Near-peer mentors get it done: undergraduate students using and developing community cultural wealth as informal STEM facilitators

Informal physics programs that engage youth in STEM activities outside a formal classroom setting can benefit the facilitators who lead the activities as well as the participants. We investigate the experiences of undergraduate students who facilitate informal STEM programs and are thereby positioned as STEM experts. We focus on CSU San Marcos students who serve as near-peer mentors in an informal program called Mobile Making. Located in a diverse region in southern California, CSU San Marcos is a minority- and Hispanic-serving Institution. In Mobile Making, the majority of undergraduate facilitators are members of systemically excluded racial groups in STEM (e.g., Hispanic or Latine), women, and first-generation college students. Additionally, most of the facilitators are members of the same community as the children they work with at school sites and some attended the same school where they facilitate Mobile Making. Interviews with 12 undergraduate facilitators were analyzed using Yosso's (2005) Community Cultural Wealth framework to understand how the facilitators draw upon and further develop their cultural capital during their work with the Mobile Making program. In this talk, we will discuss the importance of recognizing how undergraduate Students of Color approach their roles as facilitators of informal spaces and how they can be supported to further develop and utilize their cultural capital.