Abstract

The Goldberg Gator Engineering Explorers (GGEE) Summer Program is an informal STEM education program that offers free summer camps for K-12 students from under-resourced communities. Camps are held in the K-12 student’s local school district and emphasize skills development in computational thinking, engineering design, technology, and systems thinking through hands-on, collaborative, student-driven projects. Camp sessions are co-facilitated by local K-12 teachers and undergraduate student mentors from the University of Florida. The GGEE program prioritized the hiring of undergraduate student mentors who were from the school districts hosting the camps.

In this exploratory mixed methods study, undergraduate student mentor perceptions of near-peer mentorship are used to assess the GGEE program’s impact on participant STEM identity and explore the personal benefits of participation. This paper reports on the following research questions: 1) How does serving as near-peer mentors to K-12 student mentees in an educational STEM summer program impact undergraduate students’ STEM identity? 2) What did undergraduate student mentors feel that they got out of the experience? 3) What were undergraduate students’ perceptions of mentorship in the program? Data was collected in the form of online pre- and post-surveys and virtual one-on-one exit interviews. Quantitative data underwent descriptive analysis, and qualitative data underwent thematic analysis. Results show that participants’ STEM identity increased by the end of the camp and that participants gained several benefits including improved professional skills, improved technical skills, and determination to persist in STEM. Providing near-peer mentoring experiences for undergraduate students, therefore, may serve to improve their mental concept of being an engineer, potentially increasing the likelihood of degree completion.

Keywords: near-peer mentorship, STEM identity, under-resourced communities, undergraduate students, K-12 students, workforce development, informal learning environments

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This paper was presented at the 2025 ASEE Annual Conference in Montreal, Canada.

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Recommended citation: Fernandez, K., Chisholm, K. D., & Ruzycki, N. (2025, June), Cultivating Future Engineers through Mentoring Experiences: Undergraduate Student Perceptions of Mentorship in an Educational STEM K-12 Summer Program. Research presented at the 2025 ASEE Annual Conference in Montreal, Canada.
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