Effective: 2022-2027

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Zeyu Xu

Institution: American Institutes for Research in the Behavioral Sciences

America’s community colleges play a vital role in strengthening the country’s science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce. More than one-quarter of all STEM jobs are held by workers with either an associate’s degree or some other sub-baccalaureate training. Community colleges also play a central role in increasing the diversity of the STEM workforce, as they often serve students from populations underrepresented in their participation in STEM fields of study....

Effective: 2022-2027

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigators: Abiola Akanmu, Andrea N Ofori-Boadu

Institutions: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University

While universities equip students with theoretical knowledge for STEM, there can be challenges in employing those theories to solve real-life problems. This challenge has resulted in an imbalance between the preparation of graduates entering the workforce and the demands of the industry. This disconnection is persistent in the construction industry as construction practitioners continue to highlight skill shortages that have resulted in low performance and low productivity. This research...

Effective: 2022-2027

Funding Type: Other

Principal Investigator: David I Miller

Institution: American Institutes for Research in the Behavioral Sciences

As a 5-year resource center, the EHR Core Research – Resource Coordination Hub (ECR Hub) is designed to advance the ways in which NSF’s ECR Core (ECR) and ECR Building Capacity in STEM Education Research (ECR:BCSER) programs can better use and support fundamental research on STEM learning and learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development. ECR-funded research has the potential to address pressing national problems by developing foundational knowledge...

Effective: 2022-2027

Funding Type: CAREER

Principal Investigator: Homero Murzi

Institution: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) program is a National Science Foundation-wide activity that supports early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education, to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization, and to build a foundation for a lifetime of leadership in integrating education and research. This CAREER...

Effective: 2022-2026

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Ross J Benbow

Institution: University of Wisconsin-Madison

The project expands a prior study by examining the links between social support networks and persistence along STEM career pathways among “student service members/veterans,” defined as undergraduate students who are retired/discharged military veterans. Building on current surveys in the State of Wisconsin, the study extends the data collection along three dimensions. First is longitudinally along the population’s academic trajectories encompassing several data collection points over five...

Effective: 2022-2026

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Heather L Thiry

Institution: University of Colorado at Boulder

This project focuses on a critical juncture in the STEM education and workforce pipeline, the transition of community college students into baccalaureate degree programs and potentially to graduate school. This transition period is especially important for students from groups that are underrepresented in their overall participation in STEM fields of study. The goal of the investigators is to understand how STEM transfer students use assets, such as disciplinary co-curricular opportunities...

Effective: 2022-2026

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigators: Julie Aldridge, Nicole Else-Quest, Joseph Roy, So Yoon Yoon

Institutions: Ohio State University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, American Society For Engineering Education, University of Cincinnati Main Campus

The ongoing lack of diversity in the engineering doctoral workforce remains a significant problem with far-reaching implications for the US economy. The long-term vitality of the US workforce relies on the full range of engineering career pathways being available to all Americans. A diverse STEM workforce is more creative and innovative. While the number of women completing STEM doctorates has risen, the proportion of women earning engineering doctorates remains low. And, in 2019, while 24.1%...

Effective: 2022-2025

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigators: Aramati A Casper, Sarah L Eddy, Amanda K Lane

Institutions: Colorado State University, Florida International University, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

This project examines how a more accurate curriculum about the diversity of sexes found across species, the role of the environment in sex determination, and the complex relationship between sex and gender can create a more inclusive environment for transgender, non-binary, and gender non-conforming (TNG) students in undergraduate biology courses. Research indicates that rather than emphasizing the diversity of strategies and experiences that organisms have around sex, gender, and orientation,...

Effective: 2022-2025

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Kimberly C Rogers

Institution: Bowling Green State University

Undergraduate mathematics courses are required foundational courses for almost all STEM majors, since science, technology, and engineering are all built on mathematical underpinnings. Therefore, effective mathematics instruction at the undergraduate level opens the door to these fields, making it possible for students to pursue studies in scientific and technical areas. Unfortunately, students typically cite ineffective or uninspiring classroom instruction in foundational mathematics courses as...

Effective: 2022-2025

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Lizandra C Godwin

Institution: University of New Mexico

Advancing participation in engineering is significant for meeting NSF’s goals and benefits national priorities. The University of New Mexico aims to improve understanding of the impacts of Latinas’ undergraduate experiences on their graduate school and career aspirations in engineering. As a designated Hispanic-serving Institution, the University of New Mexico is an ideal site for this study. Through advancing knowledge of the impact of intersectional identities on interest in graduate...

