THE (NOT-SO) GREAT OUTDOORS: WHAT FACTORS ARE MOST IMPORTANT IN CAREERS FOR UNDERREPRESENTED MINORITY STUDENTS?

Over the past several decades, there have been significant efforts made toward broadening participation of underrepresented minority (URM) students within the geosciences. These efforts have been met with mixed success, and diversity in the geosciences remains the lowest among STEM majors. In order to more successfully recruit URM students, it is important to understand what they value most in an ideal career early in their college experience, so efforts can be tailored to target those ideals, thereby recruiting more URM students to the geosciences. This study reports survey results from students enrolled in a college algebra course at a large, urban, Hispanic-serving, R-1 public university in the southwestern United States. The data spans several semesters, from Fall 2018 through Spring 2020. The online survey was composed of demographic questions as well as questions using the Likert scale, in which students rated how much they agreed or disagreed with a particular statement regarding descriptions of their “ideal career.” A total of 1611 student surveys are included in the statistical analyses. Of these students, 33.8% identified as Hispanic, 29.0% as white, 19.4% as African American, 14.3% as Asian, 3.3% as other, and 0.2% as Native American. The ethnicity demographics of the population is unique compared to previously reported data, with a large sample size allowing for robust comparisons. On average, all students cared very little (i.e., reported “neutral”) about working outdoors or in an office. Although all students rated two factors most important, “helping people and society” as well as “helping the environment,” URM students rated these higher than did nonminority students. Similarly, these factors were rated more important by female students than by male students. Two factors, “making a lot of money” and “having prestige” were, on average, regarded as important for all students; however, the number of students reporting “neutral” for these factors is much higher than the previous two factors. These results show how all students early in their college coursework, particularly URM students, value careers that have the potential to help people, society, and the environment. Thus, it is important to more effectively emphasize altruistic outcomes of the geosciences in order to recruit URM students.