Helping Latinas onway to STEM degrees
UH gets $1.3 million federal grant to use in examining their experiences, finding what strategies might assist them
The University of Houston has received $1.3 million from the National Science Foundation to assist female Hispanic or Latina STEM majors at Hispanic-serving institutions throughout the state.
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, made the announcement Tuesday about the federal grant, which will be awarded to UH over five years.
“Investing in the next generation of Texas STEM leaders will provide those students with invaluable skills now and keep Texas’ economy strong in the future,” Cornyn said in a written statement. “I commend local leaders for their successful grant application and thank the National Science Foundation for investing in Hispanic students at the University of Houston.”
Elsa Gonzalez, an assistant professor and research specialist in higher education leadership at UH, will lead the project, examining the experiences of Latina science, technology, engineering and math majors through various studies, which include interviews and focus groups, and observing how the influence of family history and college experience, their socioeconomic background, cultural and racial identity and community influence might have an effect on their experiences.
“Every individual brings a cultural background” to their field, Gonzalez said.
The projectwill examine the experiences of Latina students pursuing STEM from the moment they start college through senior year and after graduation. The goal: find out what mentoring strategies can assist these students. The project will work in collaboration with Texas A&M University’s flagship in College Station and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, where student populations are 25 percent and 48 percent Hispanic, respectively, according to Gonzalez.
onzalez wants to implement cultural mentoring, where senior Latina STEM major scan help Latina freshmen, and other efforts. Interviews, focus groups and conversations will test how the strategies work.
Gonzalez, who has worked at UH for four years, said her research into Latina STEM majors started about eight years ago at Texas A&Min College Station. Latina students began sharing their experiences and the challenges of pursuing STEM studies.
“When I started eight years ago, I’m finding the same results, and students, they are sharing the same experience,” said Gonzalez, noting that many students talked about being the only Latina in their classroom, and that while some students successfully stuck with their STEM major, others opted for different programs of study.
At UH, 13,803, or 36 percent, of the college’s student population identifies as Hispanic, and of its 11,000-plus STEM majors, 10 percent were Latina. But retention remains an issue, Gonzalez said. Roughly only 2 percent of Latinas graduate in STEM at the university. During the 2017-2019 academic year, only 222 Latinas earned a STEM degree.
Nationally, the under-representation of Hispanic and Latina women in STEM programs is also apparent.
National Center for Education Statistics data for the 2017-2018 academic year showed that about 11 percent of STEM degrees or certificates were awarded to Hispanic students in the U.S. despite Hispanics being 16 percent of the working population. For Hispanic women, whomade up about 8 percent of the working population in 2018, the numbers were even more dire. They accounted for 4 percent of those who earned bachelor’s degrees in STEM and roughly 2 percent of those who earned master’s and doctoral degrees in STEM in the 2017-2018 academic year.
“Why are they not there?” Gonzalez said she asked herself about the lack of Latina students in STEM. “And for the ones who are there and decide to stay, what do we need to learn from them?”
Gonzalez said her oldest daughter put her research into perspective. Her then-10-year-old said no one looked like her in one of her STEM classes. Most of the children in the girl’s class were male and of Asian descent.
She said her research became very real, right in front of her eyes.
“It was a serendipitous moment. I knew this is what I want to pursue. Something can be done.… We have increasing numbers of students who want to pursue STEM,” said Gonzalez, whose daughter, now 18, is a biomedical engineering major pursuing research.
Now, Gonzalez is excited to figure out not only what’s at the root of some of the challenges for Latinas in STEM, butwhat’s at the core of their successes and how educators and mentors can help see them through to graduation.
“Wewant to identify all those interventions and help them to be successful now to replicate at other institutions,” Gonzalez said.
“We don’t just want them to be there. They want to be there, and we want to show their intention and passion.”