BPE-Track 4: Phase I: The Engineering Wellness Center: : The Engineering Wellness Center: Redefining Success for Engineering Students

The Engineering Wellness Center: Redefining success for engineering students Mental health differentially impacts students who are underserved in engineering. For instance, sexual minority, first generation, Black and Latinx students report that mental difficulties impact their academics more frequently than their peers in engineering programs. Thus, we must drive cultural change to create a supportive and equitable engineering environment that prioritizes and supports student mental health. Through this proposal, we aim to establish a Center for Equity in Engineering, the Engineering Wellness Center. This Center will drive cultural change in the College of Engineering at the University of Kentucky (UK) such that students feel empowered and supported to not only prioritize their intellectual development, but also their development of social and emotional skills. The prior research on mental health among engineering students at UK (EEC 2024394, EEC 2225567) has resulted in the development of our Center Mission Statement: to enhance students’ mental health as they navigate their experience within the College of Engineering. In this way, we define mental health as not just the absence of mental illness but "a state of well-being in which the individual realizes [their] abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to [their] community." We will accomplish this by increasing student access to information, resources and supports designed to enhance their social development, emotional well-being, and sense of belonging. We aim to catalyze a culture change within the College of Engineering to be an inclusive and equitable environment where all students feel supported and empowered to proactively identify their needs and access resources to meet them. Ultimately, we hope to redefine what it means to be a successful engineering student by prioritizing the development of diverse technical, social and emotional skills that not only improve student mental health but also their effectiveness as engineers. Through the Engineering Wellness Center, we will develop equitable and inclusive practices aimed at improving student mental health. While the Center will broadly impact all engineering students, activities will be designed to improve mental health outcomes for students traditionally underserved in engineering. While many mental health interventions are developed without the insight of undergraduate engineering student stakeholders, this Center will implement interventions identified through focus groups with core stakeholders (students, faculty and administrators). Interventions will also span across student, faculty, departmental and College levels to ensure that the onus for change is not placed solely in the hands of students. With internal and external advisory boards, we will ensure that activities developed meet the needs of UK and outside institutions. By assessing the impact of Center activities on student outcomes, we will provide guidance to engineering programs on how to create supportive and inclusive environments for all students.