2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Preparing students to navigate the sociotechnical complexity of energy transitions requires more than technical training. It demands that students connect disciplinary knowledge to policy, ethics, and societal responsibility. Yet little is known about how specific interdisciplinary courses shape the career thinking of individual students, particularly across engineering and non-engineering majors. The goal of this study was to investigate how students narrated their career motivation and career aspirations in relation to an interdisciplinary Sustainable Energy course, as described in post-course interview accounts. Using semi-structured interviews with 20 undergraduates who completed the course in Spring 2024 (n=10) or Spring 2025 (n=10) at a large public US university, we conducted thematic analysis of students' career-related narratives. Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) served as a theoretical lens to examine how students described self-efficacy beliefs, outcome expectations, and career goals in relation to their course experience. Five career orientation themes emerged: (1) direct interest in energy transition work, (2) policy, law, and governance pathways, (3) research and public engagement, (4) corporate responsibility and ethics, and (5) values-driven concern without a defined career path. Notably, the largest single group (seven students) expressed strong sustainability values but could not articulate how those values might connect to a specific career. Instead of developing a singular career destination, students narrated the course as broadening their sense of potential roles and responsibilities in sustainability though whether these orientations preceded or emerged from the course cannot be determined from post-course interviews alone. These findings suggest that interdisciplinary energy education functions more as a space for values clarification and career imagination than as a direct pipeline to sustainability careers. We call this pattern the "awareness-agency gap": students leave the course knowing they care but not knowing what they can do. This distinction carries important implications for course and program design: awareness and concern alone are insufficient; students need structured support to translate sustainability values into viable career pathways. Findings are interpreted as students' own narratives of course relevance rather than as evidence of direct causal influence.
Keywords: Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT), Career Motivation, Interdisciplinary Energy Education, Sustainability Education, Engineering Education, Qualitative Research, Awareness-agency Gap, Professional Identity