Centers institutes & labs

Career-Ready Latinx Youth

BU Wheelock–Sociedad Latina collaboration aims to steer high-needs Boston adolescents toward careers in STEM

Can teaching Latinx middle-schoolers network science and career development steer more of them toward careers in science, technology, engineering, and math—also known as STEM?

That’s the hypothesis of a joint study between researchers at BU Wheelock’s Center for Future Readiness and Boston-based nonprofit Sociedad Latina. Using new and previously developed curricula, the collaborative project team facilitates after-school courses at three Boston middle schools that enable students to explore careers in fields like data analysis and visualization, network science modeling, and computational thinking. Additionally, a course called My Career and Academic Plan, or MyCAP, leads students to think about their unique traits, identifying barriers to their academic success, as well as why and how to set goals and potential career paths for their skills and interests—especially in STEM fields. Hispanic workers comprise only 8 percent of the STEM workforce, despite representing 17 percent of total employment across all occupations, according to the Pew Research Center.

“COVID has completely disrupted youth engagement and intentions to pursue postsecondary education,” says V. Scott H. Solberg, a professor and codirector of the Center for Future Readiness. “Nowhere is this more evident than among youth of color and youth living in lower-income households. This project strives to enable youth to feel confident in using a range of data science skills and connect them to role models who encourage them to believe in their ability to pursue high-wage STEM occupations.”

In addition to the network science curriculum and career development supports for students, project team members engage with students’ families around their goals and progress, while providing professional development for educators. BU researchers then apply evaluation metrics to both curriculum modules and the collaboration. Now more  than halfway into the four-year, $1.5 million  National Science Foundation grant, preliminary findings have shown that students have been confidently able to understand and describe concepts discussed in network science lessons and that career development content “helped youth become more aware of their skills and talent,” according to Chong Myung Park, a  research scientist in counseling psychology and applied human development who manages the STEM project for the Center for Future Readiness.

Besides Solberg and Park, project team members include Center codirector Kimberly Howard, an associate professor of counseling and human development, Paul Trunfio, a senior research scientist of physics, and several master’s and doctoral students.