Does Outreach Impact Choices of Major for Underrepresented Undergraduate Students?

Over the last decade, there has been a concerted effort to bring more diverse voices to the technology field, with much of this being done through outreach activities to girls and boys. Unfortunately, data demonstrating the long-term impact of outreach activities remains rare. To contribute to knowledge on the longitudinal effect of outreach programs, we used a quantitative methodology that followed a descriptive design approach to explore the impact of participation in outreach activities on the choice of undergraduate major. Of those surveyed, 45.3% of the 770 respondents recalled participating in these activities. The results indicate that these activities had a more positive impact on Asians and more negative impact on Hispanics. Blacks/African Americans were more likely to voluntarily participate in outreach activities than Hispanics, and whites were more likely to feel that they were a welcome part of the group than non-whites. The results also may indicate that when outreach programs are available in earlier grades, they are not reaching non-white participants to the same extent as white participants.

在过去十年中，人们齐心协力为科技领域带来更多元化的声音，其中很多是通过针对女孩和男孩的外展活动来实现的。不幸的是，能够证明外展活动长期影响的数据仍然很少。为了增加关于外展项目纵向效应的知识，我们采用了一种遵循描述性设计方法的定量方法，以探究参与外展活动对本科专业选择的影响。在接受调查的770名受访者中，45.3%的人回忆起参加过这些活动。结果表明，这些活动对亚洲人有更积极的影响，对西班牙裔有更消极的影响。黑人/非裔美国人比西班牙裔更有可能自愿参与外展活动，白人比非白人更有可能觉得自己是群体中受欢迎的一部分。结果还可能表明，当外展项目在较低年级开展时，它们对非白人参与者的覆盖程度不如对白人参与者的覆盖程度。