4. Faculty and Peer Mentoring Subsystem

To ensure that all scholars have access to resources and feel supported, each scholar will be assigned to a faculty mentor from the academic department corresponding to the scholar's major. It is known that students from underrepresented groups and students with disabilities benefit greatly from mentoring. The faculty mentor will be with the scholar for the entire degree program. Additionally, each scholar will be assigned a peer mentor during the SBP. The peer mentor will be with the scholar during their first year. Peer mentoring has been shown to improve mentees' self-efficacy. The mentoring subsystem consists of the following:

• Mentor recruitment: peer mentors will be recruited. Faculty mentors will include the investigators of the S-STEM project.
• Peer mentoring: scholars will be matched with upperclassmen in their academic program during the SBP. Peer mentoring will take place during the first year.
• Faculty mentoring: scholars will be matched with a faculty mentor from their academic program.  Faculty mentors will meet with the scholars over the entire duration of their academic program. Faculty mentors will make sure scholars are on track academically but will also provide support in interview prep, securing an internship, and graduating with a full-time engineering position.
• Monitoring: Project team members will  watch the mentoring to ensure mentors and scholars are meeting as expected.