Poster Q20 - School of Biomedical Engineering Mentor Program- Colorado State University

Introduction: Our goal is to create a volunteer peer mentor program where more senior students will be tasked with looking out for the academic and personal wellbeing of younger students to boost retention amongst undergraduate biomedical engineers. For the volunteers, they will gain valuable advising, leadership, and collaboration skills by building rapport and offering guidance to their peers. For the mentees, a mentor program that enables younger students to observe the career development of older students, who intern in various Biomedical Engineering fields, can help them learn about diverse opportunities and inspire confidence in their future professional aspirations. Lastly, all participants in the program will benefit from an enhanced support network on campus and improved interpersonal skills that are transferrable to other areas.

Materials and

Methods: The program will consist of 3 parts: training, structured gatherings, and informal mentorship. Starting off, we will train volunteer mentors from the 2nd to 5th year cohorts before the fall semester begins. This training will cover the expectations of mentors and the weekly commitment required to ensure each mentee receives adequate support. From there, at the start of the Fall semester, CSU BMES will host their first annual BMES BBQ, bringing together students, advisors, and professors to foster initial connections. After having that initial connection point, CSU BMES will organize a Mental Health Awareness Clinic to discuss the challenges of being an engineering student and the resources available for support. During this clinic, CSU BMES will introduce the BMES Mentor Program and invite students to participate in a brief mentor or mentee survey. The survey, which will be anonymous and confidential, will collect information on major, hometown, hobbies, program expectations, and more personal topics such as mental health, learning disabilities, and concerns about being an engineering student. The purpose of this survey is to facilitate appropriate mentor-mentee pairings and, from there, aid in the pairing of mentors to mentees based on interests, salient identities, and passions in biomedical engineering. Additionally, the program will encourage regular involvement in BMES activities for professional development, thereby contributing to increased membership and engagement.

Results, Conclusions, and Discussions: Based on the historical statistic that only 2/3 of Biomedical Engineering (BME) students continue to their 2nd Fall semester in CSU’s 5 year, dual-degree BME program, and even fewer persist to graduation, creating a sense of community and belonging in biomedical engineering is valuable. Knowing these statistics and the role that undergraduate students can play in helping retention initiatives, BME dual degree peer mentor program can cultivate a strong community and encourage mutual support among students in their academic, personal, and professional development. However, with minimal faculty availability to aid in this idea, we turned to using the resources that we have as students to empower our peers to persist in this rigorous program, peer mentorship. Through creating a BMES Mentor Program, our goal is to encourage students from the first through fifth years to support each other in navigating college and career transitions would lay a solid community foundation. A lack of social connection during a critical transition period can lead to emotional stress (Schlossberg, 1981 ). Mental health and stress are well-documented as a leading cause of students dropping out of college (Ketchen Lipson et al., 2019 ). However, sense of belonging has been documented as a significant factor in increasing retention amongst undergraduate students, even beyond academic performance (Davis et al., 2019 ). The program aims to emphasize students’ sense of belonging, thus increasing retention of BME dual degree students, enhancing student support during college transitions, and improving knowledge of professional opportunities. Mentors will also gain leadership experience, and BMES membership and engagement will increase, contributing to a stronger BME community and program identity . Lastly, the importance of a BMES community cannot be understated. A community where students can learn, grow, and excel, under fellow BMES students will be valuable in the future.

Acknowledgements (Optional): Samuel Bechara- Department of Mechanical Engineering
Chase Jackson- Academic Advisor- School of Biomedical Engineering