The Impact of Student Engagement, Institutional Environment, College Preparation, and Financial Support on the Persistence of Underrepresented Minority Students in Engineering at a Predominately White Institution: A Perspective from Students

An analysis of the underrepresentation of minoritized groups in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education

“…The participants in this study shared the importance of support groups at their universities similar to the findings of White et al (2018). Student support organizations and clubs are common at many universities; however, it is important for universities to know the positive impact they have had on the SOC in this study.…”

“…The possible influences impacting this statistic demonstrate racial inequities at the K-12 and post-secondary level. This retention issue may be linked to unequal opportunities during K-12 education for SOC who are from predominately low-income areas (Stipanovic & Woo, 2017;White et al, 2018). This is particularly evident when considering the upper-level classes offered in predominately White schools compared to schools with a large population of SOC (Stipanovic & Woo, 2017).…”

“…Retention challenges can also be related to stereotype threat (McGee, 2018), which is when an individual is concerned with confirming a negative stereotype about their background (Steele & Aronson, 1995). Finally, the added financial strain among low-income underrepresented minoritized families can lead to students working full-time while attending school (White et al, 2018). Due to the additional obstacles, some SOC decide to change majors or drop out of college (Chang et al, 2014).…”

Participation in a High-Structure General Chemistry Course Increases Student Sense of Belonging and Persistence to Organic Chemistry

“…The opportunity to take a high-quality college-level chemistry course while in high school is associated with race and socioeconomic class due to racial segregation and inequities in school funding. − In other words, due to systemic racism, students who enter general chemistry courses with less prior chemistry experience tend to identify as NALA and/or are from low socioeconomic status backgrounds. But this alone does not explain the disparities we see in grades and attrition between NALA and WA students; it has been shown that significant attrition gaps persist even when prior preparation is accounted for. ,, And even those students who would be characterized as “prepared” (i.e., they have taken advanced coursework in high school) can report feeling ill-equipped to handle the challenges of college STEM coursework. , …”

“…3 , 4 , 14 And even those students who would be characterized as “prepared” (i.e., they have taken advanced coursework in high school) can report feeling ill-equipped to handle the challenges of college STEM coursework. 2 , 15 …”