Students enrolling in community colleges often represent more diverse populations, come from different socioeconomic backgrounds, and have frequently followed non-traditional pathways into higher education as compared to first-year students at four-year institutions. Community colleges (CC) are also an important route toward STEM careers for students of high potential from marginalized communities (Mooney and Foley, 2011). Early exposure to geoscience at four-year institutions is an effective means of recruitment to these sciences (Stokes et al., 2015), but CC students rarely have the opportunity to take marine science courses.
Transfer student capital: Increasing Latinx student participation in STEM
Currently, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs in community colleges and 4-year institutions are predominantly white spaces that can marginalize underrepresented, racial/ethnic minority students (Kanno & Cromley, 2015; Martin, et al., 2018; Samuelson & Litzler, 2016; Valadez, 2008; Wang, Lee, & Prevost, 2017). Latinx students make up the largest racial/ethnic minority group of college students (Martinez & Deil-Amen, 2015), and they are more likely to begin their postsecondary education paths in community colleges (Arbona & Nora, 2007; Starobin & Bivens, 2014). Many will start at community college in programs that lead to vertical transfer (Martin, et al., 2018). Transferring from a community college to a four-year institution is a difficult process to navigate, especially for racial/ethnic minority students who are likely to have experienced inequitable educational experiences. Institutions seeking to assist them in obtaining baccalaureate degrees must increase these students’ Transfer Student Capital (TSC) (Laanan, Starobin, & Eggleston, 2010). The purpose of this presentation is to show how high schools, community colleges, and four-year institutions can partner together to assist Latinx students in acquiring baccalaureate degrees in STEM fields by increasing their TSC.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1825126
- PAR ID:
- 10182880
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- 32nd Annual South Carolina Educators for thPractical Use of Research Conference, Columbia, SC, United States.
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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