2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

While a lucrative and growing field, low levels of gender and racial diversity in Computer Science (CS) remain prevalent. Education and workforce support programs with the intention to promote underrepresented students’ persistence in CS exist, which teach CS skills, inform of career options, and grow students’ networks in CS. Studies have demonstrated these programs’ effectiveness as it relates to changes in affective outcomes, such as participants’ confidence in CS skills and attitudes towards CS jobs. However, the longitudinal impact of CS support programs on participants' build-up of social capital in CS, and the resulting social capital’s influence on their persistence in the field, remain unexplored. Motivated by the literature that associates demographic identifiers with access to social capital, and students’ access to developmental relationships and career-related resources (social capital) in CS with their persistence, this study explores a CS support program’s impact on persistence through capital building. We focus on Google’s Computer Science Summer Institute (CSSI), which provided graduating high school students with a 3-week-long introduction to CS. We use interviews with participants that are now 2-5 years out of the program to study CSSI’s impact on their social capital and long-term persistence in CS. Thematic analysis reveals three features of the program that influenced students’ build-up of social capital, and that the resulting persistence was realized through students’ progress towards internships in CS and goals for paying-it-forward in CS. These findings inform our recommendations that future CS support programs and educational settings consider mentorship centered on socioemotional support, opportunities for collaboration, and time for fun social activities. Additional suggestions center on engaging socially-oriented individuals with CS support programs. These insights inform facilitators and educators in CS on design choices that can encourage the persistence of underrepresented students in CS.