Effective: 2022-2025

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Catherine Mobley

Institution: Clemson University

The project examines STEM social and behavioral scientists’ identity formation to produce results that can be used in designing programs to attract a larger and more diverse pool of students to these disciplines. The study investigates factors that influence the development of STEM social scientists who will engage in transdisciplinary scholarship, whether some programs do so more extensively and more effectively than others, and in what ways and why. It provides a qualitative focus on...

Effective: 2022-2025

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Wendy M DuBow

Institution: University of Colorado at Boulder

This study addresses the longstanding problem of the lack of diversity among persons studying and working in the field of computer science (CS). The statistics describing the gender and race/ethnicity of those who earn CS degrees tell a story of a discipline that has been slow to change. The percentage of CS undergraduate degrees that have been earned by women has barely risen in nearly two decades. The lack of representation of Hispanic, African American, and Native American students in...

Effective: 2022-2025

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Jacob Kirksey

Institution: Texas Tech University

The project aims to serve the national need to develop a diverse workforce in STEM careers. To address this need, institutions have developed course-based undergraduate research experiences in STEM to attract students to STEM careers. These research activities will produce evidence and insights about how course-based undergraduate research experiences in STEM are related to post-graduate workforce outcomes. Additionally, the research will identify pre-college student characteristics that...

Effective: 2022-2025

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigators: Lauren Barth-Cohen, Sarah Braden

Institutions: University of Utah, Utah State University

Scientific observation is a ubiquitous discipline-specific skill that has been overlooked in contemporary science instruction. Instructional materials often treat scientific observation as a simple skill or a minor pedagogical challenge to be overcome. For secondary science teachers, challenges compound as they themselves are often emergent learners of this skill. Furthermore, the field has yet to develop explanatory frameworks for the development of expertise in observation. Existing research...

Effective: 2022-2025

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigators: James C Anglum, Tuan D Nguyen

Institutions: Saint Louis University, Kansas State University

This project aims to identify trends in the demographics and turnover behavior of the STEM teacher workforce. It focuses on specific remedies and investments needed to retain prospective teachers in high-need schools, especially rural communities, and to improve outcomes for their students. The project includes two complementary studies, one using the National Teacher and Principal Survey (an update from the earlier Schools and Staffing Survey) and a second, using longitudinal administrative...

Effective: 2022-2025

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigators: Tamara Pearson, Rebecca Zarch

Institutions: Spelman College, SageFox Consulting Group, LLC

This research project seeks to examine longstanding inequities in access to and participation in computer science (CS) education. Decades of research have shown that certain subgroups (e.g., women, students with disabilities, underrepresented minority students) tend to face substantial barriers to participating in CS courses and programs. As computing education continues to expand in K-12 education systems, it is important to understand how early experiences in computing education relate to...

Effective: 2022-2024

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: James R Neumeister

Institution: National Opinion Research Center

This research project focuses on understanding the experiences and perspectives of marginalized groups in STEM fields. Three aims frame the project team's research plan. First is to examine factors that influence and predict career trajectories of subgroups of STEM doctoral students and graduates based on their career motivations and aspirations. Second is to develop and integrate culturally responsive student and context-level measures to investigate the career pathways of STEM PhD students....

Effective: 2022-2024

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Adrianna Kezar

Institution: University of Southern California

This project addresses the fundamentally important question of who the faculty in the United States are, and how they advance knowledge and prepare the future workforce in STEM. Faculty are central to the success of higher education, and through teaching, research, and service, faculty contribute to the education of the future workforce in STEM, the advancement of knowledge, and the success of the higher education enterprise. Since 2004, when data was last collected for the National Study of...

Effective: 2022-2023

Funding Type: Conference

Principal Investigator: Erin Lynch

Institution: Winston-Salem State University

Pipelines to Pathways: Humanizing Diversity in STEM, is proposed to improve mentorship and training in emerging research designed to improve STEM student outcomes, particularly for those students coming from underserved and underrepresented populations in STEM. This two-day workshop is designed to attract STEM faculty, both K-12 and post-secondary, and research scholars in STEM teaching and student learning to present and learn about evidence-based practices and methodology design to implement...

Effective: 2021-2026

Funding Type: CAREER

Principal Investigator: Fatma Baytar

Institution: Cornell University

The loss of U.S. apparel production jobs overseas and a subsequent decline in manufacturing infrastructure after the 1980s was highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic, when demand for domestically produced personal protective equipment could not be met. In order to address this deficit, the U.S. textile industry requires the physical and human resources to update, upskill, and accelerate manufacturing. At the core of this transformation are 2D/3D digital technologies, which enable instant...

