A Mentoring Program for Community Building

A student-led mentoring program was designed within the Physics and Astronomy Department at Augustana College to help build relationships and provide a more welcoming and inclusive environment. The need for this program is due to having more diversity among students and the desire to build a stronger community. Our Physics and Engineering students have become a more diverse group over the past five years right along with the campus as a whole, but we noticed anecdotally that some students didn't feel a sense of belonging. In addition, the pandemic broke the small-class size environment when we went virtual in spring 2020. Our small-class size environment made it possible to build a sense of community and common purpose. During multiple virtual research meetings, the Augustana Nuclear Group talked about what to do about building more belonging. At that time a new APS Inclusion Diversity, and Equity Alliance (APS-IDEA) effort began, which provided a perfect opportunity to generate ideas and find support. Augustana's local group includes two administrators, two faculty, and seven students. The group is diverse in many ways, which provides a rich set of perspectives. The group decided on a student-mentoring program led and co-designed by students, which involved pairing junior/senior students with first-year/sophomore students. We had a kick-off session in the spring 2020, which led to two additional students declaring a major in our department. In addition to the student-student mentor pairings, the faculty matched up the junior/senior mentors with alumni to help them on their professional path. The design of the program along with its current status will be presented.