Cultivating Graduate STEM Pathways: How Alliance-Based STEM Enrichment Programs Broker Opportunity for Students of Color

Ariana L Garcia,Tonisha B Lane,Blanca E Rincón

doi:10.3389/feduc.2021.667976

Ariana L Garcia, Tonisha B Lane + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2021.667976

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Abstract

To understand how higher education institutionsbrokergraduate opportunities for Students of Color (SOCs) in STEM, we employ a single case study of a Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) alliance. Drawing primarily from student interviews and informed bySmall’s (2006)organizational brokerage theory, our findings illuminate how 1) alliance-based STEM enrichment programs (SEPs) bridge social capitalviainterorganizational networks and 2) how SEP instability creates barriers to building the trust that is central to the brokerage process. We conclude with recommendations for future research and practice.

Highlights

Though Communities of Color (i.e., Blacks/African Americans, Hispanics/Latina/o/x, Native Americans) comprise approximately 33% of the U.S population (U.S Census Bureau, 2019), they only made up 12% of the graduate student population in STEM in 2019 (National Science Foundation, National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, 2019)
This study extends the literature in two important ways: 1) it explores the process of brokering graduate school-related resources through alliance-based STEM enrichment programs that aim to broaden participation in STEM as well as the forms of resources brokered; and 2) it helps us better understand how social capital facilitates the college to graduate school transition
We found that Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) alliance institutions brokered social capital for SOCs in STEM by exerting influence on key educational processes and facilitating the flow of graduate school-related information that enabled the accumulation of educational resources to promote student aspirations and entry into graduate school

Summary

Introduction

Though Communities of Color (i.e., Blacks/African Americans, Hispanics/Latina/o/x, Native Americans) comprise approximately 33% of the U.S population (U.S Census Bureau, 2019), they only made up 12% of the graduate student population in STEM in 2019 (National Science Foundation, National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, 2019). While a number of factors influence this disparity in the number of Students of Color (SOCs) in graduate STEM programs relative to their representation in the United States, research shows that students who have extensive social networks are more likely to attend graduate school (Martin, 2009). We know very little about how SOCs acquire and leverage their social capital to access graduate education. Social capital posits that an individual has access to resources (e.g., information, influence, social credentials) that are embedded in their social network and relationships. Much of the existing research on social capital and graduate education focuses on students in graduate school (Ovink and Veazey, 2011; Espino, 2014), not those seeking to access graduate school

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