Effective: 2021-2026

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigators: Kevin M Kniffin, Stasa Milojevic, Bruce A Weinberg

Institutions: Cornell University, Indiana University, Ohio State University

This collaborative project with Ohio State University as the lead institution and Indiana University and Cornell University as partners examines the career outcomes across employment sectors of interdisciplinary graduate students, the environments in which they are trained, and how those environments relate to career outcomes. The investigators will use and expand an emerging infrastructure of data and measures to conduct a rich, multilevel analysis of individual career paths in the transition...

Effective: 2021-2026

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Preeti Gupta

Institution: American Museum Natural History

The American Museum of Natural History plans to investigate the relationship between mentored research and youths’ STEM trajectory from high school to early college. The study builds on a previously funded project that examined the experiences of 733 high school youth who participated in an out-of-school, in-depth science research and mentoring program through the New York City Science Research Mentoring Consortium. The current study will examine how 380 of the initial participants navigate...

Effective: 2021-2025

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Sandra L Laursen

Institution: University of Colorado at Boulder

ADVANCE and Beyond: Understanding Processes of Institutional Change to Promote STEM Equity and EducationThis research has significance in seeking to provide evidence-based support to scholars and practitioners who are working to promote systemic institutional change in STEM higher education. To solve stubborn problems that lead to inequitable outcomes, such as biased faculty tenure and promotion processes, uneven leadership opportunities, and hostile departmental climates, requires more than a...

Effective: 2021-2024

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigators: Jonathan T Eckhardt, Brent D Goldfarb

Institutions: University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Maryland, College Park

This is a collaborative project, with the University of Wisconsin-Madison as the lead institution and the University of Maryland as the partnering institution, to explore the entrepreneurial proclivity of undergraduate women majoring in STEM fields. The researchers propose a multi-method approach led by an interdisciplinary team to (1) identify factors that influence entrepreneurial proclivity and (2) develop and test interventions related to closing gender disparities in STEM entrepreneurship....

Effective: 2021-2024

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigators: Amy J Ko, Mo Zhang

Institutions: University of Washington, Educational Testing Service

This project aims to promote equitable design of Computer Science (CS) assessment in secondary and post-secondary education in the United States and globally, increasing the diversity of students engaging in CS learning through reduced test bias. In this study, we aim to address difficulties in assessing computer programming by investigating critical characteristics of programming tasks using both response process and product data. Findings will have direct practical implications for developing...

Effective: 2021-2024

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: David S Knight

Institution: University of Washington

The University of Washington is conducting an interdisciplinary research project that analyzes math and science teacher career pathways using longitudinal statewide data from Washington and Texas and the Baccalaureate and Beyond (B&B) Longitudinal Study dataset. There are three project objectives: (1) To inform evidence-based policies and practices for improving the math and science teacher workforce by studying the long-term career paths of those who leave teaching, (2) To build an...

Effective: 2021-2024

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigators: Sara E Grineski, Danielle X Morales

Institutions: University of Utah, University of Texas at El Paso, Worcester State University

Understanding mentoring relationships is critical to increasing diversity in STEM fields. Researchers at the University of Texas at El Paso and the University of Utah propose to study the effects of mentor relationship mismatch on student outcomes during NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) programs. This project aims to employ a novel approach to studying mentoring by examining multilevel mentoring and demographics of students and the mentor team. The project aims to collect data...

Effective: 2021-2024

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Michelle Friend

Institution: University of Nebraska at Omaha

Researchers at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and Southern Methodist University will investigate the efficacy of a Work-Learn model for providing individuals experiencing homelessness with the skills and scaffolding that will enable them to enter the job market. The research team will examine the impact of integrating micro-internships with online courses targeting computer science skills for homeless adult learners and analyze the interaction among group dynamics and learner success and...

Effective: 2021-2024

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Juan M Madera

Institution: University of Houston

Promotion and tenure decisions at universities are of critical significance to the integrity of the research enterprise because they determine the career progression of scholars and scientists. Despite significant investments in pipeline interventions to diversify academia, faculty of color and women are underrepresented in tenured and tenure track positions. Underrepresentation has important implications for the nation's prospects of developing a diverse STEM workforce. For undergraduate and...

Effective: 2021-2024

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: David I Miller

Institution: American Institutes for Research in the Behavioral Sciences

This project will integrate high-quality experimental evidence on the existence of, and strategies to reduce, gender bias in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, including how gender bias may intersect with other identities such as race and ethnicity. Biases favoring men could thwart women’s training and careers in STEM fields in many ways, but research also suggests promising interventions for changing biased cultures and structures. This project will synthesize...

