Coté Laleh E, Van Doren Seth, Zamora Astrid N, Jaramillo Salcido Julio, Law Esther W, Munoz Gabriel Otero, Manocha Aparna, Flood Colette L, Baranger Anne M
Workforce Development & Education, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, United States of America.
Graduate Group in Science & Mathematics Education (SESAME), University of California-Berkeley, Berkeley, California, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2025 Jan 14;20(1):e0317403. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0317403. eCollection 2025.
Participation in technical/research internships may improve undergraduate graduation rates and persistence in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), yet little is known about the benefits of these activities a) for community college students, b) when hosted by national laboratories, and c) beyond the first few years after the internship. We applied Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) to investigate alumni perspectives about how CCI at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) impacted their academic/career activities. We learned that alumni had low confidence and expectations of success in STEM as community college students. Participation in CCI increased their professional networks, expectations of success, and STEM skills, identity, and self-efficacy/confidence. Hispanic/Latinx alumni recalled the positive impact of mentors who prioritized personal connections, and women valued "warm" social environments. We propose several additions to the SCCT model, to better reflect the supports and barriers to STEM persistence for community college students.
参与技术/研究实习可能会提高本科毕业率，并增强学生在科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）领域的坚持度，但对于这些活动的益处，我们知之甚少：a）对于社区学院的学生；b）当由国家实验室主办时；c）在实习后的头几年之后。我们应用社会认知职业理论（SCCT）来调查校友对于劳伦斯伯克利国家实验室（LBNL）的社区学院实习项目（CCI）如何影响他们的学术/职业活动的看法。我们了解到，作为社区学院的学生，校友们在STEM领域的自信心和成功期望较低。参与CCI增加了他们的专业人脉、成功期望以及STEM技能、身份认同和自我效能感/自信心。西班牙裔/拉丁裔校友回忆起那些重视人际关系的导师所产生的积极影响，而女性则看重“温暖”的社交环境。我们建议对SCCT模型进行若干补充，以更好地反映社区学院学生在STEM领域坚持发展所面临的支持和障碍。
