The research team has begun our second phase of data collection nationally.
For this second phase, we are following up with the more than 500 student service members and veterans and 700 civilian students we surveyed in the spring of 2023 at Middle Tennessee State University, the University of Maryland, the University of Texas-San Antonio, the University of New Mexico, and Wright State University. We are also conducting a second round of interviews with service members and veterans who we interviewed in 2023.
Our central goal is to better understand the STEM trajectories these students have been on since we last spoke–chiefly whether they’re still in college, have graduated and gone on to further schooling or careers, or have taken other paths. We are most interested in how their social support networks have influenced their STEM journeys.
This round of data collection commenced in October and will come to a close in December 2024. After collecting these data, we will analyze our data to create reports, scholarly papers, and presentations that we hope can inform STEM educators, student affairs practitioners, higher education leaders, scholars, and other interested stakeholders.