More than Academics: The Transformative Effect of an Identity-Based Peer Mentor Program for Asian American STEM Students

Abstract

We talked about issues like family expectations, being a second-class citizen, stereotypes, and the model minority myth. These are topics that wouldn’t be talked about if you’re just in some academic [program]. I was a biochemistry major so maybe if it was just science mentoring, that wouldn’t help my personal development because we would talk about science. I think that being part of a program that is based on your identity is something that makes this program so amazing because you’re able to navigate not just your academic but your personal lives. It’s not just can you get through UIC? It’s how can we help you as a person, as an Asian American or Pacific Islander. I think that was the biggest benefit of AAMP overall.

—Rohan, Indian American biochemistry/pre-med major

The above quote is from a former peer mentor in the Asian American Mentor Program (AAMP) at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), which has been a designated Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution (AANAPISI) since 2010. AAMP is an Asian American, identity-based peer mentor program designed to provide academic and personal support as well as a sense of belonging to assist students in adjusting to college. We recently interviewed former AAMP Mentors to understand their experiences in the program and discovered interconnected gains in communication skills, identity development, and sense of community. Mentors took away just as much as they gave to the program in terms of valuable learning and development. However, within these responses we found something unexpected: a particularly transformative effect for STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) students.

While AAMP is not STEM-focused, because of the composition of the UIC student body, many of the mentors are STEM majors. These mentors were very clear in articulating how their AAMP involvement was important to their personal and academic growth in very different ways from their STEM education, particularly around Asian American issues and identity. This is particularly important in STEM environments, which often either (a) pay little attention to race and identity issues, particularly for Asian Americans, or (b) can be a challenging environment for students of color. In fact, both Miner et al. (2017) as well as Rainey et al. (2018) found that Asian American students, along with other students of color, reported a hostile environment or lacked a sense of belonging that affected their overall well-being and self-efficacy, even causing some of them to leave the STEM field.

Thus, the stories of AAMP STEM mentors are important in adding complexity to how we think about the intersections of identity-based support programs and STEM education to meet Asian American students’ unique needs. What can we learn from these students’ experiences? How can we provide similar opportunities to help students benefit from different kinds of learning outside their STEM education? What role can AANAPISIs play in supporting Asian American STEM students?

UIC’s Asian American Mentor Program

The setting for this program is the UIC, a large, urban, Research I institution. A high percentage of the student body comes from the Chicago metropolitan area, and most students commute with less than 20 percent of undergraduates living on campus. UIC has been recognized as one of the most racially diverse institutions in the country and is designated both an AANAPISI and a Hispanic-Serving Institution. For at least 20 years, Asian Americans have made up approximately 25 percent of the undergraduate population. Many students are children of immigrants, the first in their family to attend college, and/or low-income. As a result, UIC students are often pragmatic and economically motivated, partially contributing to the high number of STEM students (biology, chemistry, computer science, and engineering in particular; many are also pre-health sciences).

The AAMP was developed in 2006 to help incoming Asian American students adjust to college life, largely in response to a needs assessment which found two thirds of Asian American students did not have a role model or mentor on campus. While designed to provide academic and social support, the program is campus-wide and does not target any particular major. AANAPISI funding received in 2015 helped bolster the program, adding a credit-bearing, curricular component as well as more intensive training for peer mentors. Becoming a mentor is a selective process and the position is unpaid. Unlike many mentor programs which are one-on-one, mentors are paired and together are responsible for a small group of new students during the fall semester. Mentors host both academic-focused and social events, and facilitate weekly class sessions covering “freshman 101” type of topics. Content both inside and outside the classroom has an explicit focus on Asian American issues including racial identity, family expectations, racism, and the model minority myth, raising a critical consciousness among students who might otherwise not be exposed to these issues.

This identity-conscious program is unfortunately rather unique on college campuses, given that Asian American students are largely overlooked as a population with unique developmental needs, as Dina Maramba and Corinne Kodama point out in New Directions for Student Services (Maramba & Kodama, 2018). Maramba and Kodama highlight the importance of culturally relevant interventions to address Asian American students’ issues related to identity, academic, career, and leadership development. Many of their suggestions include an explicit focus on cultural and racial identity, as well as the importance of role models, both of which AAMP provides.

Anecdotally over the years it seemed that the mentors themselves were getting just as much out of the program as mentees, so we embarked on a qualitative study to understand these students’ perspectives. We found that STEM students often pointed out ways in which their involvement as a peer mentor in AAMP either complemented or contrasted from their STEM experience, even though we did not actually ask any STEM-related questions. These students’ perspectives provided insight into the unique benefits that an identity-based, non-STEM, peer mentor program may provide for Asian American STEM students in ways we had not previously considered.

Cultivating a Sense of Belonging

One of the most common themes we heard from students was the benefit of becoming part of a tight-knit community of fellow Asian Americans, often described as a second home or “family.” STEM students noted how this connection with each other as Asian Americans was significant, as they developed strong bonds that established a sense of belonging: As Stephanie, a Filipina American electrical engineering student described, “[My college years] were really formative and I think it’s important to have mentorship in general, but to have one within a community that you identify with, I think, is also really important.”

The close relationships developed within the AAMP community, combined with education on Asian American issues, validated students’ experiences as Asian Americans and empowered them to better understand and challenge racial stereotyping and cultural expectations. For example, Adithyan, an Indian American engineering student, realized that “[Being involved in AAMP] took away the idea that I needed to do a certain thing because I’m Asian.”

As a result of mentoring other students within an Asian American context, STEM students also developed an interest in giving back to the Asian American community. Kevin was a Chinese American, pre-med student took many STEM classes and spoke to how AAMP influenced his subsequent engagement with Asian American organizations:

In medical school I was president of our Asian American Pacific American Medical Student Association, but it was facilitating AAMP sessions that gave me a solid foundation and made me feel confident in getting involved in more leadership opportunities.

Rohan also said,

Getting to know my Asian American identity and trying to stay in touch with my Asian roots has informed my desire to volunteer in medical school. I think that being in AAMP showed me there is a need for us, the people who understand our struggles, to be able to help navigate others within our community.

Students also contrasted their experiences in the AAMP community to other mentoring and community organization experiences. Sana, a Pakistani civil engineering major, found differences in a sense of belonging between her involvement with a STEM peer mentor program compared to her experience with AAMP:

I went through an engineering mentor program, and it was very different [compared to AAMP]. I thought because that [other students] were going through the same engineering program with similar experiences, I thought that I would be able to form a connection with someone, but it really varied. Sometimes it clicked, sometimes it wasn’t a connection that seemed sustainable or something you could really rely on.

Thus, the identity-based focus of AAMP created a deeper and more meaningful sense of belonging that not only provided social support but also validated students’ experiences as Asian Americans and helped them explore their cultural identity.

Providing an Alternative to STEM Education

In reflecting on being an AAMP Mentor, STEM majors were very clear on how it was very different from their academic and classroom experiences in a way that students from other majors did not describe. STEM majors clearly articulated how the skills and perspectives they developed through AAMP would not have happened through their regular academic experiences. Thomas, a multiracial Chinese and White math and chemistry major, described gains in communication and interpersonal skills as an example: “For math and chemistry you don’t get a lot of presentation experience. You do a lot of work, but you don’t really talk to people, so learning presentation and people skills is really important.”

Celeste, a Filipina-Guatamalan biological sciences and pre-pharmacy major, described how learning to be sensitive to and helping others was important to her personal development:

I think being able to look at society and new students and how they fit into it, helping them empower themselves to figure out how to grow better. Being able to build a space where all these students who may not necessarily be friends and yet they feel safe and respected enough to speak about certain things. I felt that was really wonderful.

The frequent engagement with others required of Peer Mentors was important not just because of the interpersonal skill development but also the content of those conversations, as Sana highlighted as different from her STEM experiences:

The things we discussed in AAMP are the social issues or experiences on campus that students go through, specifically first years, through an Asian American lens. Discussing those things in more depth with other people helped me evaluate things in my very fact focused classes. I was able to think and discuss those things when I see them within the College of Engineering.

Similarly, Thomas said,

You’d go to your chemistry or mathematics classes and there’s a lot of Asian American students…you’d be talking your friends in your study group and things about perfectionism would come up, and how they studied a lot would come up. The things we would talk about in AAMP were directly rearing their head in my academic world with other students.

