A model of mentorship for students from historically underrepresented groups in STEM

TL;DR

This paper presents a multifaceted mentorship model designed to improve academic success and community among underrepresented STEM students through comprehensive support and faculty development.

Contribution

It introduces a new mentorship framework that combines faculty engagement, peer networking, and professional development to support underrepresented students in STEM.

Findings

Faculty mentorship is highly impactful for students.

Enhanced peer networking improves sense of community.

Program supports increased persistence in STEM fields.

Abstract

Mentorship is critical to student academic success and persistence, especially for students from historically underrepresented (HU) groups. In a program designed to support the academic success of HU undergraduates in STEM who wish to pursue a PhD in those fields, students experience comprehensive support including financial aid, highly-engaged mentoring, dual faculty mentorship, professional development workshops, and summer research experiences. Scholars in this program, the Cal-Bridge program, consistently report that faculty mentorship is the most impactful feature. While mentorship was rated highly, preliminary evaluation indicated an early deficit in a sense of community among scholars. In response, faculty professional development and support for peer networking were implemented to expand and enhance the relationships that support scholar success. Here we present a promising multifaceted model of mentorship that can support the academic success of HU undergraduates.