United States

&quot;**Introduction.** Mentoring has been demonstrated to increase science identity, retention and academic performance. Students that develop science identity and sense of belonging are more likely to persist in STEM areas. Mentoring can also provide psychosocial support by normalizing struggles and reinforcing identity in the field. Peer-mentoring is a form of mentorship that involves a more experienced student guiding a less experienced student through social, emotional and/or academic support. The benefits of peer-mentoring have been observed to help Latina/o students find role models, access emotional and academic support, and career help, thereby increasing integration into their university. Peer-mentoring has also been credited as one of the factors which lead to the success of Black undergraduate women students graduating with STEM degrees at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). For Latinas and Black in STEM, peer mentoring has been shown to support  student integration and persistence, and increase academic performance and degree achievement.&lt;br&gt;

**Goal of Research:** We conducted a 1-year pilot intervention that had the goal of providing female Latina and Black STEM undergraduates, usually underrepresented (URM) in STEM, with a social, professional and academic support structure by inviting them to join a peer-mentoring program. Here we present the findings &lt;br&gt;

**Methods.** First-year science students attending a 4-year public college were invited to join a peer-mentoring program. Peer-mentors were recruited from upper level cohorts, with junior and senior standing in cell and molecular biology, toxicology, and forensic science majors. A total of 20 first-year female students joined the program in September and 8 upper-level female students joined as mentors. All participants were Latinas and/or Black. Participants formed small groups of on average three first-year students that met with a mentor monthly during the semester. In these meetings that lasted between 30-60 minutes, the mentors and mentees shared ideas, resources, discussed strategies and shared concerns. The whole cohort met three times during the semester, and participated in seminars in which invited speakers shared their professional experience and the work they were currently doing. The invited speakers were also female scientists from underrepresented backgrounds in STEM. We assessed the student’s experiences using a 6-question survey at the end of each mentor-mentee meeting, that evaluated the implementation of the intervention and identified strengths and areas in need of improvement. The survey was voluntary and anonymous. The survey contained Likert-scale items and one opened-ended question. We use Leximancer software to conduct a thematic analysis and a relational (or semantic) analysis of the interview data. The software provides word frequency counts and co-occurrence counts of concepts present in participants&#39; responses. &lt;br&gt;

**Results.** A total of 28 students participated in this intervention, all of which are URM in STEM (either African American or Hispanic). In the fall semester only 14 students joined the program, but 6 additional students requested to participate in the spring semester for a total of 20 participants. We originally had 8 mentors, but only 7 mentors completed the program. Groups were formed in the fall, and mentor-mentee sets continue to work together through the school year. New participants joined groups that already existed. In the quantitative part of the survey students were asked about their experience at each meeting. 58% and 67% responded that they ‘strongly agree’ to the statements  “this was a productive session” and “I look forward to my next mentoring session”. The qualitative assessment of the mentees’ responses showed that  ‘careers’, ‘internships’ and ‘time’ were among the most frequent terms used in the responses. Compound concepts showed ‘careers &amp; goals’ and ‘internship &amp; study’ to have the highest prominence in the meeting category, followed by “time &amp; study’ and ‘helpful &amp; goals’. These highlight the areas of most concern to the students attending. The concept map showed a large component in which terms like ‘improved’, ‘mentor’, ‘discussed’, ‘needs’, ‘helpful’ and ‘opportunities’ were the most frequent. The analysis identified top strengths of the intervention including 1)The mentorship program is comprehensive, covering a wide range of topics from academics to personal development, 2) Mentors are approachable and friendly, fostering a comfortable environment for mentees, and 3) The program provides a platform for mentees to discuss their goals and aspirations. In addition, some concerns were also highlighted by the software including, 1) The program may not be able to accommodate all the topics and concerns that mentees want to discuss due to time constraints, 2) The program may not be able to provide sufficient guidance and support for mentees who join late or miss meetings, and 3) The program may not be able to maintain its quality and effectiveness if it becomes too flexible and unstructured. This initial analysis provides suggestions on how to implement peer-mentoring programs and which aspects to keep in mind during their organization.&lt;br&gt;

