[neact] Fwd: STEM Ed Announcement: Becky Packard, Mt Holyoke, Women and STEM, 11/17


The Science, Technology and Society Initiative presents



"Mentoring and Persistence among Lower-Income First Generation College
Students in STEM"



Becky Wai-Ling Packard, Associate Professor of Psychology and Education, Mt
Holyoke College.



Monday, November 17, 2008; 4 -5 p.m. Campus Center room 803



Abstract: Increasing the diversity of the STEM workforce has been an issue
of national concern for decades. African American and Latino students, from
working class families, are significantly underrepresented in science and
technical fields, and this is especially the case for female students within
computer science and engineering. Over half of first generation,
lower-income Latinos and African American students use two-year colleges, or
trade colleges, as an entry point to the four-year degree, but so few
actually complete these pathways. Thus, research is warranted to better
understand the experiences of ethnically diverse working class women and men
within these complex pathways. My research, guided broadly by an ecological
perspective that highlights the importance of macro-economic factors and
multiple contexts (e.g., home, school, and work), has focused on the
mentoring experienced by lower-income students as they strive to ?Äúget on
track?Äù and persist toward a four-year STEM degree. Drawing upon longitudinal
survey and interview data with high school students, trade college students,
community college, and university students, I have investigated how
particular functions of mentoring are associated with STEM persistence. I
will describe examples of essential instrumental functions of mentoring and
productive mentoring constellations, articulate a need for greater
organizational infrastructures for mentoring, and point to implications for
designing mentoring interventions, governmental aid for students pursuing
higher education, and transfer program designs that link shorter-term
certificate and degree programs to four-year degree programs.



Biography: Dr. Packard is an expert on mentoring, motivation, and identity.
She studies the persistence of women, minorities, and first-generation
college students in non-traditional fields such as science and technology
fields; how students can maximize their access to mentoring; and how young
people from low-income backgrounds, especially urban ethnic minority
students, strive to pursue higher education in many forms and participate in
science and technology fields. Ultimately, she aims to identify success
strategies that support motivation and turn aspirations into realities.



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