Engagement in Practice: The Development of Skills and Competencies through Community Outreach Activities

Abstract

In this Complete Evidence-based Practice, with the aim of expanding students' worldview and developing skills and competencies for the job market, this complete paper presents the implementation of an annual mentoring program at Maua Institute of Technology for first-year students (Engineering, Business Administration, Design, Information Systems, and Computer Science) consisting of approximately 400 students. In this program, students worked in teams, under the guidance of a mentor professor, for 10 months. They utilized project management methodologies, Design Thinking, empathy mapping, persona development, and other tools to define, propose, develop, and present solutions to community-related problems. All proposed projects were required to align with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), be low-cost and replicable, and have an external entity or community association as a partner. Throughout the months, students had the opportunity to develop their proposals, implement them, and at the end of the academic year, present the results in an open presentation to the entire academic community. Aside from detailing the mentoring program's development, this paper presents both the qualitative and quantitative feedback from students regarding the program and their self-development through a Likert-type questionnaire administered at the end of the semester. It also presents the qualitative feedback from faculty members regarding the technical and behavioral aspects acquired by the students. The obtained data demonstrate that the development of applied projects that combine learning with real community problems fosters greater engagement and expands the incoming student's worldview, allowing them to perceive themselves as capable of being transformative agents in their communities. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2024.