So, while STEM students felt like being in AAMP was a very separate experience from their academic life, they began to see connections across Asian American student experiences regardless of major or college. They saw the relevance of their learning from AAMP in their STEM classrooms in addressing academic, personal, and cultural issues relevant to Asian Americans but lamented that their classmates did not have access to the same opportunities to address those challenges.

They saw the relevance of their learning from AAMP in their STEM classrooms in addressing academic, personal, and cultural issues relevant to Asian Americans but lamented that their classmates did not have access to the same opportunities to address those challenges.

Broadening Horizons about College, Career, and Community

Serving as a peer mentor also helped STEM students to think critically about the purpose of college as more than just degree attainment. Several students remarked how important it was to meet others, learn about Asian American issues, and develop skills that were not part of their everyday STEM world for perspective it gave them on college and life. Stephanie said,

My parents were very like “You have to put school first and your studies first.” I think particularly because I was a STEM major, and did engineering, but a lot of engineering students don’t have the best soft skills, in terms of just speaking to people or being mindful around different kinds of people. It made me realize that my experience in college isn’t just studying.

This expanding perspective on college also extended to thoughts on their future as an Asian American going into a STEM career as Adithyan noted:

I think if I wasn’t in AAMP, I would have been content with just going into engineering and getting a job somewhere and kind of living that out. During my last year I realized I needed to make an impact. I wanted to be involved in supporting Asian American kids, and that changed career-wise for me. I’m still figuring out how I can make that impact, but I don’t think I would have come to that conclusion if it wasn’t for AAMP.

This newfound view of the value of a college education may be particularly important for students who are first in their family to attend college (or at least the first to attend a U.S. university), and come into college with very pragmatic goals. Their experience with AAMP provided a different lens through which to view their college experience, and motivated them to continue to use their Peer Mentor skills post-college, particularly if they could integrate their interest in Asian American issues with their burgeoning STEM career. Sana said,

There aren’t many opportunities in the engineering field that I want to go into that deals with any sort of ethnic or cultural focus. I think with the fact that engineering is becoming more diverse, I hope to be able to be in a work space that I could put this into use. Maybe a mentor program or something to continue the discussion with other people. I really hope so because civil engineering is a very white dominant, male dominated field.

Their experience with AAMP provided a different lens through which to view their college experience, and motivated them to continue to use their Peer Mentor skills post-college, particularly if they could integrate their interest in Asian American issues with their burgeoning STEM career.

Lessons from Our Students

The experiences shared by Asian American peer mentors who were STEM majors challenge traditional ways of thinking about mentor programs, identity-based engagement and STEM education. While students initially viewed these as three different types of collegiate experiences, the Asian American STEM students we spoke with were able to make important connections between them, apply their learning from one program to another, and thus develop more holistically. These students’ narratives have important lessons for changing how we think about what Asian American STEM students might need in order to fully realize their potential, not just as a future STEM professional but as an individual finding their place and influence in the world. As Rohan put it, “Even now I’m still learning about my whole identity as a professional now, but [my growth in] cultural and personal identity I attribute that to AAMP.”

Lesson 1

Peer mentors can also benefit tremendously from participation in peer mentoring programs. Most of the attention to mentor programs typically focuses on outcomes for new students in terms of adjusting to college or academic success. However, we rarely take the time to consider how mentors are benefitting, albeit differently. For example, Adithyan shared that

being a mentor was the most important thing I’ve done in UIC. It gave me so much. It made me into the person I am today. I think that the value in this kind of program is there, and if more people could take advantage of it, I think we’d be better off as a community.

The perspectives shared here are also a good reminder that mentors do not necessarily have to be education and/or social science majors to be successful which is often a bias in recruiting for mentorship positions given desired skills and orientations. However, STEM majors who served as peer mentors were not only successful in helping new students, but credited AAMP with motivation in continuing to serve others post-college. This outcome is similar to that found by the first author and Rhonda Laylo in New Directions for Student Leadership, where students engaged with identity-based student organizations formed a very tight knit sense of community that led to continued engagement with each other and their communities’ issues (Kodama & Laylo, 2017). Given the benefits these peer mentors described, how can educators attend to more experienced students and create meaningful leadership experiences that can facilitate another level of learning and development?

