How Participation in STEM Research Experiences and Internships Influences Recent Graduates' Career Transitions

• In Event: Understanding Career Decisions and Postsecondary Trajectories

Abstract

This study explores the role of disciplinary-based co-curricular experiences, especially undergraduate research experiences (UREs) and internships, in former STEM transfer students’ transitions into careers or graduate studies. Using longitudinal semi-structured interviews with 48 recent STEM graduates, this paper investigates who had access to UREs and internships and how those experiences influenced students’ accrual of career capitals (D’Amico et al, 2012) and social, aspirational, and navigational capitals (Yosso, 2005). Transfer students had constrained access to UREs and internships, but many found other means to accrue social and navigational capital during and after college. This highlights the need for institutions to reexamine how they can equitably and systematically support students’ access to disciplinary-based pre-professional development.

Author

• Heather L. Thiry, University of Colorado - Boulder