$2.5 million eCAMINOS program spotlights student strengths
The eCAMINOS program serves Arizona’s students and helps the University of Arizona fulfill its missions as a Hispanic Serving and land grant institution.
The University of Arizona has established the eCAMINOS program to help students identify with engineering and recognize what they bring to the table.
Funded with nearly $2.5 million from the National Science Foundation, eCAMINOS began in fall 2024 at the Tucson and Yuma campuses. The program's name ("camino" means "path" in Spanish) represents engineering pathways, and its intention is to shift education away from addressing students' knowledge deficiencies and toward valuing strengths and experience.
Asset-based rather than deficit-based thinking has been shown to be effective in promoting student success, said project lead Vignesh Subbian, associate professor of biomedical engineering and systems and industrial engineering and member of the university's BIO5 Institute.
"But little is known about how to do it longitudinally, throughout the student's engineering program. This project helps us do that," Subbian said.
Studies indicate that this sort of mentoring approach helps create a more equitable playing field for students in engineering, including those from marginalized groups.