WIP: CAHSI Allyship Program: An Asset-Based Approach to Build Computing Communities for Students Success at HSIs

This work-in-progress (research-to-practice) paper describes the Allyship program that has been implemented at Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs) to build student support structures, particularly for women and non-binary students. As technology permeates through all aspects of our world, broadening participation in computer science education is critical to securing sustainable national technology and economic development. Unfortunately, women, especially ethnic and racial minority women, have been underrepresented in computing fields for decades. The trends in the number of bachelor's degrees in computing awarded to Latina students have not improved over the past twenty years, consistently accounting for less than 2% of the total number of undergraduate degrees awarded in computing. Most programmatic practices generally feature broader STEM disciplines, are not discipline-specific, and do not specifically support women and non-binary students in computing, which is the least diverse STEM field. Furthermore, most studies of mentoring programs rely primarily on graduate students, faculty, and professional mentorship. To fill the gap in practices and knowledge about the role of near-peer mentoring, explicitly focusing on women and non-binary students in computing fields at Hispanic-Serving Institutions, the Computing Alliance of Hispanic-Serving Institutions (CAHSI) an NSF Eddie Bernice Johnson INCLUDES, and BPC Alliance piloted the Allyship program at two HSIs. This paper describes how CAHSI implemented this program in a way that aligns with the theory of community cultural wealth. The Allyship program builds relationships among first- and second-year Latinx students with upper-division Latinx students in computing to build an inclusive community and supportive departmental environment. The goal of the Allyship program is to increase departmental engagement, retention, and persistence in the major. Preliminary assessment results from a participant survey show that following participation, students reported higher scores of sense of belonging, self-efficacy, and interest in computing compared to the beginning of the semester. The findings provide insight into using a strengths-based approach in peer support programs that allows women and non-binary students at HSIs to leverage their cultural knowledge and assets. This peer support program would be particularly impactful at low-resourced HSIs, which have high Hispanic enrollment but lack sufficient institutional resources, as the institutions can make significant changes with relatively low costs to implement sustained peer-to-peer support programs.