2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

The need to diversify the engineering workforce is a national imperative, emphasizing broadening participation and fostering inclusivity. Achieving this goal necessitates comprehensively examining the educational pathways that nurture and launch talented individuals into engineering careers. The 2020 National Science Board, “Science and Engineering Labor Force,” Science & Engineering Indicators reveals a persistent underrepresentation of Black students in engineering disciplines. Within this group, there is further heterogeneity, with Black students of international origin often being overlooked. This study narrows its focus on these international Black students to understand their unique experiences better.

The systemic and cultural racial biases inherent within educational institutions contribute to the marked dearth of Black students in engineering doctoral programs. Even as research begins to unravel the experiences of Black Ph.D. students in engineering – from motivations and persistence to encounters with racial microaggressions – the disparity remains, underscoring the need for deeper exploration.

Utilizing autoethnography, this study illuminates the journey of a Black female engineer from Nigeria during her inaugural semester in a U.S.-based civil engineering Ph.D. program. The research hinges on two pivotal questions: what early challenges did she confront, and how did she traverse them? To answer these questions, reflective journals and audio diaries maintained consistently by the researcher were employed. These data sources were subjected to inductive coding via Dedoose to tease out dominant themes.

This research findings highlight critical challenges this international student faces, from grappling with communication barriers and acclimatizing to the U.S. academic landscape to technological adjustments and fostering trust in her academic environment. Intriguingly, the student drew upon her deep understanding of social connections, commonly called 'Ima Nmadu' in Nigeria, which translates to "It's not what you know, it's who you know." Coupled with keen self-reflection and unwavering dedication, these networks became pivotal in surmounting the identified challenges.

The intertwined roles of social and navigational capital become evident, proving indispensable in shepherding students through the tumultuous initial phases of graduate school. By unveiling and addressing Black international Ph.D. students’ distinct challenges, this study amplifies the clarion call for fostering participation and inclusivity in engineering doctoral programs.