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The importance of diversifying the national STEM workforce is well-established in the literature (Marrongelle, 2018). This need extends to graduate education in the STEM fields, leading N.C. A&T to invest considerably in graduate education and wraparound support initiatives that help graduate students build science identity and competencies for careers both within and beyond academia. The NSF-funded Bridges to the Doctorate project will integrate culturally reflective mentoring and professional development specifically designed for Black, Latinx, and Native American Ph.D. students. This holistic, graduate student development model includes academic and professional skill-building for STEM careers alongside targeted support for pursuing fellowship opportunities. This paper discusses the planned mentoring approach for the aforementioned program and previous approaches to mentoring graduate students used at N.C. A&T. The BD Fellows program will support formal and informal mentoring relationships, as mentoring contributes towards retention in STEM graduate programs (Ragins, 2007). BD Fellows will participate in monthly one-hour seminars on how to identify, establish, and maintain informal mentoring relationships (Schwartz et al., 2018; Parnes et al., 2020), while STEM faculty will attend seminars on leveraging their social networks as vital sources of mentorship for the BD Fellows. Using a multi-pronged collaborative approach, this model integrates the evidence-based domains of self-efficacy (Laurencelle & Scanlan, 2018; Lent et al., 1994; Lent et al., 2008), science/research identity (Lent et al., 2015; Zimmerman, 2000), and social cognitive career theory (Lent et al., 2005; Lent and Brown, 2006) to recruit, enroll, and graduate LSAMP Fellows with STEM doctoral degrees. Guided by the theories, the following questions will be addressed: (1) To what extent is culturally reflective mentoring identified as a critical driver of B2D Fellows’ success? (2) To what extent are the program’s training components fostering increases in B2D Fellow’s self-efficacy, competency, and science identity? (3) What is the strength of the correlation between participation in the program training components, mentoring activities, and persistence in graduate school? (4) To what extent does the perceived importance of self-efficacy, competency, and science identity differ by race/ethnicity and gender? These data will be analyzed using both formative and summative assessments of program outcomes. Quantitative data will include pre-, post-, and exit surveys. Qualitative data will assess the impact of mentoring and program support. This study will be guided by established protocols that have been approved by the N.C. A&T IRB. It is anticipated that our BD Fellows program will significantly impact the retention and graduation rates of underrepresented minority STEM graduate students in our doctoral programs, thus producing a diverse workforce of STEM professionals. Materials from the program recruiting cycle, mentoring workshops, and the structured fellowship application process will be disseminated freely to other LSAMP and minority-serving institutions across the country. Strategies and outcomes of this project will be published in peer-reviewed journals and shared in conference proceedings.
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A Structured Mentoring Program Addressing Graduate Student Challenges, Well-Being and Success
There is clearly a retention issue in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) for underrepresented groups (Estrada et al., 2016; Sithole et al., 2017). Although students leave STEM for many reasons (Bonous-Harmmath, 2000; Estrada et al., 2016; Gasiewski et al., 2012; Hurtado et al. 2011), one underlying and well documented cause is lack of attention to effective mentoring and student well-being, especially in graduate school (Becker et al., 2002). The paper presents a National Science Foundation sponsored mentoring program that prepares graduate students to become effective mentors while simultaneously providing them the necessary tools to advocate for themselves as mentees. In addition to mentoring, the program emphasizes the importance of mental and physical well-being. Evaluation results conclude that the program has improved students' sense of belonging on campus and provided them with support for navigating graduate school and socializing into careers.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1954776
- PAR ID:
- 10526103
- Editor(s):
- Dominguez, N
- Publisher / Repository:
- The Chronicle of Mentoring & Coaching
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- The Chronicle of Mentoring & Coaching
- Edition / Version:
- 1
- Volume:
- 6
- ISSN:
- 2372-9848
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 368-374
- Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
- Graduate Education
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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