In this interactive session, Becky Wai-Ling Packard will share research on the strategies that have been effective when striving to improve the persistence of students in STEM, including ways particular programs have avoided key pitfalls or otherwise strengthened their implementation by addressing tensions inherent in design. Dr. Packard will also discuss the importance of assessing the distribution of mentoring resources (and workload) across the department, school, and/or university, and how mentoring contributes to climate for students and faculty alike. While mentoring from more intense, formalized programs is important, so is mentoring that comes from smaller, informal interactions, and aligning our resources across the university.

10-11 a.m. | Tuesday, November 13
School of Education Building, Tribute Room

Becky Wai-Ling Packard, PhD, is a professor of psychology and education at Mount Holyoke College and a U-M alumnus. She is a 2018-2019 NCID faculty fellow. For the past 20 years, Dr. Packard’s research has focused on the mentoring and persistence of students from diverse backgrounds in higher education and science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. She has focused on the experiences of first-generation college students, students of color, community-college transfer students, non-traditional students, low-income students and women.