Board 339: Mentoring Competencies From the Perspective of Mentors and Their Racially Marginalized STEM Mentees

Despite various efforts to broaden participation, racially marginalized students (i.e., Black, Hispanic/Latinx, and American Indian/Alaskan Native identifying people) continue to be underrepresented in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields and careers. Mentoring is recognized as a mechanism that has been shown to support the persistence and success of racially marginalized students in STEM through providing relevant resources, psychosocial support, and fostering identity development. This quantitative work aims to understand the mentoring competencies of mentors who support racially marginalized students in STEM. To promote effective mentoring, it is essential to understand the mentoring competencies of mentors from the perspective of both mentors and mentees. Understanding how mentees perceive various mentoring competencies can help mentors understand deficiencies in their skills to improve their mentoring practices.