Recruitment and Retention of Students in Engineering and Science

Background:
The Washington MESA Powerful Parent project is designed to provide strong support for parents to support, in turn, their students' achievement and participation in mathematics, science, and technology educational courses, programs, and internships.

Tools support is funding Washington MESA assessment activities and the development and maintenance of the Powerful Parents web sites that serve parents in Washington State. MESA served 4,100 students in17 school districts and 74 schools in 2000. Ninety-six percent of the MESA seniors are attending higher education and 69% are enrolling in mathematics, science, engineering majors.

Goals:
This project's main goals are:

1. Stimulating parents to become informed, active proponents for high-quality and more universally available science, mathematics, and technology education in both school and non-school settings, and
2. Providing strategies and resources for parents to support their children's science, mathematics, and technology education in the home and elsewhere.

Accomplishments:

• Powerful Parent Website: Development of the Powerful Parent website that provides resources for parents in the following categories:
  1. Mathematics, science, and technology courses and academic opportunities such as internships and summer programs,
  2. Testing resources,
  3. Research findings, and
  4. Career education.
  This website has resources organized regionally by MESA center, including Seattle, Tacoma, Spokane, and Yakima Valley Tri-Cities, and a Washington State category for general resources. The website location is http://www.washingtonmesa.org. The MESA centers use this website as a resource for parent workshops, career conferences, student celebrations, and partner recognition.

• Parent activities: Powerful Parents seeks to increase the involvement and support of parents along a continuum of interactions and involvement in MESA, educational organizations, and their students' career planning. This continuum of interactions and involvement includes the following parent behaviors and attitudes, which MESA is focused on fostering.
  MESA parents are being encouraged to:
  1. Increase their understanding of MESA and its activities (Being Informed)
  2. Increase their attendance at MESA activities (Being Seen)
  3. Increase their active participation in MESA activities (Being Heard)
  4. Increase their interaction in their child's education (Being Involved)
  5. Help their child plan educational and career choices (Being Supportive)
  6. Increase their social/community/school integration (Being Engaged)
  For each of these parent behaviors and attitudes, Powerful Parents is providing encouragement, opportunities, and support to parents. In partnership with parents, listening to their voices, MESA seeks to increase the success student's experience in pursuing academic and career goals in mathematics, engineering, and science.

Evaluation Findings:
The Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory evaluator's year one report summarizes the work this year as follows:

Focusing on the continuum of five parent behaviors and attitudes that MESA is focused on fostering in parents, the early evaluation findings present a good initial implementation, show evidence of increased planning, and presents some challenging barriers that need to be addressed to be inclusive of the parents of all MESA students. The MESA Centers have increased the circulation of information about MESA and related academic and career information to parents through the distribution of newsletters, parent workshops and classes, and through the continued celebrations of MESA students' successes. Getting information to parents about MESA and family support for students' academic and career planning and success. This is a first step toward encouraging parents to participate in MESA activities. There are some signs that parents are attending certain MESA activities more than in previous year, but the increase is uneven and not necessarily system-wide.

Increasing parent attendance and eventually their active participation requires increased opportunities for parents to be involved with MESA, their children's academic and career planning, and developing strong community networks to support families, as well as increased number of parents willing to invest time in attending and participating in MESA activities. Many signs of the development of additional opportunities for MESA parents and limited signs of increased parent participation are evident in the first months of implementation. In addition, the parent coordinators and the Center staff are developing plans for increased focus on parent participation and follow-up this next year. Overall, the MESA Powerful Parent program has been successful at building on the prior MESA Center parent activities, implementing a limited number of new activities, and in increasing communications with parents. The challenge for the next school year is to nurture the early signs of increased parent participation and reap the systematic benefits of increased parent support for MESA and MESA students seeking high academic and career goals in mathematics, engineering, and science.

Abstract:
With funding from University of Washington Tools for Transformation, the Center for Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) at the University of Washington has developed and implemented the Faculty & Graduate Mentoring Program. The goal was to pilot the program with 20 graduate students from the engineering disciplines. The purpose of this report is to describe the procedures, report the results on the effectiveness of the relationships, and to outline our future directions.

Introduction:
Early in 1999, WISE received a grant from Tools for Transformation to expand the Mentoring Program to include faculty mentoring graduate students. The goal was to pilot this program with 20 graduate students from the engineering disciplines. In response to a letter explaining the program, 26 engineering graduate students expressed interest in having a mentor. At this time 21 of these students have been matched.

