Pre-Conference Workshops
Sunday, February 9, 2025
stEm PEER Academy|9:00 - 12:00pm
Engineering PLUS, a NSF Eddie Bernice Johnson INCLUDES Alliance, invites stEm PEER Academy Fellows to a Sunday morning in-person convening & lunch to kick off CoNECD 2025! Fellows can expect to meet other Fellows and the stEm PEER Academy leadership team to engage in small and large group conversations about their efforts to increase the number of women & BIPOC engineering graduates at their own institutions. Fellows will also be invited to contribute ideas for upcoming Academy learning community activities and for recruiting future applicants.
Public Engagement with Science - EPICC Model|12:00-2:30pm
The Gaskins Foundation's "Empowering Parents in Community Churches" project aims to enhance public engagement with science by providing parents with the tools, knowledge, and confidence to support their children's scientific curiosity and education. This workshop is tailored for academicians interested in implementing similar initiatives in local churches and community centers. By leveraging these trusted community settings, academicians can create a comfortable and collaborative space for learning and discussion, thereby fostering greater scientific literacy and engagement. By the end of this workshop, participants will have strategies and tools needed to effectively engage parents and children in science education within community settings. More
Utilizing data as part of your efforts to broaden participation in engineering|1:00-4:00pm
This workshop invites participants to become immersed in data associated with broadening participation in engineering. Entering into the workshop space, participants will be asked to engage with a set of posters that use data to raise provocative issues associated with the state of diversity within engineering education.Then using a set of Tableau platforms, participants will investigate the patterns of undergraduate and graduate engineering student enrolment and degree completion for their own institutions, their region and the nation overall. State and regional demographics will also be explored as means of looking at trends associated with potential future engineering students. More
Enhancing Workforce Diversity: Strategic Approaches to Integrate Women of Color Graduates from HBCUs, MSIs and TCUs into the Engineering Workforce|3:00 - 5:00pm
This session aims to contribute to community collaboration in the development of comprehensive, cross-sector strategies to significantly improve the representation of Women of Color engineers (WOCe) from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs), and Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs) within institutions of higher education, industry, and organizations that hire engineers. The underrepresentation of WOCe in the workforce underscores the need for intentional and targeted efforts to diversify recruitment efforts. Graduates from HBCUs, MSIs, and TCUs possess the skills and perspectives crucial for driving innovation and inclusivity within the engineering sector. However, systemic barriers often impede their entry into the industry, such as the perception of rigor from these institutions. This session will bring together stakeholders from engineering higher education, industry, and policy-making bodies to address these challenges. GOALS and OBJECTIVES: *Highlight the importance of diversifying the engineering workforce by integrating WOC graduates from HBCUs, MSIs, and TCUs. *Identify and dismantle barriers that hinder the recruitment, retention, and advancement of these graduates in the workforce. *Develop actionable strategies and partnerships to foster a more inclusive hiring process.
Dr. Stephani Page, Dr. Roberta Rincon, Dr. Rochelle Williams, Dr. Dayna Martinez
With more than 150 ways to approach an evaluation, the task can be extremely daunting and leave you wondering if you are collecting the best data in the most impactful way. This workshop cuts through the "evaluation noise" to help you design a robust evaluation that includes timely, purposeful, and relevant information and help to make informed decisions that support continuous improvement and inform impact. At the end of this workshop, participants will (a) understand the difference and relationship between evaluation and research, (b) understand how to respond to the 5 anchoring questions that support the design of a robust evaluation plan; (c) understand how evaluation has roots in multiple disciplines that inform data collection strategies and processes; and (d) understand how to realize data results that inform both the implementation of the project being evaluated and provide evidence that informs the extent to which the project's goals and objectives were met. Finally, participants will walk away with a draft evaluation plan that can be implemented in their next project.
Addressing the Mental Health Crisis in STEM by Strengthening Faculty’s Capacity to Support Graduate Students’ Mental Health and Wellness | 3:00-5:00pm
A growing number of reports within the last decade suggest that a ‘mental health crisis’ is plaguing STEM graduate students (Evans et al., 2018; Wilkins-Yel et al, 2022). Given the key role that STEM faculty play in stewarding STEM climates across laboratories, classrooms, and the broader STEM department, they are uniquely positioned to create transformative practices that support graduate students’ mental health. Yet only 16% of graduate students endorsed discussing their mental health concerns with their graduate advisors. Through a series of scenario-based exercises, attendees will actively learn how to implement a wellness-centered mentoring framework that foregrounds intersectional equity, mental health, and tangible strategies to supporting graduate advisees’ whole selves. This immersive experience aims to provide STEM faculty and administrators with empirically supported tools for strengthening their capacity to create a STEM ecosystem where graduate students, particularly those who are historically minoritized, can be well and thrive.
Beyond Words: The Transformative Power of Language | 1:00-2:30pm
By the end of the workshop, participants will identify unequitable uses of language that may compromise empowerment; will develop linguistic tools to scrutinize their and other writings; will establish some guidelines to ensure creating an empowering educational discourse; will develop an awareness of discourse and reality and spread the word; will better understand the impact of AI on bias and AI ethics that can be impactful towards efforts to broadening participation in engineering and computing education. More
Reimagining Post-Secondary Engineering Education for Rural and Low-Income Students | 12:30-2:30pm
This workshop will engage attendees in intentional discussion and reimagination of how current practices around recruitment, transitions into post-secondary engineering, and experiences in engineering programs impact students from rural and/or low-income backgrounds, particularly students with differing access to resources for academic preparation. With the specific lenses of the workshop team’s focus on rural students and low-income students, we seek to highlight the various aspects of education that impact students’ participation in post-secondary engineering. As a result, we hope to engage participants in a discussion about how existing practices in their classrooms and programs, for example, can impact students from rural and/or low-income backgrounds as they progress through engineering programs. More