Exploring How Socioeconomic Status and the S-STEM Scholarship Influence Engineering Identity Development for Community College Students

Abstract

Developing an engineering identity is crucial for students pursuing an engineering degree. Community college students may experience greater difficulty building and maintaining engineering identities than their peers at 4-year universities. The purpose of the present study is to examine how socioeconomic status (SES) and the S-STEM scholarship, a program funded by the National Science Foundation, influence engineering identity development for community college students. Eight engineering students from a community college in the Midwest were interviewed. The data were analyzed using a phenomenological approach. Analyses revealed three key findings: (1) regardless of SES status, the S-STEM scholarship allowed students to focus on developing and maintaining an engineering identity, (2) financial security and engineering identity development share a meaningful relationship for low-income and first-generation students, and (3) the community college experience for engineering students may be marked by transfer identity complications and disruptions in engineering identity.