Increasing Hispanic STEM Majors’ Persistence to Degree: An Initiative to Harness Family Support

Abstract

Spanish

A fraction of the highly lucrative scientific, biomedical, and technology workforce is Hispanic. At all levels of scientific training, Hispanic students drop out at higher rates than their White and Asian peers. Hispanic college students often attend local colleges and live with their families. We created and evaluated an initiative based on Balanced Identity Design and Utility-Value theories to leverage families as a powerful resource for supporting Hispanic students’ engagement and persistence as STEM majors.

Keywords

retention strategy Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI)parents Latina(o)family Mexican American first-generation intervention identity balance STEM biomedical sciences utility-value

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