Developing an engineering leadership identity.

This article posits the importance of viewing leadership development in engineering through an identity lens. The model presented shows the development of an engineering leadership identity at the intersection of engineering and leadership identities and explores that development through the findings from two national surveys with additional support from a deeper investigation using student focus groups.

Factors Influencing Retention of Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Students in Undergraduate STEM Majors.

Despite calls for improved data-collection efforts tracking transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) people in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, there have been no reports of TGNC continuation in STEM majors at the university level. Using national, longitudinal data from the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles, we analyzed the experiences of 20,910 students who indicated an initial intent to major in a STEM field and found that TGNC students ( = 117) continue in STEM majors at a rate ∼10% lower than their cisgender peers. This gap persists despite TGNC students' high levels of academic ability and academic self-confidence.

Don't Be Too Political: Depoliticization, Sexual Orientation, and Undergraduate STEM Major Persistence.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer (LGBQ) students persist in STEM majors at a lower rate than their heterosexual peers. This study posits that heteronormativity, as an instance of depoliticization in STEM affecting LGBQ students, could be a primary contributing factor. Using national, longitudinal data from the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) at UCLA, this study tested LGBQ-related college experiences to determine if they help explain the retention gap between LGBQ STEM students and their heterosexual peers.

Coming out in STEM: Factors affecting retention of sexual minority STEM students.

Using a national longitudinal survey data set from the Higher Education Research Institute, this study tested whether students who identified as a sexual minority (for example, lesbian, gay, bisexual, or queer) were more or less likely to persist after 4 years in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, as opposed to switching to a non-STEM program, compared to their heterosexual peers. A multilevel regression model controlling for various experiences and characteristics previously determined to predict retention in STEM demonstrated that, net of these variables, sexual minority students were 8% less likely to be retained in STEM compared to switching into a non-STEM program. Despite this finding, sexual minority STEM students were more likely to report participating in undergraduate research programs, and the gender disparity in STEM retention appears to be reversed for sexual minority STEM students.