**Conclusions and Discussions.** Our intervention adds to current evidence supporting the need for programs that aid first-year students in facing challenges associated with the college transition. It particularly highlights the importance of these support structures for URM females in STEM majors. &lt;br&gt;

**Acknowledgments.** This research is funded by the Andrew Mellon Foundation in support of  the Black, Race, Ethnic Studies Initiative (BRESI) at the City University of New York (CUNY)&quot;

15th Conference on Understanding Interventions 2023 

Peer-mentoring intervention supports undergraduate Latinas and African-American students in STEM

"**Introduction.** Mentoring has been demonstrated to increase science identity, retention and academic performance. Students that develop science identity and sense of belonging are more likely to persist in STEM areas. Mentoring can also provide psychosocial support by normalizing struggles and reinforcing identity in the field. Peer-mentoring is a form of mentorship that involves a more experienced student guiding a less experienced student through social, emotional and/or academic support. The benefits of peer-mentoring have been observed to help Latina/o students find role models, access emotional and academic support, and career help, thereby increasing integration into their university. Peer-mentoring has also been credited as one of the factors which lead to the success of Black undergraduate women students graduating with STEM degrees at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). For Latinas and Black in STEM, peer mentoring has been shown to support  student integration and persistence, and increase academic performance and degree achievement. 

**Goal of Research:** We conducted a 1-year pilot intervention that had the goal of providing female Latina and Black STEM undergraduates, usually underrepresented (URM) in STEM, with a social, professional and academic support structure by inviting them to join a peer-mentoring program. Here we present the findings  

**Methods.** First-year science students attending a 4-year public college were invited to join a peer-mentoring program. Peer-mentors were recruited from upper level cohorts, with junior and senior standing in cell and molecular biology, toxicology, and forensic science majors. A total of 20 first-year female students joined the program in September and 8 upper-level female students joined as mentors. All participants were Latinas and/or Black. Participants formed small groups of on average three first-year students that met with a mentor monthly during the semester. In these meetings that lasted between 30-60 minutes, the mentors and mentees shared ideas, resources, discussed strategies and shared concerns. The whole cohort met three times during the semester, and participated in seminars in which invited speakers shared their professional experience and the work they were currently doing. The invited speakers were also female scientists from underrepresented backgrounds in STEM. We assessed the student’s experiences using a 6-question survey at the end of each mentor-mentee meeting, that evaluated the implementation of the intervention and identified strengths and areas in need of improvement. The survey was voluntary and anonymous. The survey contained Likert-scale items and one opened-ended question. We use Leximancer software to conduct a thematic analysis and a relational (or semantic) analysis of the interview data. The software provides word frequency counts and co-occurrence counts of concepts present in participants' responses.  

**Results.** A total of 28 students participated in this intervention, all of which are URM in STEM (either African American or Hispanic). In the fall semester only 14 students joined the program, but 6 additional students requested to participate in the spring semester for a total of 20 participants. We originally had 8 mentors, but only 7 mentors completed the program. Groups were formed in the fall, and mentor-mentee sets continue to work together through the school year. New participants joined groups that already existed. In the quantitative part of the survey students were asked about their experience at each meeting. 58% and 67% responded that they ‘strongly agree’ to the statements  “this was a productive session” and “I look forward to my next mentoring session”. The qualitative assessment of the mentees’ responses showed that  ‘careers’, ‘internships’ and ‘time’ were among the most frequent terms used in the responses. Compound concepts showed ‘careers & goals’ and ‘internship & study’ to have the highest prominence in the meeting category, followed by “time & study’ and ‘helpful & goals’. These highlight the areas of most concern to the students attending. The concept map showed a large component in which terms like ‘improved’, ‘mentor’, ‘discussed’, ‘needs’, ‘helpful’ and ‘opportunities’ were the most frequent. The analysis identified top strengths of the intervention including 1)The mentorship program is comprehensive, covering a wide range of topics from academics to personal development, 2) Mentors are approachable and friendly, fostering a comfortable environment for mentees, and 3) The program provides a platform for mentees to discuss their goals and aspirations. In addition, some concerns were also highlighted by the software including, 1) The program may not be able to accommodate all the topics and concerns that mentees want to discuss due to time constraints, 2) The program may not be able to provide sufficient guidance and support for mentees who join late or miss meetings, and 3) The program may not be able to maintain its quality and effectiveness if it becomes too flexible and unstructured. This initial analysis provides suggestions on how to implement peer-mentoring programs and which aspects to keep in mind during their organization. 

