"I Don't Want to Be Part of This": Shifting Career Aspirations Among STEM Doctoral Students at a Hispanic-Serving University

• In Event: Navigating Identity, Inclusion, and Equity in STEM

Abstract

Based on first year of questionnaire and interview data from a five-year longitudinal study, this presentation explores how STEM doctoral students at a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HIS) in are socialized into academic or non-academic careers. Researchers fielded a web-based questionnaire (n = 51) and conducted semi-structured interviews with 30 doctoral graduate students. These interviews provided descriptive data that complicated and contextualized the Likert-scale data collected from the questionnaire. Three primary themes emerged from the interviews, desire for: greater work-life balance; higher salaries; and greater impact on policy.

Authors

• Alexios Rosario-Moore, Northern Illinois University

• Steven McGee, The Learning Partnership