Participation:
The Program participants represent nine different departments in the College of Engineering (Figure 1).

Fig. 1. Departmental distribution of students and faculty

Procedures:

Recruiting

The WISE Faculty Advisory Board, representing all of the College of Engineering departments, was contacted to help WISE identify prospective mentors. The faculty recommended by the board were then contacted via phone or email. Information about mentoring and the Program were provided to interested faculty. Thirteen faculty members initially responded to this initiative.

A letter was sent to female engineering graduate students, which explained the Program, provided information about mentoring, and invited them to become a mentee. Twenty-two female graduate students initially responded to the letter.

Matching

Those interested in becoming mentors and mentees submitted applications to WISE. Matches were made, using the information provided in the applications. Graduate students had the option of a mentor in their department or in another department. Also, mentees were given the opportunity to state their preferences with regard to the gender of their mentor.

When those preferences could not be accommodated, mentees were given the choice of being placed on a waiting list until a match was found or being matched with the first available faculty mentor. There are currently five students on our waiting list. Participants were notified of their match information via letter.

Training

To help the participants build a successful mentoring relationship, WISE provided mentoring training for both the faculty and the graduate students. The first session was held on April 6, 1999 and was led by Dr. Karan Watson, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Associate Dean of Engineering at Texas A&M University and Dr. Nancy Algert, a private consultant and trainer. Their discussion focused on defining the role of the mentor and understanding how vital communication skills are to the success of the mentoring relationship.

A second session was held on November 17, 1999, and was led by Dr. Ruth Johnston, Acting Associate Controller of Student Fiscal Services and Associate Treasurer of Quality Improvement at the University of Washington. This training session addressed mentoring basics, effective communication in mentoring relationships, and guidelines for a successful mentoring relationship.

Hosting Events

WISE hosts quarterly events for the participants of the Faculty & Graduate Mentoring Program. The main focus for Fall quarter 1999 was to adequately train participants to become effective mentors and mentees. Events were initially publicized via email. A mailed announcement and follow-up email were later sent.

Mentoring Training -- April 6, 1999, 5:30-7:30pm

South Campus Community Center, University of Washington campus
Trainers: Dr. Karan Watson, Dr. Nancy Algert
Description: Discussion focused on defining the role of the mentor and understanding how vital communication skills are to the success of the mentoring relationship.

Seattle Art Museum Tour -- November 4, 1999, 7:00pm

Seattle Art Museum, Downtown Seattle
Description: Mentors and mentees were invited to visit the Seattle Art Museum together. Informal networking was the primary objective of this event.

Mentoring Training and Dinner Night -- November 17th, 1999, 6:30-9:00pm

Husky Union Building (HUB), University of Washington campus
Trainer: Dr. Ruth Johnston
Description: Mentors and mentees were invited to attend this training, which addressed mentoring basics, effective communication in mentoring relationships, and offered guidelines and tips to reestablish or establish a successful relationship.

Evaluation:

Mentoring Training Workshop Evaluation
The training workshop held April 6, 1999 was evaluated one month later to assess the effectiveness of the training, as well as its strengths and weaknesses.

• Sixty-one percent of matched faculty and 64% of matched graduate students attended.
• Seventy percent of participants said that the presentation helped them understand future issues in the mentoring relationship, while 64% better understood strategies for handling mentoring issues.
• According to the respondents, the two most effective parts of the workshop were the speaker (94%) and groups, discussions, and activities (70%).
• Seventy-six percent felt that the content of the workshop would positively influence their mentoring relationships.
• The majority of participants were satisfied with the depth of the presentation, with 82% indicating that it was just right, and 12% indicating there could have been more depth.
• The strengths of the presentation were the discussion topics, conflict resolution information, speaker knowledge, visual aids, and the comfortable atmosphere.
• Suggested improvements include clearer examples, a shorter presentation, a less formal environment, and more active learning activities.

Mentoring Relationship Evaluation
At the end of the pilot period, all mentors and mentees were sent an evaluation questionnaire examining the effectiveness of their relationships. A cover letter was included explaining the purpose of the evaluation. The evaluation addressed such concerns as mentor/mentee activity, time commitment, and helpfulness of the program in general.

