STEM Workforce Development  

Broadening Participation in STEM

Exploring Rural University Student STEM Career Persistence and Social Support Networks: A Two-Phase Mixed Methods Study

Effective Years: 2025-2028

Rural students pursuing STEM degrees often face unique challenges as they navigate academic and career pathways far from home, with fewer built-in opportunities for mentorship, peer connection, or institutional support. Yet, many bring with them strong social networks that may play a critical--but understudied--role in their persistence and success. This project seeks to examine these issues by studying the links between STEM career pathway persistence and social support networks among rural STEM university students. Prior research suggests that rural university students have distinct and resource-rich social support networks, which are important to STEM success. Little work, though, details these networks in universities or their possible connections to rural student STEM career persistence. Building from tools the research team has used in ongoing studies, this investigation will advance knowledge on the characteristics that make rural STEM student support networks unique, how networks associate with STEM career persistence, and how students perceive these issues playing out in their daily lives. Findings will also significantly contribute to knowledge on the role of social support networks in strengthening and broadening student STEM workforce pathways more generally, helping build new theories that support the STEM career development of students. Using social network analysis and social capital theory, the researchers are administering two online surveys, 18 months apart, to a panel of rural and nonrural STEM students across eight public universities in Wisconsin (initial n~1,000). At each of these two data collection points, the team is also conducting interviews with a subsample of rural and nonrural STEM survey respondents (initial n~50). Using descriptive statistics and regression models to analyze survey data and inductive and a priori coding to analyze interviews, the project will map rural student networks and trajectories between the two phases, examine links between networks and STEM career persistence, compare rural and nonrural student networks and STEM persistence, and capture the personal perspectives of rural university students on these issues. Results are being disseminated through presentations, reports, scholarly publications, and public media to ensure a wide array of stakeholders access the findings. In addition, STEM researchers will be able to build on the network data collection tools and findings to conduct further work on the impact of networks on STEM student populations. This project is supported by NSF's EDU Core Research (ECR) program. The ECR program emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that generates foundational knowledge in the field. Investments are made in critical areas that are essential, broad and enduring: STEM learning and STEM learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.