Kumar, N., & Secules, S., & Kali, M. B., & Solis, T., & Halkiyo, A. B., & Weiss, M. A., & Georgiopoulos, M., & Sullivan, J. F., & Christensen, K., & Estacion, A. (2024, June), Shifts in Perceptions of Career Pathways: The Impact of an S-STEM Program on Lower-Income Computing Students  Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. 10.18260/1-2--47968

\bibitem{asee_peer_47968}
  Kumar, N., \& Secules, S., \& Kali, M. B., \& Solis, T., \& Halkiyo, A. B., \& Weiss, M. A., \& Georgiopoulos, M., \& Sullivan, J. F., \& Christensen, K., \& Estacion, A. (2024, June), \emph{Shifts in Perceptions of Career Pathways: The Impact of an S-STEM Program on Lower-Income Computing Students}
  Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, Portland, Oregon.
  10.18260/1-2--47968

Nivedita Kumar, Stephen Secules, Maimuna Begum Kali, Tiana Solis, Atota Bedane Halkiyo, Mark Allen Weiss, Michael Georgiopoulos, Jacqueline Faith Sullivan, Ken Christensen P.E., and Angela Estacion.  "Shifts in Perceptions of Career Pathways: The Impact of an S-STEM Program on Lower-Income Computing Students".  2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon, 2024, June.  ASEE Conferences, 2024.  https://peer.asee.org/47968 Internet.  15 Dec, 2024

\bibitem{asee_peer_47968}
  Nivedita Kumar, Stephen Secules, Maimuna Begum Kali, Tiana Solis, Atota Bedane Halkiyo, Mark Allen Weiss, Michael Georgiopoulos, Jacqueline Faith Sullivan, Ken Christensen P.E., and Angela Estacion.
  "Shifts in Perceptions of Career Pathways: The Impact of an S-STEM Program on Lower-Income Computing Students".
  \emph{2024 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, Portland, Oregon, 2024, June}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2024.
  https://peer.asee.org/47968 Internet.  15 Dec, 2024

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_47968
author = "Nivedita Kumar, Stephen Secules, Maimuna Begum Kali, Tiana Solis, Atota Bedane Halkiyo, Mark Allen Weiss, Michael Georgiopoulos, Jacqueline Faith Sullivan, Ken Christensen P.E., and Angela Estacion"
title = "Shifts in Perceptions of Career Pathways: The Impact of an S-STEM Program on Lower-Income Computing Students"
booktitle = "2024 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition"
year = "2024"
month = "June"
address = "Portland, Oregon"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://peer.asee.org/47968}
number = {10.18260/1-2--47968}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Background
Research on broadening participation in computing tends to focus on self-efficacy, identity, teaching impacts, and retention of students within computing education. Comparatively, less research focuses on students’ career pathways, perceptions of career pathways, and co-curricular support interventions to support their career pathways.
Context
This study is part of ProgramName, an NSF-funded S-STEM collaborative effort among three public universities - University1, University2, and University3 – to support lower-income students pursuing computer science, information technology, cybersecurity, and computer engineering degrees, provides financial assistance based on their unmet financial needs and co-curricular activities to support three main computing career pathways: research (graduate school), internship (industry profession), and entrepreneurship.
Purpose
To better support and understand the impact of the program initiatives, this paper focuses on how ProgramName’s co-curricular activities impact students’ perceptions of career pathways. We present a matched pairs analysis of pre-and post-survey of the cohort’s perspectives of their future career pathways. This survey focuses on the students’ self-assessed knowledge/understanding, interest, and likeliness of choosing each career pathway.
Theoretical Framework and Research Question:
We draw on Lee’s (2019) metaphors that guide broadening participation discussions: pipeline, pathway, ecosystem. Drawing on pathway and ecosystem metaphors as theoretical guidance, we emphasize that all the stakeholders in a computing education ecosystem can support a student’s trajectory toward diverse career pathways.
Design/Method
As the education research team on this larger scholarship support program, we conducted a pre-and post-survey for the cohort in Fall 2022 and Spring 2023. These items were developed from our findings in an interview study conducted at one participating university in Fall 2021. Using R, we performed a matched pairs t-test to understand how the program activities impacted their knowledge and interests in the career pathways.
Findings
Our findings suggest that students generally gained knowledge and understanding of each career pathway but did not have a significant shift in interest towards or away from any specific career pathway. However, some statements were close to significant and may exhibit significance with a larger sample size. These patterns may be explored in a subsequent multiple cohorts for greater statistical power. We conceive of student interest not as fixed but as a data point to allow local program leaders to adjust their presentation, shift their language, and address specific pressing questions or fears we find students hold about the pathways.
Implications
First, this research contributes to the literature on computing education literature by our integrated approach to considering the ecosystem of the ProgramName intervention program and the student perceptions of their computing career pathways. Secondly, we emphasize the idea of meeting students where they are and using tools like surveys and interviews to understand their perspective. By gaining a sense of where students are, programs can increase their ability to meet students where they are and these actionable recommendations for S-STEM initiatives and other interventions focused on career pathways can enhance their impact by refining the focus of their content and messaging for lower-income students.

AU  - Nivedita Kumar
AU  - Stephen Secules
AU  - Maimuna Begum Kali
AU  - Tiana Solis
AU  - Atota Bedane Halkiyo
AU  - Mark Allen Weiss
AU  - Michael Georgiopoulos
AU  - Jacqueline Faith Sullivan
AU  - Ken Christensen P.E.
AU  - Angela Estacion
CY  - Portland, Oregon
DA  - 2024/06/23
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Shifts in Perceptions of Career Pathways: The Impact of an S-STEM Program on Lower-Income Computing Students
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/47968
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--47968
ER  -