Featuring Guest Speaker Support for STEM Career Development

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Wednesday 12:40 pm Four Seasons Ballroom 2-3
  In Roundtable Session: Division J - Section 1: College Student Learning and Development in College and Beyond Roundtable 1 (Table 6)

Abstract

Guest speaker presentation is identified as an essential strategy for expanding equitable career pathways for STEM majors. With the support of a federal grant, this study is designed to examine the merits of career talks that positively impact student career development in STEM fields. A mixed-method approach has been taken to extract the top features of guest speaker presentations that show clarity, informativeness, and relevancy to student STEM career preparation. The incorporation of quantitative and qualitative data is guided by a social cognitive career theory to reconfirm the guest speaker’s impact on the career pathway expansion. The results demonstrated quality assurance of the federal grant funding at a Hispanic-serving university.

Authors

• Jianjun Wang, California State University - Bakersfield

• Charles Lam, California State University - Bakersfield