I almost talked myself out of STEM. So did many of the students I now dedicate my career to serving.
As a STEM Education Researcher and Evaluator, I am committed to strengthening career pathways for students from low-income, first-generation, and historically underrepresented communities. Over the past two semesters, my team, led by Jacob Marszalek, developed a STEM Self-Efficacy Scale for students transferring from community colleges into university systems, exploring how beliefs, confidence, and academic identity shape persistence in STEM.
We recently presented our scale development processes at the Council for the Study of Community Colleges (CSCC) 2026 Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, an energizing experience that deepened my conviction that this work matters.
"Completion and access are two different metrics."
This statement by Karen Kwan, the Keynote Presenter, has stayed with me since the conference. Access without intentionality is incomplete. When students walk through the door but don't feel they belong, the numbers tell only half the story. True access means creating environments where students don't just enter, they thrive.
Research shows that while underrepresented students enter STEM at increasing rates, fewer than 40% persist to graduation, a gap that points less to ability and more to belonging.
This raises a harder question: what happens after our students graduate? How do we ensure our investment in students today creates lasting impact, not just individual success, but a broader, more equitable STEM workforce?
Imposter syndrome is real. I still face it, despite years of professional growth. Now imagine students who haven't yet found their footing, those who have been conditioned to believe STEM success was never meant for them. As educators, we often underestimate how far our support travels. A single affirmation, a genuine moment of encouragement, we may never know how it pushes a student past the internal boundaries they had accepted as permanent.
Scholarships open doors. But belonging keeps students inside. Educators must go beyond transmitting occupational knowledge; we must build the relational environments where students develop identity, confidence, and community.
Let us be the gate through which underrepresented students walk into the futures they deserve. That is the only metric that truly counts.
I am grateful to be part of a community of scholars building these bridges, and I remain fully committed to research that strengthens STEM pathways for students who have been historically left behind.
This article was provided by Janet Arogundade, PhD Student, Educational Research, Measurement and Evaluation. University of North Carolina, Greensboro. Janet Arogundade is a STEM Education Researcher and Evaluator focused on equity, self-efficacy, and belonging in STEM.