2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Factors Affecting the Future Career Pathway Decisions of Lower-income Computing Students

Presented at Computing and Information Technology Division (CIT) Technical Session 7

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.

Authors
  1. Bailey Bond-Trittipo Florida International University
  2. Dr. Mark Allen Weiss Florida International University [biography]
  3. Dr. Michael Georgiopoulos University of Central Florida [biography]
  4. Dr. Ken Christensen P.E. University of South Florida [biography]
  5. Mrs. Jacqueline Faith Sullivan University of Central Florida [biography]
Download paper (1.75 MB)

Are you a researcher? Would you like to cite this paper? Visit the ASEE document repository at peer.asee.org for more tools and easy citations.

» Download paper

« View session

For those interested in:

  • computer science
  • Socio-Economic Status
  • undergraduate