Lesson 2

Identity-based programs are important for Asian Americans. While we are not the first to say this, it bears repeating that Asian American college students are affected by race even if they do not realize it at first. Once exposed to (and comfortable with language about) racial identity, racism, and related cultural issues, Asian American peer mentors were able to identify relevant examples within their STEM education that made them think more critically about their identity and future career and responsibilities to the Asian American community.

This is particularly important in the STEM community, given that most identity-based STEM programs do not focus on Asian Americans due to their enrollment numbers and the lack of awareness that this population has unique needs. However, STEM students in our study clearly indicated how learning more about their racial identity, developing community with other Asian Americans, and learning about Asian American issues was important for their personal and professional development. Kevin realized this through his peer mentoring experience:

I think it’s just really important to focus on the nuances of our experience because even though Asian Americans might not be the face of discrimination across media that you see today or just because you’re not a vocal minority, doesn’t make your issues less important.

However, STEM students in our study clearly indicated how learning more about their racial identity, developing community with other Asian Americans, and learning about Asian American issues was important for their personal and professional development.

This ability to think critically about their identity may help Asian American STEM students negotiate some of the racism and stereotyping they experience as described by Ebony McGee, Bhoomi Thakore, and Sandra LaBlance in the Journal of Diversity in Higher Education. McGee and colleagues found that Asian American STEM students were racially stereotyped and pigeonholed into majoring in STEM due to perceptions that they were only good at math and science. McGee and colleagues concluded in their study that STEM programs “should not simply accept the normalization of successful Asian STEM students without robust understanding of the stereotypes they endure” (McGee et al., 2017, p. 253).

In addition, McGee and colleagues called for programming that addresses the lived experiences of Asian American STEM students, such as coping with racial microaggressions. An identity-based peer mentor program like AAMP may provide a space where students can do this. Given these reminders, how can AANAPISI programs help institutions (and STEM programs in particular) look beyond numbers and implement programs to address the race- and identity-based challenges Asian American students face during their college years?

Lesson 3

STEM students need non-STEM-centered experiences. STEM students in our study pointed out the value of AAMP not being connected to their regular academic pursuits, which helped them meet different people, develop new skills and perspectives, and learn about issues not discussed in STEM curriculum. They often wanted to continue to do more of this but could not fit it in their schedule, as Thomas told us,

They did start offering the Asian American studies classes, which I really wanted to take, but I couldn’t because my schedule was really restrictive. I wasn’t getting any of this experience in my traditional academic classes, but it was obvious that it was really important.

The often heavy and tightly structured curriculum is one of the challenges in facilitating STEM students’ experiences outside their major discipline. Students noted the value in getting to know others from different majors who had different perspectives on college and careers, as well as race and identity.

This is not to say that a focus on academics, STEM-centered activities, and organizations is not important. However, the STEM students we interviewed were already academically successful given their selection as a peer mentor, and yet their experiences with AAMP helped them realize that something was missing in their STEM education, even if they did not know it was something they wanted or needed. Once engaged in a peer mentor role with Asian American peers, they found a meaningful and tight-knit community outside of their everyday STEM experiences that provided a transformative learning experience that added great value to their education and personal development. This may be important given that Dawn Johnson (2012) reported in the Journal of College Student Development that STEM-based support programs were actually negative influences on the sense of belonging for STEM women of color. Katherine Rainey and colleagues, in the International Journal of STEM Education, also found that Asian Americans were the racial group which had the lowest sense of belonging among STEM students despite being well-represented numerically. Thus, perhaps this sense of belonging that is lacking in the STEM community for Asian Americans can be found somewhere else on campus, as our students found in AAMP? This sense of belonging with other Asian Americans may be particularly meaningful in that it also helps STEM students to better contextualize, understand, and navigate racialized experiences in their academic environment.

This sense of belonging with other Asian Americans may be particularly meaningful in that it also helps STEM students to better contextualize, understand, and navigate racialized experiences in their academic environment.

Peer mentors who were STEM majors, through the AAMP curriculum as well as interactions with others, developed the “soft skills” that David Deming (2019), in The New York Times, reported are key to long-term career success for both STEM and liberal arts majors. Deming warned against college curriculums becoming too technical and career focused and instead emphasized the need to develop the whole person, which our STEM students echoed. Given this, and the emphasis on internships and preprofessional organizations (and perhaps also parental pressures to only focus on academics), how do we create space for Asian American STEM students to engage in AAMP-like activities outside of the STEM environment? How can we share the benefits of these kinds of programs with STEM students and educators?