Effective: 2021-2024

Funding Type: BCSER Institute

Principal Investigator: Matthew Irvin

Institution: University of South Carolina at Columbia

The goal of the Institute for Measurement MEthodology in Rural STEM Education (IMMERSE) is to increase the capacity of researchers to measure and study key concepts central to rural STEM education research. Drawing on measurement science and a unified validity framework, the IMMERSE training will enable rural researchers in STEM, social sciences, and education to undertake empirical studies that attend to rurality. Specifically, participants in the IMMERSE experience will obtain the skills to...

Effective: 2021-2024

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigators: Ramon Barthelemy, Charles R Henderson, Adrienne Traxler

Institutions: University of Utah, Western Michigan University, Wright State University

This project is a collaboration among the University of Utah as the lead institution and Western Michigan University and Wright State University as partners to investigate how women and gender and sexual minorities (GSM) construct and navigate their professional networks to support their post PhD physics careers. The goal is to use social network analysis with qualitative methods to characterize the professional support networks of women and GSM physicists to test the central hypothesis:...

Effective: 2021-2024

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigators: Lester C Loschky, Minh Hoai Nguyen, N. Sanjay Rebello

Institutions: Kansas State University, SUNY at Stony Brook, Purdue University

Online multimedia instruction is expected to grow. Yet, given the tendency for students’ minds to wander and to be distracted especially during online instruction, it is important for researchers and educators to understand how to help students to stay focused on the important information while ignoring the unimportant information. This project addresses two fundamental issues: How does the online Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) instructor or educational materials...

Effective: 2021-2024

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Leigh McLean

Institutions: Arizona State University, University of Delaware

In the pre-service preparation stage, future teachers gain critical skills and knowledge for teaching mathematics. Supervised field experiences, where student teachers apply their skills and knowledge in classrooms under the mentorship of cooperating teachers, have been shown to be particularly important in preparing effective future teachers. However, there is still much to be clarified about how supervised field experiences impact student achievement and important teacher outcomes such as...

Effective: 2021-2024

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Shanna R Daly

Institution: Regents of the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

As part of an undergraduate education in engineering, students typically encounter courses that emphasize core engineering technical skills but neglect the "comprehensive engineering skills" such as the ability to collaborate, to be creative, and to exhibit ethical thinking that are needed to address complex societal problems. Engineering education plays a major role in shaping students' understanding of the nature of engineering work which includes such "comprehensive skills." Thus, it is...

Effective: 2021-2024

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Suzanne T Ortega

Institution: Council of Graduate Schools

The Council of Graduate Schools examines the role of master’s education in STEM education workforce development. The project will contribute to the development of a data infrastructure for future research on master’s education while providing more nuanced insights into labor market outcomes of master’s degrees in STEM by various fields of study, gender, race/ethnicity, and career stages. Investigators will investigate the upskilling/reskilling pathways into master’s education and how...

Effective: 2021-2024

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Jennifer L Wessel

Institution: University of Maryland, College Park

This study aims to increase diversity in STEM academic workplaces by testing “nudge” interventions to help diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) work matter in promotion and tenure decision-making. Nudges refer to deliberate changes to the decision-making context aimed at guiding people toward a particular behavior, which in this case is valuing DEI work. Many institutions have tried to reform the tenure process to reward DEI work, but there is little concrete evidence that any of these...

Effective: 2021-2024

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigators: Brooke C Coley, Kerrie G Wilkins-Yel

Institutions: Arizona State University, University of Massachusetts Boston

To increase the diversity of the PhD-prepared workforce, understanding underlying issues affecting retention and completion of doctoral degrees is essential. Researchers at Arizona State University and University of Massachusetts Boston, propose to study the expressed needs of Black doctoral students in relation to faculty perceptions of what they are providing during advising relationships. Understanding the mental health impacts of cumulative experiences that marginalize Black graduate...

Effective: 2021-2023

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Paul Asunda

Institution: Purdue University

This STEM education research capacity building project combines a research project aimed at examining teachers as agents of change in STEM education and a professional development plan focused on facilitating the principal investigator’s acquisition of competencies in conceptual frameworks and research designs for exploring integrated STEM (iSTEM) learning environments in middle school settings. The research project will investigate teachers’ conceptions of iSTEM teaching and learning and...

Effective: 2021-2023

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Sammy L Steen Jr

Institution: George Mason University

This project aims to increase the number of Black male youth who can be successful in advanced mathematics while in public schools. The researcher will use a mixed-methods design to gain a comprehensive and culturally appropriate student perspective. The project includes the implementation of a group counseling program for Black male students beginning in seventh grade and following them through eighth grade. The researcher will gain the knowledge and skills necessary to integrate quantitative...

