“We’re All Kind of Going Through It.”: Challenges of High-Achieving, Low-Income Stem Majors and Supports for Persistence

• In Event: Supporting Students Across Campus

Abstract

This study investigated challenges and supports described by 11 high-achieving, low-income STEM scholars who participated in a program designed to support their persistence at a Midwestern public research university. Through the lens of Phenomenological Variant Economical System Theory (PVEST) and Counterspace framework, the data from semi-structured interviews show that students perceived challenges and supports in four domains: academic, social-emotional, professional development, and financial. The challenges include difficulty of course contents and materials, isolation, a lack of professional experience and knowledge, and disadvantaged backgrounds. Students described receiving academic support through academic check-ins with faculty; social-emotional support through weekly peer group meetings led by near-peer graduate mentors; professional development through professional development lessons and field trips; and financial support through annual scholarships. The weekly peer meetings served as counterspaces to provide STEM scholars with social-emotional support through exchanging personal stories of shared struggles, ideologies, worldviews, and identities. Students described these supports as enhancing their motivation to persist in their respective STEM fields.

Keywords: Counterspaces, PVEST, persistence, high-achieving, low-income STEM majors

Authors

• Duangkamon Winitkun, NORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY

• Nicole D. LaDue, NORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY

• Daryl Dugas, NORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY

• Madison Payne, NORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY

• Stephanie Schmidt, NORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY