2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This work in progress paper reflects on the unique undergraduate engineering experiences of engineers who identify as Central Appalachian. In terms of engineering education access and job opportunities, the inhabitants of Central Appalachia have historically faced a unique set of challenges. Prior studies have shown that within the region, companies that employ engineers have difficulty hiring and retaining engineers. In a related project that looks at ways young Appalachian students come to be interested in becoming an engineer, several companies reported a need for an increase in the number of engineers local to the region. Job creation and access to higher education within the region has been proven difficult because of the isolation and rugged terrain of mountainous geography. This isolation has limited infrastructure that supports industry and provides the resources desired by people who could be enticed to live and work in the area.

On the campuses of major universities, Central Appalachian students are often marginalized because these educational spaces were not created with their needs and experiences in mind. By asking the primary research question, “What types of cultural capital did self-identified Appalachian Engineers use during their undergraduate engineering experience to become workforce-ready engineers?” This study’s asset-based approach looks at the unique cultural capital these students hold and uses their stories of success to provide paths forward for tomorrow’s engineering students from the Central Appalachia region.

This study employs the framework of Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) to understand how engineering students of Central Appalachia develop interests, make choices, and achieve success in their academic and career experiences. The aspect of SCCT that concentrates on empowering these students to leverage their cultural capital for success can be structured around tenets of Community Cultural Wealth (CCW). This theoretical framework focuses on positioning oneself for success in a domain not created with one in mind. The CCW tenets that were applied in this study include social, familial and navigational capital. These tenets help identify and organize ways undergraduate engineering students from Central Appalachia can come to recognize and leverage their strengths to become workforce-ready engineers.

This qualitative study will use interviews to collect stories of participants’ lived experiences through questions about the participant’s feelings towards their current job, childhood experiences, transition to college, college experiences, transition to career and broader impacts. The interview protocol was adapted from prior works to address the research question through the lenses of SCCT and CCW. Selective and snowball sampling will be used to identify six practicing engineers who identify as Central Appalachian to participate in this study.

There are two anticipated outcomes of this study: 1) To provide educators with resources that leverage the assets and successful experiences of Central Appalachian undergraduate students to identify and employ effective practices that ensure success for current and future students. 2) To use stories that resonate with Central Appalachian engineering students to provide current and future students with an embodiment of who they could become as an engineer.