Lesson 4

On-campus residence is not essential for building tight-knit communities.

The stories shared by peer mentors also are a good reminder that on-campus residency is not essential for building strong bonds between students or cultivating a sense of belonging. Like most students at UIC, the majority of these students did not live on campus. Yet they found camaraderie, support, and community with each other through AAMP activities that provided an important peer support group. As Kevin described, “One thing that I came to understand a lot is that there’s something very understated about the social support network or having a second family outside of what you might have at home.” It may also be that AAMP may have been even more important to commuter students still living with (often immigrant) parents, with identity-based issues perhaps front and center as a result of constantly navigating differences between campus and home.

The ability of a nonresidential peer mentor program to develop such close-knit communities provides an alternative to the residential life interventions more commonly focused on when addressing sense of belonging. Coupled with Dawn Johnson’s findings that STEM-based living-learning programs seemed to negatively influence a sense of belonging for women of color, it is important to think about nonresidential alternatives that can address identity-related needs. This is particularly important to consider for AANAPISIs, and perhaps other Minority Serving Institutions (MSI) as well, many of whom are community colleges or urban institutions with high commuter populations. If they do not already exist on your campus, what kinds of nonresidential, identity-based programs could help foster a sense of belonging for Asian American STEM students (or other students of color) that would allow them to be in community with others of similar cultural backgrounds?

The Role of AANAPISIs in Supporting Asian American STEM Students

The narratives highlighted here demonstrated significant benefits for Asian American STEM students who served as peer mentors in a campus-wide program made possible with AANAPISI support. These students told us again and again how being in an Asian American, non-STEM community was important to their development as a person and in their pursuit of a STEM degree and career. These perspectives are important to keep in mind for other AANAPISIs and perhaps other MSIs with STEM-centered initiatives, as a reminder of how identity-based programs can support students of color in important ways both inside and outside the classroom.

The information shared in this article is crucial given the lack of attention to Asian American students in STEM in both practice and research. In a book chapter on AANAPISIs fostering success in STEM students, Robert Teranishi, Dina Maramba, and Minh Hoa Ta describe how Asian American STEM students are often overlooked due to misperceptions about representation, stereotyping as academically successful, and a lack of awareness of the diversity of the Asian American population and their educational experiences (Teranishi et al., 2013). Katherine Rainey and colleagues (2018) found that Asian American STEM students’ experiences and sense of belonging were similar to other underrepresented students and cautioned educators to not assume Asian American STEM students do not face challenges regardless of their enrollment numbers. Mike Hoa Nguyen and colleagues (2018) also reported in the Journal of Diversity in Higher Education that Asian American and Pacific Islander students experienced a negative campus climate, even at an institution where they were “well-represented” in terms of numbers.

Thus, without identity-based support programs, Asian American STEM students may not have the opportunity to understand and process how and why race is affecting their college experiences. They may continue to accept the stereotyping they experience, buy into the model minority myth (justifying the lack of attention to Asian American students’ needs), and not understand why they are struggling with fitting in, particularly in a (STEM) program where Asian Americans are “supposed” to be. Asian American targeted programs such as AAMP provide students with the history and contextual information to situate their experiences, the language to describe them, and a safe community to provide support in negotiating the (both academic and personal) challenges of college and their STEM environment. The unique combination of AAMP activities centered on Asian American issues and interpersonal relationships resulted in a tight-knit community of support which, as McGee and colleagues suggested, allowed Asian American STEM students to be appreciated for “their whole selves, not just their STEM abilities” (McGee et al., 2017, p. 262). These identity-based connections may be especially important given Katherine Rainey and colleagues’ findings that an inadequate sense of belonging was a key reason for Asian American students to leave the STEM major, and thus programs like AAMP may also contribute to retention and persistence.

The funding, expertise, and mission of AANAPISI were crucial in growing AAMP to the influential program it is today and highlights how AANAPISIs are uniquely situated to create identity-based support programs on campuses which have high populations of Asian American STEM students. As our students shared with us, these kinds of programs provide transformative gains in student learning and development for a more meaningful life and career as Asian Americans in STEM.

Footnotes

ORCID iD

Corinne Maekawa Kodama

References

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