuss a unique partnership that moves beyond the traditional context of university based outreach programming in which the National Society of Black Engineers (a non-profit organization) is working toward scaling up a nationwide summer outreach program through partnering with major research institutions and industry sponsors. We introduce the partners, provide an overview of the research and assessment plan, and discuss preliminary lessons from the partnership.

If the engineering education community is serious about improving its culture and climate for underrepresented groups, it is imperative to educate students about the importance of diversity and inclusion. Effectively incorporating diversity-related course content into the curriculum requires an understanding of student knowledge of and attitudes toward diversity. Accordingly, this work-in-progress explores engineering students' beliefs about the intersection of diversity education and the engineering curriculum. Informed by Eccles' Expectancy Value Theory (EVT), the authors pose the following research question: What ability-related beliefs and subjective task values do undergraduate engineering students have in relation to diversity education? This exploratory study resulted in the development of an interview protocol and survey instrument for exploring students' beliefs about diversity as it relates to engineering. Initial findings point to the need for closer examinations of student attitudes in subsequent research. Ultimately, the results of this study will directly informed diversity and inclusion efforts at our local institution.

Engineering is a demanding discipline and otherwise qualified students often take their talents elsewhere- either before earning a Bachelor's degree or shortly thereafter. As a result, engineering educators must provide students with adequate support to increase the chances of students successfully integrating into the field of engineering. However, little is known about the relationship between Institutional Support and Student Integration or how each construct influences the retention or early-career decision-making of engineering students. Drawing on the Model of Co-curricular Support, the purpose of this paper is to describe current efforts to develop survey instruments that can be used to investigate how undergraduate engineering students rate themselves on Institutional Support and Student Integration, paying close attention to gender and race/ethnicity. Survey instruments that are valid and reliable within this context would be useful for assessing the impact of student interventions.

In response to the persistent issues of retention and diversity, many colleges offer Engineering Student Support Centers (ESSCs). However, little is known about ESSC design or how these centers function alongside the engineering curriculum and within the larger systems of engineering education. Based on the current literature, there is a need to better understand ESSC design and how such centers influence the institutional experience of undergraduate engineering students. Our research seeks to address this gap by examining ESSCs of varying structure and configuration at multiple institutions. The overall study will use a multi-case study approach, which includes interviews and open-ended surveys with center administrators and engineering students. Preliminary results from the first phase of the project reveal a variety of ESSC structures and will assist us in representing the assortment of centers in the later phases of the study.