A STEM education has always included teaching technical skills and the core theories of the discipline, from the equations a scientist might use in their day-to-day job to what lab equipment one might expect to use. In the early 2000s, there was a shift from teaching exclusively technical skills to including programming centered around professional skills, which include resume writing, what types of jobs there are for scientists, and other skills and knowledge that long-time professionals might take for granted. In this shift, there has not been as much of a focus on showcasing the benefits to the students, and many programs have been hesitant to embed some form of professional development courses or seminars in their program curriculum and instead put the burden of learning these on the students. This project puts qualitative and quantitative data of the effects that professional development courses have on student retention and outcomes in a highly diverse demographic of students from the University of Colorado Denver. To achieve this, Dr. Rogers and I looked through academic records of students from 2013 to 2023 and collected retention rates, grade outcomes, and indicators of success (defined as either getting a job or into graduate school within a year of graduation). We then looked at the trends within the students who met our success indicators to see if there was a shift from before the seminars were implemented to after. This presentation covers parts of an ongoing project.

Ethnic minoritized individuals are not entering science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields in postsecondary and work settings at equitable rates. Utilizing the persistence framework (Graham, et al., 2013), the current study seeks to explore how adolescent ethnic minoritized students' experiences in STEM classes with diverse teachers and peers, perceptions of belonging, peer discrimination, and measures of academic coping are related to their grade performance in STEM classes. Adolescent participants (N = 473, M age = 15.13, SD =0.869) enrolled in five low-to-middle income public schools in the Southeastern United States self-identified as Black/African-American, Latinx, and Other (non-white). Stepwise regression analysis was used to explore how aforementioned variables interact with classroom race composition and grade performance. In addition, mediation and ANOVA analysis further explored interaction and differences between variables. Results from analyses revealed that once belonging and peer discrimination were added into the model, student racial composition was no longer related to STEM grades. Therefore, we tested if belonging or discrimination mediated this relationship. We found that belonging was a significant mediator, but discrimination was not: students who had more same-race peers in their class reported higher STEM grades. This relationship was explained by belonging: same-race peers in STEM classes predicted belonging in STEM classes which predicted STEM grades. Findings will be discussed in light of the minoritized students’ experiences in school settings.

Contributions of ancient civilizations to STEM have been undervalued and overlooked, which may have resulted in a negative impact on black people's tenacity and retention in STEM. Eurocentric ideas oversaturate mainstream historical narratives and academic conversation, which has potentially erased, marginalized, and excluded non-European contributions to STEM. Black students are underrepresented when it comes to their retention and perseverance in pursuing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) degrees. To bridge the gap between ancient history and the interpersonal social determinants of Black STEM students (BSS), historical and cultural influences that have affected their experiences and opportunities must be acknowledged and addressed. The purpose of this literature review is to apply the Preferred Reporting Items for Systemic Reviews & Meta Analysis (PRISMA) approach to determine what factors exist and what is missing in the literature on how systems (educational) impact Black students who are interested in pursuing STEM disciplines. The findings will enable us to identify topics that have not been covered in the literature, as well as elements like social and interpersonal variables that support BSS retention and persistence. The results of this study have the potential to help us better understand why Black students continue to persist in STEM disciplines at a lower rate and develop interventions that benefit Black students majoring in STEM at my college of choice, Fayetteville State University, a historically Black university, who require this support by expanding and improving existing STEM interventions.