Regional Conference on Servingness for Hispanic-Serving Institutions in Southern California

Cal Poly Pomona Foundation, Inc., Pomona CA

Investigators

Abstract

With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI) Program, this one-day conference looks to bring together HSIs from Southern California to discuss promising practices intended to improve student outcomes. HSIs are key drivers of social mobility for Hispanic and Latinx students, and the Southern California region houses over 85 2- and 4-year HSIs that have implemented, studied, and refine many practices that have resulted in improved student engagement and outcomes. While the number of Hispanic/Latinx students pursuing undergraduate degrees continues to grow, graduation rates in this population remains lower than in many of their peer groups. This conference will allow participants to share successes and lessons learned and to explore opportunities to implement new ideas or engage in regional collaboration with the goal of promoting equity for Hispanic/Latinx students. The conference will include four main activities: a plenary lecture, a panel discussion with HSI leaders, a poster session, and themed breakouts focused on areas of interest and need. The regional focus of this workshop provides an opportunity for participating institutions to use their geographic proximity as a launching point effort to strengthen student outcomes. Building from Garcia's notion of institutional servingness at HSIs, the driving questions for this conference are as follows. What is servingness in the context of the HSIs in Southern California? What are indicators of servingness in the context of Southern California? And how are different institutions in the region addressing servingness? Promising practices will be compiled into a database that will be widely disseminated, and the conference will conduct an evaluation using pre- and post-conference surveys that will explore practices shared and collaborations arising from the gathering. A database of practices will be compiled and shared broadly to benefit HSIs within the region and nationwide. The HSI Program aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education, broaden participation in STEM, and build capacity at HSIs. 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.