The History of eSTEMequity
In 2009, Dr. Amanda J. Rockinson-Szapkiw, as a chair of doctoral and research programs at a private university, became interested in mentorship as a conduit to encourage women’s persistence in doctoral programs. In 2010, she developed a collaborative workspace for doctoral mentorship, which was recognized via a Microsoft case study and a Campus Technology Innovator award (2013).
In 2014, she, supported by a university grant, developed a virtual peer mentoring program to support women in their scholarly and scientific identity development, self-efficacy, and community. For, in her qualitative and quantitative research, she found that these factors, more than intelligence and academic achievement, were salient to women’s persistence and advancement in academia and STEM.
Her virtual peer mentoring program and research was extended to includes STEM students at HBCUs and minority-serving institutions in 2017 when she and several colleagues received National Science Foundation grants (NSF Grant No. 1717082; 2017-2019; NSF Grant No. 1912205; 2019-2021). Currently, she is working on virtual mentoring projects for STEM graduate students and faculty, with part of this work being funded via the University of Memphis’ NSF ADVANCE grant.
Recently, Dr. Rockinson-Szapkiw also co-authored and co-edited a handbook for peer mentors and mentees within STEM programs.
This site provides electronic, evidence-based, and empirically validated resources based on Dr. Rockinson-Szapkiw’s research and practice involving mentoring, and more specifically mentoring in STEM. She hopes these resources promote gender and racial equity in higher education and STEM. eSTEMequity (established 2016) is part of Dr. Rockinson-Szapkiw’s eLearnequity, LLC (established 2016).
Mission
The mission of eSTEMequity is to promote gender and racial equality across the disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and STEM education and to support the broadening of participation of underrepresented populations across STEM.
Purpose
To provide electronic, evidence-based, and empirically validated tools and resources to support and promote equity across STEM and STEM education degree programs and careers.
About Amanda
Amanda J. Rockinson-Szapkiw (zap-q) is an educator, scholar, and innovator who focuses on the development and investigation of systems (e.g., family, technological, institutional) to assist all thrive psychosocially, socially, academically, and vocationally.
Collaborators
Jaclyn Gishbaugher was a doctoral student at UofM and assisted Dr. Rockinson-Szapkiw the training module design and development for the peer mentoring training program during under the NSF Grant No. 1912205. She has since then assisted Dr. Rockinson-Szapkiw with the implementation of a usability study for the mentor and mentee training.
Teresa Theiling was a doctoral student at UofM and assisted Dr. Rockinson-Szapkiw the training material development for the peer mentoring training program during under the NSF Grant No. 1912205.
Katie Sharpe is an instructional designer at UofM and assisted Dr. Rockinson-Szapkiw with training module design and development in 2017, for a peer mentoring pilot program, which was part of the NSF Grant (No. 1717082).
Wendy Hooper was a doctoral student at UofM and assisted Dr. Rockinson-Szapkiw as a GA under the NSF Grant No. 1717082, with the evaluation of the peer mentoring grant-related program.
Esra Ozdenerol is PI on NSF ADVANCE Grant No. 2017452 and supports the mentoring work that Dr. Rockinson-Szapkiw has done as part of the grant.
Jillian Wendt, Vivian Jones, Anyana Conway, and Tracy Walker were all part of NSF Grants (No. 1912205 and 1717082) between 2017-2021 in which Dr. Rockinson-Szapkiw was a part and that explored virtual peer mentoring.