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This research-to-practice full paper describes a cohort-based undergraduate research program designed to improve STEM retention through structured mentoring and community building. Drawing on the Affinity Research Group (ARG) model, the program fosters faculty-student research collaboration and integrates faculty mentorship training, student-led peer mentoring, and structured interventions, such as research skills workshops and networking events. Each year, faculty from biology, chemistry, computer science, environmental science, and mathematics lead small-group research projects with recruited students who may participate for up to three years. Faculty and students receive ARG training to promote consistent mentoring practices. A credit-bearing, major-specific first-year orientation course supports recruitment and reinforces students’ scientific identity. Faculty also engage in professional development workshops to strengthen student-centered mentoring approaches. Data collection includes surveys, interviews, retention tracking, and weekly journaling to assess STEM identity, belonging, and skill development. External evaluators reviewed the faculty focus groups to assess mentoring effectiveness. Initial findings show strong faculty engagement with the ARG model, with many adopting adaptive mentoring strategies that enhance student support. Students report increased confidence and belonging within their disciplines. However, cross-disciplinary collaboration remains limited, highlighting the need for more intentional networking within the cohort. Students also emphasized the value of peer collaboration alongside faculty mentorship. These results suggest that undergraduate research can serve as a powerful tool for building community and supporting persistence in STEM. Ongoing efforts will focus on expanding networking opportunities, strengthening peer collaboration, and evaluating long-term impacts on student retention. 

Domestic undergraduate computer science students formally learn about machine learning and artificial intelligence in upper-level undergraduate computing programs, yet they must navigate the lure of ChatGPT and other generative Artificial Intelligence tools that have been found to be somewhat accurate at completing early coding assignments. As AI tools proliferate, messaging about their use in academic settings are varied, and access to AI literacy is unknown. Through an investigation of interviews with Pell grant-eligible college students at open-access colleges, we address the following research questions: How do low-income undergraduate interview participants describe their uses of and attitudes regarding generative AI tool use for academic purposes? and What elements of AI digital literacy appear to be accessible to interview participants, based on their descriptive statements? 

In this paper, we describe efforts of an alliance to increase Pell-grant eligible and first-generation student access to active conference participation by systematically including considerations for student basic needs as well as developing professional science skills and knowledge that aligns with industry and graduate school pathways in computer science. We describe how an alliance creates the structure and flexibility for systematic care for student needs and local innovation to improve educational practice regarding conference participation. We describe our lessons learned for improving access to conferences as well as provide recommendations for increasing student access to professional conference benefits. 

In this paper, we describe efforts of an alliance to increase Pell-grant eligible and first-generation student access to active conference participation by systematically including considerations for student basic needs as well as developing professional science skills and knowledge that aligns with industry and graduate school pathways in computer science. We describe how an alliance creates the structure and flexibility for systematic care for student needs and local innovation to improve educational practice regarding conference participation. We describe our lessons learned for improving access to conferences as well as provide recommendations for increasing student access to professional conference benefits. 

In this paper, we describe efforts of an alliance to increase Pell-grant eligible and first-generation student access to active conference participation by systematically including considerations for student basic needs as well as developing professional science skills and knowledge that aligns with industry and graduate school pathways in computer science. We describe how an alliance creates the structure and flexibility for systematic care for student needs and local innovation to improve educational practice regarding conference participation. We describe our lessons learned for improving access to conferences as well as provide recommendations for increasing student access to professional conference benefits. 

In this paper, we describe efforts of an alliance to increase Pell-grant eligible and first-generation student access to active conference participation by systematically including considerations for student basic needs as well as developing professional science skills and knowledge that aligns with industry and graduate school pathways in computer science. We describe how an alliance creates the structure and flexibility for systematic care for student needs and local innovation to improve educational practice regarding conference participation. We describe our lessons learned for improving access to conferences as well as provide recommendations for increasing student access to professional conference benefits. 

