BPC-DP: Inclusive longitudinal peer mentoring for community building and retention

University Of California-San Diego, La Jolla CA

Investigators

Abstract

To support their scale, many large computing programs incorporate extensive peer tutoring components. As peer tutors, undergraduate students serve as course staff and play a significant role in department culture. A new model for peer mentoring is being designed to increase the sense of belonging and inclusion broadly among students, and especially among women, Black, and Latinx students – identities underrepresented in computing. The new model is centered around cohorts of students formed based on their identities and interests. The cohorts are led by students in a new lead peer mentor position, providing contextualized and longitudinal support to the students in their cohort. A primary metric in this project is retention of students within the major, particularly for students from groups that historically left Computer Science programs at disproportionately high rates. The program design is repeatable at other institutions that have similar goals of broadening participation in computing and related fields. Several strands of research support this intervention, situated in research suggesting that near peer role models may increase retention and sense of belonging particularly among underrepresented groups. First, data are gathered about the ways in which students interact with current tutoring programs, disaggregated by student identities, with the goal of understanding what positive and negative impacts this has on retention. Second, focus groups are conducted with students further along in the program to learn more about successful strategies for the program and how students' sense of community and belonging are developed. These investigations shape the design of identity-based cohorts and longitudinal mentoring. Mentored cohorts persist across the entirety of the first year experience, and second-year data informs understanding of impacts on retention and on sense of community and inclusion. 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.