Effective: 2021-2023

Funding Type: Conference

Principal Investigator: David W Shaffer

Institution: University of Wisconsin-Madison

ECR's Building Capacity for STEM Education Research (ECR: BCSER) solicitation supports projects that build individuals' capacity to carry out high quality STEM education research that will enhance the nation's STEM education enterprise and broaden the pool of researchers that can conduct fundamental research in STEM learning and learning environments, broadening participation in STEM fields, and STEM workforce development.Specifically, ECR: BCSER supports activities that enable early and...

Effective: 2021-2023

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Qingxia Li

Institution: Fisk University

The project is designed to enable the principal investigator to conduct an exploratory research project while acquiring skills and competencies to conduct robust STEM education research. The research component will examine factors and experiences that impact African American students’ decision to pursue careers that require quantitative and computational skills. The mentored professional development component will provide the investigator with expertise in qualitative research design and...

Effective: 2021-2023

Funding Type: Mid-Career Advancement (MCA)

Principal Investigator: Karla Bradley Eitel

Institution: Regents of the University of Idaho

The goal of the project is to explore Land education pedagogy and its curriculum and pedagogical innovations in the preparation of Native and non-Native educators to engage Native and non-Native students in environmental STEM education on Indigenous lands. The investigator will implement a professional development plan focused on pedagogical innovations within various teacher education and environmental STEM learning programs to (a) understand the tools and technologies that can support these...

Effective: 2021-2023

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Anne M Ho

Institution: University of Tennessee Knoxville

This project investigates the significance of Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching (MKT) in an understudied population of instructors who fall between traditional divisions of high school and college teaching. Past research has typically assumed that an instructor is either a high school or college instructor, but not both. Degree and certification programs also make this assumption. However, many educators teach both secondary (high school) and tertiary (college) classes throughout the course...

Effective: 2020-2025

Funding Type: CAREER

Principal Investigator: Daniel L Reinholz

Institution: San Diego State University Foundation

This project will study how data visualizations may help university faculty recognize their implicit biases and promote equitable participation in their classrooms. Participation is a key part of learning, but implicit biases can result in different opportunities for different groups of students to participate in STEM classrooms. Such differences can cause inequities in learning outcomes that may lead to underrepresentation of women, students of color, and other groups in the STEM workforce. By...

Effective: 2020-2025

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigators: David F Feldon, Jason Owen-Smith

Institutions: Utah State University, Regents of the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

The study will assess the skills held by individuals at the time of PhD attainment and the measurable impacts that such skills may have on individual career trajectory. Investigators will conduct a longitudinal study that links individual-level data, academic program data, professional attainment data, and employer profile data. These data will enable an empirical assessment of the role that communication, leadership, and management skills play in shaping the career trajectories of PhD...

Effective: 2020-2025

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigators: Lisa Y Flores, Rachel L Navarro

Institutions: University of Missouri-Columbia, University of North Dakota Main Campus

Slow progress has been made over the past several years to broaden the involvement of groups who are underrepresented in engineering disciplines. The number of Latinxs in particular continues to decrease at each transition point along the pathway to becoming a practicing engineer (i.e., declaring a engineering major, graduating with an engineering degree, working in the engineering field). Increased efforts across the engineering ecosystem, but specifically during the college-to-work...

Effective: 2020-2024

Funding Type: ECR:Core

Principal Investigator: Maria Ong

Institution: TERC Inc

Native students and professionals are severely underrepresented in all STEM degree programs and professions in the U.S. This underrepresentation is often overlooked in research and discussions of equity in STEM. This abstract, and this project, uses the word "Native" as an umbrella to refer to American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders, First Nations, and other indigenous peoples of North America. This project will contribute to changing the conversation about Native...

Effective: 2020-2023

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Ramon Barthelemy

Institution: University of Utah

This project is a ten-year follow up to a pilot study that examined the educational experiences and career goals of 21 women graduate students in physics and astronomy. The previous study results revealed a complex tapestry of experiences with mentoring, gender discrimination, and the development of career goals that influenced the students’ ultimate outcomes. The study showed that many were considering non-academic careers because of their perceptions of work-life balance and the academic...

Effective: 2020-2023

Funding Type: BCSER IID

Principal Investigator: Qi Shi

Institution: Loyola University Maryland, Inc.

This capacity building project includes a study to examine the experiences of Latina English Learners to identify the resources and assets that impact their academic and career development and persistence in STEM. Guided by the culture wealth model and social cognitive career theory, the investigator will conduct a qualitative study using a phenomenology design to understand the meaning of these students’ experiences using three developmental milestones: interest, access, and persistence. The...