College Students of Color’s STEM Identity Development Through Participating in an Intergenerational Mentorship Program

• In Event: Sunday Roundtable Session 1:15 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Cultivating Success: Community, Identity, and Learning as Scholars of Color (Table 33)

Abstract

This paper presents a longitudinal qualitative study of nine STEM college students of color who participated in a STEM mentorship program for two semesters. The research question is: How does a year-long participation in an STEM mentorship program foster STEM identity development among STEM college students of color? The findings indicated the program’s positive impacts on students’ science identity development, which was conceptually guided by Carlone and Johnson’s (2007) science identity model. Additionally, the findings suggested two additional aspects supporting students’ STEM identity development. First, how students perceived the concept of STEM was important to their ownership of a STEM identity. Furthermore, having an increased sense of belonging as a person of color in STEM also fostered students’ STEM identity.

Authors

• Ting-Han Chang, William Paterson University

• Christopher B. Newman, California State University - Fullerton

• Darnell G. Cole, University of Southern California