Strutz, M. L., & Ohland, M. W. (2012, June), Low-SES First-generation Students’ Decision to Pursue Engineering  Paper presented at 2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, San Antonio, Texas. 10.18260/1-2--21664

\bibitem{asee_peer_21664}
  Strutz, M. L., \& Ohland, M. W. (2012, June), \emph{Low-SES First-generation Students’ Decision to Pursue Engineering}
  Paper presented at 2012 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, San Antonio, Texas.
  10.18260/1-2--21664

Michele L. Strutz and Matthew W. Ohland.  "Low-SES First-generation Students’ Decision to Pursue Engineering".  2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, San Antonio, Texas, 2012, June.  ASEE Conferences, 2012.  https://peer.asee.org/21664 Internet.  11 Jul, 2024

\bibitem{asee_peer_21664}
  Michele L. Strutz and Matthew W. Ohland.
  "Low-SES First-generation Students’ Decision to Pursue Engineering".
  \emph{2012 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, San Antonio, Texas, 2012, June}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2012.
  https://peer.asee.org/21664 Internet.  11 Jul, 2024

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_21664
author = "Michele L. Strutz and Matthew W. Ohland"
title = "Low-SES First-generation Students’ Decision to Pursue Engineering"
booktitle = "2012 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition"
year = "2012"
month = "June"
address = "San Antonio, Texas"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://peer.asee.org/21664}
number = {10.18260/1-2--21664}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  -      Low-SES First-Generation Students’ Decision to Pursue Engineering“The ability of this nation to provide a growing economy, strong health and human services, anda secure and safe nation depends upon a vibrant, creative, and diverse engineering and scienceworkforce” (Blue, et al., 2005, p. 4). To address these global opportunities and challenges, andfor the U.S. to remain globally competitive, it is necessary for our engineering workforce to bediverse.Nevertheless, the U.S. cannot claim a diverse engineering workforce, and its engineering studentbodies are certainly not diverse despite the legislation and programs put in place to increaseracial, gender, and socioeconomic (SES) representation. Programs and resources that increaseracial and gender diversity in engineering have the advantage of creating an environment for thesocial interaction of people who have some shared experience as well as an interest inengineering. As a result, women and students of color in engineering have a variety of local andnational programs from which they might seek support. Low socioeconomic status is both lessvisible and more likely to be concealed, so there are few formal programs to support or mentorlow-SES students who want to pursue engineering. With an estimated projection of 1.67 millionengineers needed to support the U.S. job market by 2016, there is some urgency to betterunderstand how to encourage socioeconomic diversity in the engineering workforce and studentbodies.The purpose of this qualitative study is to give low-SES students an opportunity to share theirstories about the influences that prompted them to choose to study engineering. The researchquestion this study addresses is: What are the lived experiences of low-SES first-generationstudents who pursue engineering study? Specifically, what are the influences of low-SES first-generation students that inspired them to study engineering?This study used a phenomenological inquiry approach, purposive criterion sampling, anddescriptive and topical coding. Interviews were semi-structured, and consisted of open-endedquestions. Transcripts were coded to identify general and unique themes that will be explored inthe paper. Whereas family nurturers had a strong influence on college aspiration and attendance,encouragers with knowledge of engineering (who were not necessarily family members)particularly influenced these students to pursue engineering. Although the lack of engineeringrole models in the media has long been cited as an issue in the recruitment of students toengineering, the students in this study reported strong influence from television shows, books,and the internet. There was also evidence that some students developed an interest in engineeringthrough extracurricular activities. A desire to escape low-SES circumstances through anengineering career was a strong influence among the participants.
AU  - Michele L. Strutz
AU  - Matthew W. Ohland
CY  - San Antonio, Texas
DA  - 2012/06/10
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Low-SES First-generation Students’ Decision to Pursue Engineering
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/21664
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--21664
ER  -