There is a national interest in increasing the number of qualified STEM professionals from underrepresented minority (URM) groups. As a consequence, URM science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) organizations, such as the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) and other URM student-oriented organizations that provide academic and career resources, are widely used on college and university campuses across the nation to support URM STEM students’ success in attaining their STEM degrees. Although continued federal financial support of URM STEM organizations implies that these programs are effective, very little research has been done to examine the success of URM STEM organizations from the participating students’ perspectives. Future developments of URM STEM organizations should be informed by the voices of the populations they serve: the students of URM groups. In this study, we asked post-secondary URM STEM students to identify the specific ways that the URM STEM organizations in which they participate influence their abilities to see themselves as scientists (their science identities). In this presentation, we will discuss the students’ perceptions of the specific features of URM STEM organizations that students believe have an effect on their science identities.<br/>

Underrepresented minority STEM organizations and science identity

255th National Meeting (2018)

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