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This paper describes an NSF (National Science Foundation) S-STEM-funded scholarship program, representing a collaborative five-year grant project among three prominent universities in the Southeast region of the United States. Its primary objective is to support dedicated scholars in graduating and finding a professional pathway. Each institution recruited a cohort of 15-20 scholars annually for three years. The project offers scholarships and provides curricular and co-curricular support to academically talented but financially challenged students in the computing disciplines, including Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Cybersecurity, and Information Technology majors, starting from their junior years. The program aims to impact 150 scholars, most of whom are underrepresented in computing. Scholars receive support throughout their graduation and beyond should they pursue graduate studies in a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) discipline at any of the three participating institutions. 

This paper describes an NSF (National Science Foundation) S-STEM-funded scholarship program, representing a collaborative five-year grant project among three prominent universities in the Southeast region of the United States. Its primary objective is to support dedicated scholars in graduating and finding a professional pathway. Each institution recruited a cohort of 15-20 scholars annually for three years. The project offers scholarships and provides curricular and cocurricular support to academically talented but financially challenged students in the computing disciplines, including Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Cybersecurity, and Information Technology majors, starting from their junior years. The program aims to impact 150 scholars, most of whom are underrepresented in computing. Scholars receive support throughout their graduation and beyond should they pursue graduate studies in a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) discipline at any of the three participating institutions. Besides funds, the program provides an expansive career pathway opportunity to each of its students, accompanied by various supporting services, a dedicated advising team, experiential learning offices, career services offices, and graduate schools. Supporting services include internship fairs, panel discussions with alumni, resume workshops, graduate school application workshops, and career fairs. The project brings together the unique collaboration of three institutions for each of its supported activities to significantly enhance the support and opportunities offered to its scholars and to conduct meaningful research studies that include significant-sized intersectional populations. 

The demand for computing professionals has grown exponentially due to the rapid expansion of technology and digitalization in various industries. As a result, understanding the importance of pathways into computing education and professions has become crucial. These pathways serve as structured routes that guide individuals in acquiring the necessary skills and knowledge to pursue careers in the computing field. Hence, it is essential for educational institutions to understand students’ perspectives, particularly those from lower-income socio-economic status, to broaden participation within computing education and professional fields. Though there are various pathways into computing education and professions, for the purposes of this research and the program, we review the existing literature about three primary pathways: graduate school, internship or industry profession, and entrepreneurship. 

The Florida IT Graduation Attainment Pathways (Flit-GAP), an NSF S-STEM, Track 3 grant effort, involves three public metropolitan institutions from Florida’s three most populous areas: Florida International University (FIU) in Miami, University of Central Florida (UCF) in Orlando, and University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa. Flit-GAP supports up to 50 students per year for each of the first 3 years of the project’; recruits are juniors from Computer Science, Information Technology, Computer Engineering, and Cybersecurity, and other computing majors. The relationship among the three institutions is formalized as the Consortium of Florida Metropolitan Research Universities. The consortium is a strategic priority of each institution. In Year 1, 42 students participated in the scholarship program at the three institutions (16 FIU; 14 UCF; 11 USF). 

The Florida IT Graduation Attainment Pathways (Flit-GAP), an NSF S-STEM, Track 3 grant effort, involves three public metropolitan institutions from Florida’s three most populous areas: Florida International University (FIU) in Miami, University of Central Florida (UCF) in Orlando, and University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa. Flit-GAP supports up to 50 students per year for each of the first 3 years of the project’; recruits are juniors from Computer Science, Information Technology, Computer Engineering, and Cybersecurity, and other computing majors. The relationship among the three institutions is formalized as the Consortium of Florida Metropolitan Research Universities. The consortium is a strategic priority of each institution. In Year 1, 42 students participated in the scholarship program at the three institutions (16 FIU; 14 UCF; 11 USF). 

The Florida IT Graduation Attainment Pathways (Flit-GAP), an NSF S-STEM, Track 3 grant effort, involves three public metropolitan institutions from Florida’s three most populous areas: Florida International University (FIU) in Miami, University of Central Florida (UCF) in Orlando, and University of South Florida(USF) in Tampa. Flit-GAP supports up to 50 students per year for each of the first 3 years of the project’; recruits are juniors from Computer Science, Information Technology, Computer Engineering, and Cybersecurity, and other computing majors. The relationship among the three institutions is formalized as the Consortium of Florida Metropolitan Research Universities. The consortium is a strategic priority of each institution. In Year 1, 42 students participated in the scholarship program at the three institutions (16 FIU; 14 UCF; 11 USF). 

While starting a career may be challenging in any field, in computing the process tends to be aggravated by requirements of digital portfolios and technical interviews that necessitate coding extemporaneously. During the programming components, candidates are expected to offer a solution, while also giving consideration to the choice of algorithm and its time complexity. Although intended to assess the competency of the job applicants, the process is often more akin to a professional examination. Applicants are encouraged to prepare months, or even years before they begin looking for a position, an expectation that neglects to consider the obligations and responsibilities students already have. Moreover, this presumption can result in an unequal divide between those who have the time to commit, and those who are unable to do so. To examine students’ preparation for technical interviews and their own cultural experiences, we administered a survey at three metropolitan universities in Florida. Specifically, we utilized social cognitive career theory to examine: 1) Students' preparation practices for technical interviews; 2) The impact of cultural experiences on preparation time; and 3) The relationship between preparation and job attainment. To address these topics, we used descriptive statistics, Shapiro-Wilk tests, Wilcoxon rank-sum tests, and Kruskal-Wallis tests. We also applied the community cultural wealth model to interpret our results. We observed that, in our sample, White students began preparing earlier for technical interviews, spent more time preparing, and received more job offers than non-White students. Females also spent more hours preparing on average, and received more job offers than students that did not identify as female. However, female, Black/African American, and Hispanic/Latinx students were more likely to have cultural experiences that would impact their availability to prepare, including non-computing related jobs, caring for a family member, or ongoing health issues. While we do consider the support mechanisms students may leverage to overcome obstacles, in general, these results emphasize the larger issues in existing hiring structures, and demonstrate the importance of not treating students as a monolith. The findings from this work are intended to inform educators about how to better prepare students to succeed on technical interviews, and to encourage industry to reform the process to make it more equitable.