**Conclusions and Discussions.** Our intervention adds to current evidence supporting the need for programs that aid first-year students in facing challenges associated with the college transition. It particularly highlights the importance of these support structures for URM females in STEM majors.  

**Acknowledgments.** This research is funded by the Andrew Mellon Foundation in support of  the Black, Race, Ethnic Studies Initiative (BRESI) at the City University of New York (CUNY)"

technical paper

### Welcome to the 2023 Understanding Interventions/NSF CREST Annual Conference
Welcome to our annual conference, a gathering where the knowledge of our scientific communities share what they have researched since we last met. If it is your first time attending, then thank you for stepping into our world! If you are a returning guest, then thank you for coming back! Whether you are attending for the first or the fourteenth, we treasure your trust in what we have to offer. We promise to make it worth your while.

As in years past, we have put together an energetic collection of seminars, deeper dives, speeches, posters, and workshops to whet your appetite for learning. 

We are delighted that you have chosen to attend the 2023 Annual Understanding Interventions (UI) Conference, in partnership with the NSF Centers for Research Excellence in Science and Technology (CREST) Program. 

### About the Conference 
This conference was established to facilitate dissemination and exchange of hypothesis-based research on interventions and initiatives that broaden participation in science and engineering research careers. The conference is designed to create a dialogue among behavioral/social science and education researchers, evaluators, and faculty in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields who participate in intervention programs. Workshops, sessions, and posters will communicate effective strategies from successful STEM intervention programs, present results from empirical research studies, and synthesize the translation of research findings into practice on STEM learning, undergraduate research, graduate education, and student retention.

Thank you again, and welcome! 
**[Download Program Agenda](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rTKTrWC2DOqnIF06po5xo4buAL3mPTqZ/view?usp=sharing)**

This conference was established to facilitate dissemination and exchange of hypothesis-based research on interventions and initiatives that broaden participation in science and engineering research careers. The conference is designed to create a dialogue among behavioral/social science and education researchers, evaluators, and faculty in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields who participate in intervention programs.

Focus of the intervention

This project goal seeks to develop programs for increasing underrepresented students in higher education; namely in agriculture. The issue is that the agricultural industry struggles to fill positions with qualified agricultural workers. (Alston et al, 2020). As reported by the USDA, agricultural science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education has been described as the ""Leaky Pipeline,"" as fewer students remain in higher education. The supply of qualified food, agriculture, natural resources, and human (FANH) science professionals, especially those of underrepresented groups is lagging far behind the growing global demand. An employment outlook report released by USDA and Purdue University (2015) offered, ""while there is an average of 35,400 new U.S. graduates with a bachelor's degree or higher in agriculture-related fields, it remains 22,500 short of the jobs available annually"" (p.1). Since many underrepresented students decide not to major in the FANH sciences, we (faculty and administrators) are developing innovative programs to recruit, retain, mentor, and then graduate these students. This USDA-NIFA-funded project utilizes a collaborative approach with administrators and faculty from universities among 1890 Land Grant Universities (LGUs).



Study population

The population targets underrepresented first-generation students (secondary and postsecondary).

