Educua Summer Camp

Examining the Integration of CUA & DEI within CARSE Initiatives:

One of the objectives of the Center for Advanced Radio Sciences and Engineering (CARSE) is to provide opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students in STEM disciplines so they can further their career and research experiences. Moreover, CARSE includes an outreach component through a collaboration with the Center for University Access (CUA), which seeks to provide opportunities to bridge inequality gaps for underserved youths enrolled in public schools in Mayagüez. This investigation is centered on documenting the overall impact of the integration of social and educational justice and diversity equity and inclusion (DEI) content on CARSE/STEM participants. To achieve this, individual interviews, focus groups, observations and surveys will be administered. This research project will explore how the DEI and outreach components focusing on issues of social and educational justice impacts the research and work conducted by CARSE participants This poster will present the current stage of the project and the future plan for data collection and findings.

Educational Justice for Youth in Mayagüez:

The Center for University Access (CUA) is an educational justice initiative that began at the University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez (UPRM) in 2007. Undergraduate and graduate students collaborate with faculty and other experts to support socioeconomically disadvantaged youth from Mayagüez. The school-level component offers free tutoring and mentoring as well as an interdisciplinary array of workshops aimed at fostering college aspirations of first-generation middle and high school students. The college-level component supports participants to ensure their retention, persistence and graduation from college. The Center provides a safe and inclusive space where aspiring first-generation college students can grow intellectually, professionally and personally as we promote college access and help them build an educational foundation for success in their university careers.