Family Helps Transform the STEM Pathways of Community College Women of Color STEM Majors

A “critical access point in the STEM pipeline for Latinx students and other students of color” (Herrera et al., 2018), community colleges provide a seminal breeding ground for academic pursuits (Bahr et al., 2017). However, how personal networks influence STEM pathways of two-year college students remains largely unexplored. This mixed methods case study explores influence of personal networks on pursuing STEM fields via social network analysis and qualitative narratives. 36 women of color STEM majors at a two-year urban Hispanic-Serving Institution were interviewed via social network questionnaire. Participants nominated anyone who has influenced their STEM trajectory, which signifies influence to their reason for pursuing a STEM path; they also had an option to qualitatively elaborate on any nomination but this was not required. Nominations were counted towards degree centrality and categorized into social relationships. Participants nominated diverse relationship influences, with family as the most influential relationship group, followed by college faculty/staff. Qualitative narratives revealed that family influenced participants, regardless of relatives’ educational attainment level at the high school or lower level. In alignment with community cultural wealth, family members provided the impetus for pursuing STEM pathways through influence on participants’ (1) aspirational capital, (2) familial capital, and (3) resistant capital.