Contextual factors

To gain input from individuals representative of the 1890 LGUs, online surveys were used to collect their ideas for recruiting, retaining, mentoring, and graduating the students. The limitations of the project would be not being able to generalize the findings outside of the students not majoring at one of the LGU’s Colleges or Schools of Agriculture.



Outcomes of the intervention

August 2020-Current, the researcher along with partners of seven, 1890 LGUs continue to develop and offer programs such as Mentor Collective, which offers online mentor-mentee pairings between lowerclassmen and upperclassmen students. Due to COVID-19 pandemic challenges, virtual Career Fairs and tours have proven successful in exposing students to the various academic programs at the 1890 LGUs. As a result of the online surveys administered, the following preliminary findings were collected. Administrators (n=11) suggested offering Open Houses to recruit high school and community college students, use social media platforms (Twitter), distribute flyers, and engage students in undergraduate research with faculty researchers. Faculty (n=32) offered providing field experiences in academic and corporate research laboratories, offering internships, and student travel to conferences.



Relevance to the UI community

This project is of great relevance to the Understanding Interventions community because it allows the sharing of best practices for increasing the number of underrepresented students in the various sciences such as Food Science, Animal Science, Environmental Science, Agriscience, etc. Offering best practices to increase students in higher education is most relevant across all disciplines. For our study, we recognize that even though more minority students are enrolling in higher education, they continue to lag behind their non-minority peers. As it relates to the FANH sciences, Goecker, et al., (2015) reported “although the number of agricultural graduates has increased slightly in recent years, more qualified individuals are urgently needed because more than 39% of positions are filled by non-agriculture graduates”(p.1). To address this, our project continues to develop best practices to recruit and graduate students in higher education. Due to the various programs offered at the 1890 LGUs, the UI community is able to learn from and give input on what has and has not worked with increasing underrepresented students in all science disciplines

Addressing the Leaky Pipeline: Increasing Underrepresented Students in Higher Education (Agriculture)

**Introduction.** Mentoring is recognized as an essential factor contributing to career advancement and professional success as it increases the student's social capital. Mentoring students in college helps them feel more connected and engaged on campus, ultimately improving student outcomes. Individual-centered mentoring serves the individuals' aspiration, which is only met by developing a network of mentors that supports long-term career and professional goals. Research shows that the focus should be to seek mentoring from multiple mentors rather than one mentor. This study is conducted at Savannah State University, Tuskegee University, and Alabama State University. Our goal is to increase mentoring options available to diverse mentees by providing an online national mentoring and networking platform via virtual mentoring, online messaging, and group communication. With the ubiquity of online platforms like Facebook and Skype, most mentees and mentors are familiar with online communication tools. By utilizing the National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN) networking and mentoring platform, we can virtually connect mentors and mentees from across the nation 
**Methods.** Our intervention includes three levels of mentoring: High-Touch, Low-Touch, and a comparison group. The High-Touch group received synchronous faculty mentoring, peer mentoring, coaching, coaching groups, and the asynchronous mentoring opportunities provided on the NRMN platform. The Low-Touch received access to asynchronous mentoring on the NRMN, which includes mentoring from faculty and peers, special interest groups, the ability to form a particular interest group and invite others to join, and a course on Unconscious Bias. The comparison group had access to the traditional resources available to all students at their respective institutions. The dependent variables are the engagement and success of the participants immediately post-intervention and throughout their college careers. 
**Results.** Data presented are from Cohorts 1 and 2 (2019-2021). Participants were 98% African American, 71% female, and 26% first-generation college students. All participants were first-semester freshmen majoring in STEM fields/behavioral sciences. During the first year of the project, the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the mentoring activities provided by the project. As a result, all participants assigned to the High-Touch group were reassigned to the Low-Touch group. Questions regarding student needs resulting from the pandemic were added to the post-survey. 
**Conclusion and Discussion.** The engagement was measured by the number of activities completed in each category on the NRMN platform. Regular interaction within social networks enables information exchange and knowledge sharing crucial to career and professional growth, and social network engagement is essential in increasing social capital. Both the High-Touch and Low-Touch groups had access to the NRMN platform. group. The activities included course completion of the Unconscious Bias course, mentor/mentee connections, peer connections, interest groups joined, comments posted on the platform, and connections requested from mentors and peers.br> 
**Acknowledgment.** This study is supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health UO1GM132769.

