How Science Careers Are Made: Apartment Rentals & Transit Vouchers

This study began with a programmatic focus – researchers wanted to understand how to support young people in STEM career paths with a program designed to support interns at a science research organization. As data collection began, researchers realized that the study’s questions were generalizable and relevant to other researchers, educators, HR professionals, and university administrators. <br><br>The study began with the understanding that internships are a key part of young people’s transition from undergraduate education to graduate programs and the workforce. However, systems in both higher education and professional settings have been shown to marginalize and undermine the prospects of students whose identities lie outside of those of the dominant groups. This study’s purpose was to understand the experiences of minoritized young people in applying for and working in STEM internships – and how those experiences shaped their perspectives of career pathways in STEM fields. To shed light on this issue, researchers conducted 12 long-form group interviews with 45 participants, representing a wide variety of US higher education institutions and geographies. Results were wide-ranging and illuminated the types of barriers that young people encounter at every step of the process, as well as the types of support they have experienced or wished they could have. <br><br>The research team did an extensive analysis of one part of the dataset, focusing on the critical nature of logistics when it comes to making decisions about internships. Participants described logistics as the basic resources – housing, transportation, food, safety, and compensation – which often have little to do with the STEM content of the internship itself. For young people, the relative accessibility of each resource is interrelated and measured against the others. Together, the availability of resources determines both the positions students apply for and the offers they accept. These findings have implications for efforts to make STEM career paths accessible to young people from diverse backgrounds. <br><br>The full dataset also contains information on the reasons that young people pursue STEM study and careers, the types of internships and work experiences they have participated in, the relevance of different types of coursework for careers (as well as the gaps therein), and the emotional experience of finding, applying to, and engaging in internships. <br><br>The research team has prepared a manuscript about the results relating to logistics, which is currently in review, as of April 2025. <br><br>Provided in this data collection is the full codebook, the excerpts collected under the "logistics" code, and an example of the script used during data collection as well as an informed consent form for participants.

本研究最初聚焦于项目层面——研究人员希望通过为某科学研究机构实习生设计的支持项目，探究如何助力年轻人走上STEM职业道路。<br><br>随着数据收集工作的启动，研究人员意识到本研究的问题具有普适性，且对其他研究人员、教育工作者、人力资源专业人士及高校管理者均具有参考价值。<br><br>本研究的出发点在于认识到实习是年轻人从本科教育向研究生阶段及职场过渡的关键环节。然而，已有研究表明，高等教育与职业场景中的现有体系往往会边缘化那些身份不属于主流群体的学生，并削弱其发展前景。本研究旨在探究边缘化背景年轻人申请及参与STEM实习的经历，以及这些经历如何塑造他们对STEM领域职业路径的认知。为阐明这一问题，研究人员对45名参与者开展了12场长形式小组访谈，这些参与者来自美国各类高等教育机构，覆盖不同地域。研究结果涵盖范围广泛，既揭示了年轻人在实习申请及参与过程各阶段面临的障碍类型，也呈现了他们已获得或期望获得的支持类型。<br><br>研究团队对数据集的一部分进行了深入分析，重点关注实习决策中后勤因素的关键作用。参与者将后勤因素定义为基本资源——包括住宿、交通、餐饮、安全及薪酬——这些因素通常与实习本身的STEM内容关联不大。对年轻人而言，各类资源的相对可及性相互关联且需综合考量。资源的可获得性共同决定了学生申请的岗位及最终接受的offer。这些发现对推动不同背景年轻人可及STEM职业路径的相关举措具有启示意义。<br><br>完整数据集还包含以下信息：年轻人选择STEM学习及职业的原因、参与过的实习及工作经历类型、各类课程对职业的相关性（及其中存在的差距），以及寻找、申请和参与实习过程中的情感体验。<br><br>截至2025年4月，研究团队已完成一份关于后勤因素相关结果的手稿，目前该手稿正处于评审阶段。<br><br>本数据集包含完整的编码手册、‘后勤’编码下的摘录内容、数据收集所用脚本示例，以及参与者知情同意书。