Supplementing STEM Career Mentoring Through Biweekly Opportunity Emails

Abstract

West Virginia University (WVU) is a large R1 land grant institution with a multitude of STEM majors that includes students from underrepresented demographics (e.g., rural, low-income/Pell grant eligible, first-generation, etc.). Though STEM students are supported by dedicated disciplinary advisors, these advisors meet with large numbers of students and may need to limit their discussions to academic scheduling and financial aid. To broaden students’ connections and belonging to STEM and to provide underrepresented STEM students with ongoing career mentoring, we initiated an institutional change project involving the distribution of biweekly opportunity emails (fall 2022 - spring 2025). Opportunity emails included listings, links, and deadlines for paid summer undergraduate research at national labs and institutions, and abstract submissions for institutional, statewide and national symposia. At several points, a survey was sent to collect information from recipients on their self-reported impressions and perceived usefulness of the biweekly emails. Survey respondents indicated that on average they read/skimmed 79% of the emails and acted on information 1.7 times during an academic semester. In addition, respondents indicated that the emails assisted them in career planning and made them more positive toward majoring in STEM by influencing their sense of acceptance and belonging at college. The nature of this change work was informed by and documented as a Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle, a quasi-experimental method for effecting quality improvements. The progression of opportunity emails from basic to professional formatting is discussed along with aggregate responses from the surveys.