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Doctoral students from underrepresented groups in engineering tend to complete their degrees at lower rates than their White and International peers. Research indicates that early support in doctoral programs, rather than later remedial efforts, can lead to long-term success. To that effect, we designed the Rising Doctoral Institute (RDI), an early information intervention for minoritized doctoral students. In this work in progress, we specifically explore how this intervention supports doctoral student agency throughout the first year of the doctoral experience We address the following questions: 1) How can agency be encouraged/promoted among minority students in the first year of the engineering PhD? Employing a longitudinal qualitative design, we conducted monthly interviews with six participants throughout their first year of doctoral study in engineering programs. We ground our work in Klemenčič’s Student Agency Model, focused on experiences affecting their persistence, to help uncover different aspects of agency that can manifest throughout this period of time. Preliminary results reveal that students cultivate agency through self-regulation, self-direction, self-determination, and self-efficacy, evident in their planning, motivation, and community engagement. Future work will focus on uncovering the specific mechanisms through which agency is enhanced. By linking positive first-year experiences to agency development, this research can guide interventions and tools for engineering departments to support student persistence. 

The first year of doctoral study is a critical period for students' academic formation and persistence, especially in engineering disciplines where early integration into research and advising relationships is expected. In the US, for Black and Latiné students—groups historically underrepresented in engineering—this period can be critical as they navigate systemic inequities and social isolation. This longitudinal qualitative study explores how a sense of belonging manifests and evolves for minoritized engineering doctoral students during their first year in U.S. programs. Drawing on focus group data collected across eight sessions with sixteen students from a national summer bridge program, we identify two dominant forms of belonging: merit-contingent belonging, characterized by a need to demonstrate competence and legitimacy, and relational belonging, fostered through supportive advisor and peer relationships. Findings show that while merit-contingent belonging dominates early experiences, it gradually gives way to relational forms of connection as students gain confidence and build community. We call for equity-focused interventions that humanize students, clarify merit, and build trust. 

Increases in the representation of Black and Latiné students in doctoral engineering programs over the past decades have not yet led to long-term success in achieving parity with the population's demographics. Although graduation rates show such students are recruited to such programs, they remain underrepresented due to their early departure due to unreconcilable differences in institutional cultures being exclusive of their identities. Although the socialization experiences of first-year doctoral students can predetermine their success or failure, scant research has looked at Black and Latiné students in engineering programs. This longitudinal qualitative case study explores the first-year program experiences of such students and how their minority identities influenced theirsocialization. We present the experiences of sixteen engineering graduate students from variousinstitutions who met in virtual focus groups throughout their first year. We found that Black and Latiné students' racial-ethnic identities influence how they experience the first year of their doctorate.This influence extends from how they perceive their sense of belonging and qualification to be in such programs to how and where they seek support when facing racialized experiences. Moreover, participants shared how their programs were not equipped to support their identities and potential contributions to their fields. These findings are key to the engineering context, where representation is starkly limited for these students. Our implications for institutions focus on the needed cultural shifts to ultimately diminish the barriers that Black and Latiné students face while pursuing doctoraldegrees. 

Mentors are key to the academic success of engineering graduate students, and particularly historicallymarginalized graduate students. To continue to enhance and improve mentoring experiences in order to support minoritized students to persist in their doctoral degrees, it is important to understand who is mentoring minoritized students regarding enrollment in doctoral programs and what expectations these students have for mentoring in graduate school. We used interviews and focus groups to explore who students cite as mentors and who they expect to fill this role once entering the doctoral pursuit. We used a theoretical framework organized around different support and challenge roles that dissertation advisors might play to understand the different roles these mentors played. We found various roles in which a variety of mentors influence minoritized students enrolling in doctoral programs, including family, informal undergraduate mentors, and peers, as those who support their decision to enroll. Our findings also detail the expectations of rising minoritized students for future advisors.