PILLARS OF SUCCESS: THE ROLE OF HISTORICALLY BLACK COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES (HBCUs) IN STEM UNDERGRADUATE PREPARATION LEADING TO GRADUATE SCHOOL PATHWAYS

Abstract

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) operate and are centered within the nexus of concerted nationwide efforts to advance the participation and success of Black students within the sciences, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines (STEM). Through an institution-level asset-based approach, this study aimed to further elucidate how undergraduate STEM preparation and success at HBCUs is linked to the transition into (and experiences within) graduate education. One hundred and fifty-one HBCU alumni from 37 unique HBCUs completed our HBCU Alumni Success survey. Factor analysis revealed 13 emerging components along three main touchpoints along alumni's graduate pathway: their HBCU undergraduate experiences, graduate application, and decision-making, as well as graduate school experiences. Cluster analysis further identified five unique clusters of alumni, revealing variation regarding the individual, institutional, and cultural factors that contributed to HBCU alumni's experiences within their graduate pathway. Specific attributes that characterized each unique cluster included (Cluster 1) experiencing challenges throughout their graduate pathway, (Cluster 2) variation in the sources of motivation that influenced graduate school choice, (Cluster 3) deliberation around attending graduate school, (Cluster 4) high commitment, success, and support in pursuit of a graduate degree, and (Cluster 5) high personal agency as well as faculty and research support within engineering. Implications for practice include capitalizing on the areas of success such as the impact of faculty mentorship and research opportunities.

Exploring the Excellence of HBCU Scientists and Engineers: The Development of an Alumni Success Instrument Linking Undergraduate Experiences to Graduate Pathways

“…The survey was designed as part of a larger study exploring the success cases of HBCUs in graduating STEM Black students who go onto obtain graduate degrees. As part of that study, the survey plays an exploratory role and will be used to prioritize institutions for recruitment for in-depth qualitative case studies [19]. To support this larger project and to allow us to explore the data without a pre-determined set of factors, the resulting survey will be analyzed first using exploratory factor analysis and then cluster analysis techniques.…”

“…Finally, we created the Twitter account, @STEMatHBCUs, to have an outlet for survey outreach as well as to supplement email outreach, especially given the current COVID-19 pandemic and various forms of communication being used. Our goals included reaching as many individuals who qualified for the survey as possible to conduct a cluster analysis as the basis for selecting institutions to recruit for a more in-depth qualitative study of these success cases (see [19] for more detail on the phases of this project). The survey was released via email and social media platforms (i.e.…”