Rethinking Engineering Pathways: An Exploration of the Diverse K-12 School Experiences of Six Black Engineering Undergraduates

Abstract

(JHU/APL) where he worked on nanotechnology. In 2005 he left JHU/APL for a fellowship with the National Academies where he conducted research on methods of increasing the number of women in engineering. After a brief stint teaching mathematics in Baltimore City following his departure from the National Academies, he began working for the Center for Minorities in Science and Engineering (CMSE) in the Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland. In 2011, he began working directly under the Office of the Dean in the Clark School. Currently, he serves the college as Assistant Director of the Office of Undergraduate Recruitment and Scholarship Programs. His current duties entail working with prospective freshmen and transfer students. Since assuming his duties, he has helped to increase the enrollment of freshmen underrepresented students of color to 17%. New freshmen women admitted to the Clark School have also increased during his tenure from 27% in 2012 to 37% this year. Bruk completed a master's degree in engineering management at George Washington University in 2007. In 2016, he earned a Ph.D. in the Minority and Urban Education Unit of the College of Education at the University of Maryland. His dissertation research focuses on factors that facilitate transfer among Black engineering community college students. Ms. Felicia James Onuma A Phi Beta Kappa graduate, Felicia received her bachelor's degree in Sociology and a minor in Social Policy from the Johns Hopkins University. During her undergraduate years, Felicia accrued a vast amount of experiences. To name a few, she taught English in Denmark, served as an Admissions Representative at her alma-mater, interned at the Center for Law & Social Policy in D.C., and attended events and hearings at the White House, U.S. Capitol, and the Center for American Progress. Felicia is currently a Master's degree candidate in Higher Education at the University of Maryland. She currently holds an administrative assistantship at the Incentive Awards Program (IAP), a research assistantship at the A. James Clark School of Engineering, and a teaching assistant position. Felicia has conducted qualitative research, submitted drafts for conference papers, and assisted with writing a grant proposal to the National Science Foundation. Felicia will be returning this fall to University of Maryland as a doctoral student in Higher Education. Felicia's research interest is studying the factors that facilitate the success of highachieving Black students in STEM, particularly those at highly selective colleges and universities.

“I’ve always been in private school”: The role of familial norms and supports in Black immigrant students’ preparation for STEM majors.

“…Gates and Guinier criticized Harvard College’s purportedly large Black alumni gathering because of the underrepresentation of Black alumni with generational linkages to the United States; in comparison, the professors noted an overrepresentation of African and Caribbean immigrants and their children (Rimer & Arenson, 2004). Since then, a growing number of researchers have begun to give important attention to immigrant and nativity status in their investigations of Black college students’ experiences and have noted key differences among Black subgroups (e.g., Berhane, Onuma, & Secules, 2017; Berhane, Secules, & Onuma, 2020; Fries-Britt, Mwangi, Chrystal, & Peralta, 2014; Leggett-Robinson, Villa, & Davis, 2017). This approach allows scholars to unpack themes specific to distinct groups of African diasporic students, as we attempt to do in our analysis of first- and second-generation Blacks’ precollege family engagement narratives.…”

On Transfer Student Success: Exploring the Academic Trajectories of Black Transfer Engineering Students from Community Colleges

“…While respondents described in this 2017 article [38] seem to intimate that their secondary schools almost over prepared them for STEM coursework in community colleges, the respondents in this new work seemed less likely to make this kind of assertion. This tendency to articulate less of an over-preparation or even overconfidence may be rooted in previous findings that have examined the engagement of girls in science.…”

“…The findings of this study underscore previous research on the capacity of schools throughout sub-Saharan Africa to prepare students for challenging STEM majors. In a 2017 ASEE conference paper, Berhane, Onuma, and Secules [38] described six Black engineering students who transferred from a community college. In this paper, Berhane and his colleagues [38] noted that half of their participants were first-generation Americans who emigrated from either West or East Africa.…”

“…In a 2017 ASEE conference paper, Berhane, Onuma, and Secules [38] described six Black engineering students who transferred from a community college. In this paper, Berhane and his colleagues [38] noted that half of their participants were first-generation Americans who emigrated from either West or East Africa. Respondents described taking "really hard" classes that were rooted more in understanding key concepts than in the notion of memorizing formulas; the more formulaic approach, according to one respondent, is more consistent with the U.S. instruction than in the instructional practices of her home country.…”

“…In addition, interviewees in this earlier discussion depicted the teachers at private schools as more reliable and better-resourced than educators in government-run schools. One participant in this article found mathematics coursework in his home country to be more challenging than introductory mathematics when he first enrolled in the U.S. at a community college [38].…”