Impact of Freshman Mentoring Intervention on Student Success and science identity

**Introduction:** Northeastern Illinois University (NEIU), a public university in Chicago, serves 6,000 diverse students and is one of two, public Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI) in the Midwest. NEIU is one of only two Non-Tier 1 institutions to receive the NIH MARC (Maximizing Access to Research Careers) grant—a training grant that prepares undergraduates for PhD programs. Our undergraduates reflect a nontraditional population with the greatest challenge in entering the STEM and Biomedical career pipelines; minority, marginalized, first generation and low-income college students (Chen, 2013). Minorities can’t see themselves as having the necessary aptitude for success in math and science, preventing them from considering biomedical careers (Oppland-Cordell, et al 2012).
 Four barriers exist for non-traditional students pursuing PhD programs in biomedically relevant fields: (1) Academic. Non-traditional students that are first generation lack foundational academic preparedness for college, particularly in advanced science and math courses necessary for PhD programs, (2) Professional Exposure. Non-traditional students lack knowledge about the options for graduate study and connections with those who are in academic careers. (3) Financial. Low-income students have to work to pay for increased tuition costs thus their academic obligations suffer and there is little time to work in research laboratories. (4) Emotional. Nontraditional students have many issues navigating work, family, financial needs and school obligations within a culture that doesn’t resemble the culture of their family and friends (Hurtado & Ruiz Alvarado, 2015).
 
**Method:** To address these four barriers, the NEIU MARC program implemented interventions that focus on socio-emotional dimensions; creating learning contexts that reduce anxiety or negative affect (Raker et al, 2019), building skills, and teaching concepts with specialized tools (e.g., virtual models). Our program was designed to reduce anxiety, increase self-efficacy and empower our trainees to confidently conduct research using: (1) A specialized curriculum with a quantitative emphasis; requiring each trainee to minor in statistical modeling while taking research intensive classes designed by the program directors. The classes focus on developing competency in research skills, writing and oral communication using hands-on activities and specialized visuo-spatial tools (DeSutter & Stieff (2020). Each scholar submits the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship application and a research thesis in their second year of training. (2) Intense Research Experience for our trainees for 15 hours/week during the academic year which also required multiple research presentations at conferences such as Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRMCS). We had trainees interact with established scientists who came to campus to present their research. (3) Tuition waivers and stipends were provided to enable trainees to focus fully on their school work and research. (4) Intensive mentoring by the program directors and faculty advisors. Attendance and program activities were recorded and an external evaluator conducted qualitative and quantitative analyses based on surveys and focus groups. 
 
**Results:** All of our 23 trainees graduated with a Bachelor’s degree while 80% enrolled in PhD programs (e.g., Harvard University, University of Washington in Seattle, Northwestern University) and our first cohort is about to complete their doctoral degrees. 
**Implications:** Key factors have been suggested in the literature as essential for optimal learning and are associated with success of our trainees: 1) creating a close-knit community of support where trainees felt they were cared about and respected, 2) intensive advising and 3) immersive hands-on research experience in which a project was fully defined, completed and disseminated.
 
**Acknowledgments:** Funding Sources NIH/NIGMS T34 GM105549 PIs Church, Stojković, Hibdon Grant Title: NU-STARS for Northeastern Illinois Student Training in Academic Research in the Sciences.

