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Efforts to broaden participation in computing have traditionally focused on increasing access at the K-12 and undergraduate levels, often emphasizing disparities related to race, gender, and early exposure to computing [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7]. While these initiatives have led to meaningful progress, comparatively less attention has been given to inequities in access to graduate education in computing and related fields. Graduate study plays a critical role in shaping advanced technical careers, research trajectories, and leadership opportunities, yet pathways into graduate school remain unevenly visible and accessible [8], [9]. For students from low-income backgrounds, decisions about graduate school are shaped by more than academic preparation alone [10]. Financial constraints, family responsibilities, limited access to insider knowledge, and uncertainty about graduate school processes can make graduate education appear risky or unattainable [11], [12], [13]. Without clear information or trusted guidance, capable students may choose not to explore graduate pathways, even when they have the interest and ability to succeed. The National Science Foundation’s Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (S-STEM) program [14] seeks to address these inequities by combining financial support with programmatic interventions that promote persistence and advancement in STEM education. The Florida IT Graduate Attainment Pathways (Flit-GAP) project builds on this mission by focusing specifically on low-income students in computingrelated majors and supporting their consideration of graduate education as a viable pathway. 

Efforts to broaden participation in computing have traditionally focused on increasing access at the K-12 and undergraduate levels, often emphasizing disparities related to race, gender, and early exposure to computing [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7]. While these initiatives have led to meaningful progress, comparatively less attention has been given to inequities in access to graduate education in computing and related fields. Graduate study plays a critical role in shaping advanced technical careers, research trajectories, and leadership opportunities, yet pathways into graduate school remain unevenly visible and accessible [8], [9]. For students from low-income backgrounds, decisions about graduate school are shaped by more than academic preparation alone [10]. Financial constraints, family responsibilities, limited access to insider knowledge, and uncertainty about graduate school processes can make graduate education appear risky or unattainable [11], [12], [13]. Without clear information or trusted guidance, capable students may choose not to explore graduate pathways, even when they have the interest and ability to succeed. The National Science Foundation’s Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (S-STEM) program [14] seeks to address these inequities by combining financial support with programmatic interventions that promote persistence and advancement in STEM education. The Florida IT Graduate Attainment Pathways (Flit-GAP) project builds on this mission by focusing specifically on low-income students in computing related majors and supporting their consideration of graduate education as a viable pathway. 

Reports key findings from the Flit-GAP project on how a multi-institutional S-STEM program shapes low-income computing students’ pathways to graduate education showcasing interview data from Spring 2025. 

This study investigates the contextual practices driving the success of the Flit-GAP (Florida IT Graduation Attainment Pathways) project, a collaborative initiative funded by the NSF involving Florida International University, University of Central Florida, and University of South Florida. Despite the diminished attraction towards diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) projects and initiatives in the state, Flit-GAP has exhibited resilience in recruiting, retaining, and supporting academically talented yet financially challenged students, particularly those from non-dominant groups, to increase their participation in computing disciplines. By analyzing audio recordings, videos, and field notes from two case studies within Flit-GAP, this research systematically unveiled the critical roles of social and academic integration in driving the project's effectiveness in supporting students from diverse backgrounds in the computing field. Therefore, prioritizing both academic and social integration is recommended as valuable guidance for improving practices in other struggling contexts. 

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. 

Background: Undergraduate engineering education is a critical moment for student experiences and broadening participation, yet many minoritized students experience it as unwelcoming, unsupportive, or exclusionary. Engineering faculty have a central role and responsibility to play in the creation of inclusive classrooms, yet there is a gap in empathic communication for faculty to better understand their students. Education researchers can play a critical role in addressing this communication and empathy gap, but disseminating research findings in long form papers is not accessible for most engineering faculty. Purpose: This paper highlights the audio narratives created through the Audio for Inclusion project, an NSF-funded project intended to help faculty become more aware of students’ hidden and marginalized identities and impacts of those identities on their engineering education experiences. Method: We conducted qualitative semi-structured interviews with 22 nationally recruited undergraduate engineering students and turned these into 10 distinct audio narratives. Our narrative analysis focused on constructing a cohesive, concise, and anonymized narrative that would present key content from student interviews in a format that would preserve some of the immediacy and emotionality of student interviews while improving accessibility and coherence for faculty. Findings: In this paper, we present the scripts and link to audio narratives for two student participants: 1) Sophie, a mixed race (Asian and white) white-passing woman, and 2) Enola, an Indigenous woman. In addition to presenting the written and audio narrative, we comment on the specific lessons we see as valuable for engineering faculty that emerge from each of the audio narratives. Conclusion: This project highlights lessons learned for faculty in the areas of student support, accommodations, inclusive practice, and student perceptions of classroom practice. We present this project as methodological innovation for qualitative research, and as future work, we intend to keep investigating impact on faculty via faculty focus groups, surveys, and workshops. We also highlight this research as a metaphor for the empathic understanding that each faculty member can gain by listening to students, individually and collectively, and distilling lessons for their practice. 

The inclusive transformation of engineering culture stands as a central objective for ensuring the growth and sustainability of a diverse engineering workforce. Engineering faculty members play a critical role in this transformation by supporting and shaping the academic journeys and eventual careers of their students. However, despite their central role in workforce development, faculty members often lack the resources and training needed to gain a deeper understanding of the diverse experiences and identities their students bring to the engineering classroom. This is especially challenging for students with minoritized identities that are non-apparent or hidden and cannot be easily observed by faculty. As part of the on-going Audio for Inclusion (A4I) Project, this paper and poster discuss the initial findings from focus groups with nine engineering faculty members from three universities nationwide. We delve into the intricacies and logistics of developing, designing, and facilitating these focus groups and highlight significant alterations and overall recommendations shared by participants. These perspectives can serve as a valuable resource for engineering educators seeking to incorporate similar audio dissemination methods into their work and for those interested in implementing strategies for cultivating a more inclusive engineering education culture.