Mentor Result Summary:

• Forty-six percent of mentors indicated little or no activity in the program. Mentors cited lack of time availability and lack of mentee interest as possible causes.
• The most common forms of communication used in the mentoring relationships were face-to-face meeting and email, with face-to-face meeting being the more effective form.
• Ninety-two percent of mentoring relationships included gender, race, or generational differences.
• Sixty-one percent of mentors said this had no effect on their relationship, and 8% indicated a negative effect. None indicated a positive effect. (Twenty-three percent did not respond to the question, and 8% said they did not know).
• Thirty-eight percent of mentors said that the professional benefits of their mentoring relationships were good, very good, or excellent. Fifty-four percent of mentors said the same of the relationship's personal benefits.
• Generally, mentors felt that their communication lines were open, with only 8% reporting communication barriers.

Mentee Result Summary:

• Seventy-six percent of mentees indicated little or no activity in the program. Sixty-one percent of these felt that they were too busy to attend events or contact their mentors.
• As with the mentors, mentees cited face-to-face and email communication as the most common, with face-to-face being the more effective form.
• Mentees reported fairly equal discussion about academic issues such as choosing a thesis topic, writing a theses or grant proposal, and learning about related fields and disciplines. Mentors and mentees cited conducting research as the main topic of discussion related to career guidance. Traveling and balancing family and career were the topics most discussed having to do with professional and personal advice.
• Ninety-one percent of mentoring relationships included gender, race, or generational differences. Of these participants, 23% said this had a positive effect on their relationship, and 53% indicated no effect. None indicated a negative effect.
• Thirty-eight percent of mentees said that the academic benefits of their mentoring relationships were good, very good, or excellent. Forty-six percent of mentees said the same of the relationship's personal benefits.
• Mentees did not feel that communication lines were as open as did mentors, with 35% of mentees experiencing some sort of barrier. Excessive time and energy commitments played the largest role in creating this barrier.
• Mentors and mentees agreed that they would like to see WISE organize: (1) workshops and seminars regarding grant writing, finding and applying for research and teaching positions, and networking, (2) discussions about managing work and family life, and (3) lunch and dinner socials.

Discussion:
Mentoring training was reportedly an effective tool that provided information to participants about issues in the mentoring relationship and strategies for handling them. Unfortunately, only half of those involved in the program attended the first training session. Of these, just 7 of the 15 matched pairs attended the session together. In the future, WISE will focus its efforts on getting mentors and mentees to participate in training together.

It is also interesting to note the discrepancy between the perceived usefulness of mentoring training at the beginning and at the end of the pilot period. Later in the relationship, mentees and mentors seemed to have a less enthusiastic outlook on training, with those reporting a positive effect dropping from 70% (May 1999) to 57% at the end of the pilot period (October 1999). However, this is unreliable since those who did not attend the training answered the question about training.

This lowered morale likely stems from the lack of mentoring activity reported by participants at the end of the pilot period. Mentors indicated a significantly lower level of activity (76%) than that indicated by mentors (46%). Mentees also perceived more communication barriers than did mentors. These gaps seem to reflect significant differences in perceptions and expectations of time commitment and communication between mentors and mentees.

The main cause for this low activity, according to mentees, was lack of time. One graduate student remarked, "I think I'm truthfully too busy to participate…", while another said, "I've had very little contact. We sent a few emails, but I've been very busy." According to mentors, the main cause of low activity seems to be a lack of involvement or availability on the part of the mentees. One mentor said, "I don't think she needs a mentor", and another remarked, "My impression is that [mentee] isn't really interested in this." Other mentors indicated that their mentees were too busy, out of town, or otherwise unavailable.

Future Directions:
Participants expressed interest in attending future WISE events that focus on specific areas of professional, personal, and academic student development (Figure 2). In response, WISE is planning several events and activities that address this interest. The Faculty & Graduate Student Mentoring Program seems to be meeting a need on campus, however, there are still modifications that need to be made to the overall program.

Fig. 2. Activities and events of interest

To address the challenges of student involvement and continued participation, WISE is planning to conduct a series of small focus groups to examine possible incentives for participation in a mentoring program. Student participation in any program that is not required for graduation is a major challenge to most universities. We are fortunate to have involved and interested faculty who want to participate. Our challenge is to keep students from believing they are "too busy." The Center for Women in Science and Engineering plans to continue this program and will seek external funds when state funding is not available.