Abstract
Literature shows that mentors and role-models directly affect young students' self-efficacy and motivation to pursue specific academic fields and careers. To explore this further, this chapter describes a free, 9-Saturday programming camp for middle school students with near-peer mentors (first year, college student instructors) and local guest speakers. This camp served 28 underrepresented minority students (17 boys and 11 girls; grades 5-7) from a low-income, urban area. In a pre-camp survey, the middle school students predominately reported not having any role-models or mentors in computing. However, when asked again on the final camp day, these same students indicated developing strong connections with their near-peer mentors and even saw these older students and guest speakers, as role-models. These results highlight the need for young, underrepresented minority students to have more opportunities to interact with potential mentors and role-models, and the importance of providing resources to help develop and nurture these connections.
Original language | English (US) |
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Title of host publication | Handbook of Research on Equity in Computer Science in P-16 Education |
Publisher | IGI Global |
Pages | 1-13 |
Number of pages | 13 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9781799847403 |
ISBN (Print) | 9781799847397 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Nov 13 2020 |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- General Social Sciences
- General Computer Science