This work-in-progress study describes our grant-funded efforts in developing a computer science faculty learning community (FLC) across six California state institutions. With an emphasis on socially responsible computing (SRC), the faculty development effort that prepares faculty for SRC lesson implementation has integrated social scientists with computer science faculty in the rotating leadership team. It works collaboratively to facilitate dialog around experiences of implementing lessons that focus on social justice and ethical decision-making. Our data-driven FLC and course transformation effort was initiated by finding that retention rates in early computing courses at participating institutions were inequitable across demographic groups. The ultimate goal of the Broadening Participation in Computing Alliance for Socially Responsible Computing is to improve the retention rates of LatinX students by increasing their sense of belonging to the field of computer science[1] through deliberate and intentional connections of curriculum to real-world problems and social issues. For this paper, we focused on the faculty experiences of our most recent summer workshop and our reflection on the FLC implementation process. We present our faculty survey data from June 2024 and introduce reflective focus group findings [2], providing conjectures about the effectiveness of our approach. In the discussion, we build recommendations for collaborative professional development of faculty and discuss next steps. 

Socially Responsible Computing (SRC) education entails the infusion of Computer Science (CS) education with interwoven attention to ethical, social, and political issues to position students to reflect and take action individually and collaboratively to create a more just world. Our approach to SRC supports students to explore computing design/development in early CS courses with a communal goal orientation (in contrast to agentic/individualized), shown to improve achievement and retention for students with identities that are minoritized in CS. Grounded in our own experiences as co-developers and implementers of this pedagogical transformation and as co-facilitators of a Faculty Learning Community (FLC) across six minority-serving institutions in California, we share how we use an iterative design and implementation process modeled from social design experimentation as research and development method. Initial results are presented as a set of promising practices for incorporating SRC into introductory CS courses: 1) choose the domain mindfully; 2) design for synergy with technical material; 3) scaffold for inclusivity; 4) structure with a framework; 5) avoid othering SRC elements; and 6) reuse and build on existing resources. We share how these promising practices guide our efforts; how they can address challenges and concerns for new and continuing SRC implementers; and the ways in which we have and will continue to test and co-design this approach. 

This Innovative Practice paper describes the Local Research Experiences for Undergraduates (LREU) program that was established by the Computing Alliance of Hispanic-Serving Institutions (CAHSI) at Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs) in 2021 to increase the number of students, particularly students from underrepresented populations, who enter graduate programs in computer science. Since its first offering in Spring 2022, the LREU program has involved 182 faculty and 253 students. The LREU program funds undergraduate research experiences at the students’ home institutions with an emphasis on first-generation students and those with financial needs. The motivation for the program is to address the low number of domestic students, particularly Hispanics and other minoritized populations, who seek and complete graduate degrees. Research shows that participation in research activities predicts college outcomes such as GPA, retention, and persistence. Even though these studies inform us of the importance of REU programs, many programmatic efforts are summer experiences and, while students may receive support, faculty mentors rarely receive coaching or professional development efforts. What distinguishes the LREU program is the focus on the deliberative development of students’ professional and research skills; faculty coaching on the Affinity Research Group model; and the learning community established to share experiences and practices and to learn from each other. Students, who are matched with faculty mentors based on their areas of interest, work with their mentor to co-create a research plan. Students keep a research journal in which they record what they have learned and identify areas for their growth and development as researchers. The LREU provides an opportunity for the LREU participants to cultivate a growth mindset through deliberate practice and reflection from personal, professional, social, and academic perspectives. The paper discusses the multi-institutional perspectives that help CAHSI understand the types of challenges faced in undergraduate research programs, how faculty mentors communicate and make decisions, and how mentors resolve challenges, allowing the research community to better understand students’ and faculty experiences. In addition, the paper reports on research and evaluation results that documented mentors’ growth in their knowledge of effective research mentoring practices and students’ learning gains in research and other skills. The paper also describes the impact of the learning community, e.g., how it supports developing strategies for interaction with and mentoring students from underrepresented populations.