NSF Award
2318338
With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI) Program, this Track 2 project aims to empower students to create inclusive institutional change at Florida International University’s College of Engineering and Computing. Existing diversity support strategies tend to provide students with services to improve their academic performance or retention. While this support is important, it can limit students’ sense of agency and feeling that they have a voice in their university, which is an important element of inclusion. The significance of this project will come from the implementation of a JEDI (Justice Equity Diversity and Inclusion) Ambassador program which will focus on student empowerment in STEM at Florida International University. Students will have a paid position to conduct either research, leadership, or organizing projects, and they will receive regular mentorship, and have well-scaffolded opportunities to give feedback to administrators, faculty, and other community members on practical solutions for fostering a more inclusive student-centered educational environment. The work will contribute to knowledge about this novel approach to inclusive institutional change, help better understand the opportunities and challenges associated with student empowerment, and generate important insights about inclusion at HSIs. The project’s broader impact will help create inclusive change at Florida International University’s College of Engineering and Computing while also disseminating the project insights widely for translation. The project anticipates future expansions with partners at local and national 2-year and 4-year institutions.<br/><br/>The JEDI model will create a yearlong cohort-based student advocacy ambassador program focused on education research and organizing by undergraduate engineering students. Engineering education faculty and student support personnel will partner to establish the program. The project goals aspire to (1) create a program to train undergraduate engineering and computing students for this role, (2) mentor students in Youth Participatory Action Research projects to create insights and impacts towards inclusive change and (3) scaffold students to share their project work with stakeholders. Students will select from three specific model projects: (1) interview study with marginalized student population, (2) gateway course study on inequities in success rates, and (3) development of programming and initiatives in partnership with student organizations. Although projects will differ in focus, the research team anticipates outcomes related to insightful research products and impactful programming towards inclusion. In addition to creating the novel program, the research team will use a Design-Based Research Methodology to understand and enable the evidence-based design of the program; and will use critical discourse analysis to investigate participating students’ empowerment and sense of agency and to understand the impact of the JEDI program on stakeholder views and actions. Each student project will disseminate their work at a student project showcase including local stakeholders. In addition, students will be encouraged to create faculty and advisor development resources, publish at conferences, and conduct presentations to student organizations which includes sharing them on social media. Further, the principal investigators will publish on the program’s structure, process, and success at national conferences and in journals. Via a yearly reflection meeting, the project will share the process of JEDI with additional stakeholders to prepare for translation and expansion. This project is funded by the HSI Program, which aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education, broaden participation in STEM, and build capacity at HSIs.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
