Prior scholarship on brodening participation in computing indicates that in general, students’ participating in different activities and courses help them inform their choices about their post-graduation plans. However, the factors influencing lower-income students’ career decisions specifically are underexplored. Hence, for scholarship support programs to further broaden participation and better support lower-income students in computing, it is critical to know their viewpoints on various factors associated with the different career pathways for their post-graduation plans. This study stems from the year-end survey, disseminated in Spring 2022 as a part of an NSF-funded S-STEM scholarship program across three collaborating public research universities in the Southeast United States to support lower-income students pursuing a degree in computing. Our research seeks to understand the relationships between the factors influencing the participants’ decision to pursue three career pathways. Our findings will inform program development and future research by establishing the importance of exploring the relationships between personal priorities, demographics, and career pathway selections.
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