NIH MARC NU - STAR program: Preparing non-traditional students from an urban open-access school for biomedically relevant PhD programs: One size does NOT fit all

Second Year Assessment of Perceptions of Institutional Inclusivity among Building Up Participants - Poster

STEM Analysis of Instruction In-Person and Remote (STEM-AIIR) - Poster

**Introduction:** The well-being of academics at universities, including students, staff, and faculty is a topic of increasing concern. The lack of well-being may be attributed to the current academic context which does not consistently provide cues that affirm social inclusion to all members of the academic population (Estrada et al., 2018). The lack of cues that affirm the dignity of others has consequences and undermines a basic need that people are more likely to survive and experience well-being when feeling socially connected (Baumeister & Leary, 1995; Dunbar & Barrett, 2007). Further, literature shows that social connection can reduce experiences of stress in pressured environments such as academia (Holt-Lunstad et al., 2015; USPHS, 2023; Valtorta et al., 2016). This study examines the role of kindness (defined as actions that affirm dignity and social inclusion) in promoting connectivity and well-being among academics. 
**Methods:** The Social Influence of Kindness Study was conducted through a one-time anonymous 10-minute online survey via Qualtrics. Participants were recruited using the snowball method via email and social media based on interest in taking a 10-minute survey about Kindness and Dignity during Spring 2020. For this study, 182 participants were selected for analysis based on their occupation designation of studying or working within an academic institution. Each survey included a written reflective micro-narrative in response to the prompt "recall an experience of kindness" and consisted of measures of Kindness Given, Kindness Received, Institutional Identity, Stress, and Well-Being. 
**Results:** We found engaging in acts of kindness, as measured by two novel psychometric rating scales Kindness Received (alpha=.927) and Kindness Given (alpha=.859), was significantly associated with increased institutional identity, well-being, and reduced stress. Our structural equation model (SEM) further validated the correlation results with receiving kindness. Interestingly through the SEM we found conducting acts of kindness had a significant negative relationship with institutional identity and reduced stress. Qualitative analysis of micronarratives on kindness showed that feeling safe and being acknowledged are the most common ways people describe experiencing kindness, an affirmation of their dignity. 
**Conclusions and Discussion:** This study shows that receiving kindness among academics has the potential to improve institutional identity, well-being, and reduce stress. Further, the results show that receiving kindness and giving kindness can be reliably measured amongst students and faculty in academia. We provide evidence that reflecting on experiences of kindness promotes positivity, with the potential to encourage people to conduct further acts of kindness. Together these findings provide knowledge that can inform workshops and interventions to improve social connection and inclusion amongst diverse academics. This study contributes to broader research highlighting positive contextual factors that promote the persistence of diverse students and faculty in academia. 
**Acknowledgments:** The project was funded by NIH grant #R01GM138700

The Influence of Kindness on Academic Well-Being - Poster

Biomass is an organic material that normally comes from plants or animals. The discovery of converting biomass wastes into graphene is a successful route for recovering sources because it is sustainable, renewable, and abundant. For both basic research and practical applications, finding a novel way to produce graphene with a high yield and excellent crystalline structure is critical. For this research, waste disposable paper-cups will be used for the formation of graphene sheets by using KOH activation while using FeCl3 as a catalyst. The chemical activation of carbon-rich materials using KOH as the activating agent is a ground-breaking technique because of its lower activation temperature and higher yield [1]. Also, the obtained graphene will have a well-defined micropore size distribution and extremely high surface area. The graphene nanostructure can be used as a filler for thermoplastic polymers since it provides polymers of several functional characteristics, which are not accessible by using other types of fillers. For this research, the extracted graphene nanoparticles will be used as a filler in polypropylene to enhance its morphological, mechanical, and thermal properties. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) tests will be used to determine the thermal properties of the graphene reinforced polymer composites. Also, X-ray diffraction (XRD), FTIR, SEM, TEM, and tensile tests will be used to determine the mechanical, microscopic, and morphological property.es of GRPC. The results obtained from this research indicates that high yield and high-quality graphene materials can be synthesized by using biomass resources rather than conventional methods and can be used as a filler in polymers that could improve the mechanical and thermal performance when dispersed uniformly.

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