Research

“Eyes were watching me”: Undergraduate women’s experiences in computing internships across modalities (2025, The Review of Higher Education)

• • Internship modality is dynamic and "virtual" and "in-person" classifications are rarely discrete. 

  • Virtual environments often rendered women interns' skills, knowledge, and contributions invisible

  • Virtual environments provided women with greater agency over their image and visibility in professional environments

  • In-person internships occasionally led to situations of physical vulnerability, and heightened awareness of difference, underrepresentation, and bias.

  • In-person environments fostered unique opportunities for informal relationship building, especially with proximal colleagues of shared identities

“Do I even belong?”: Internships as gendered career socialization experiences in engineering (2025, Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, with Ben Pincus, Annie Wofford, & Breann Branch)

• • Engineering internships helped gender minoritizied students build skills and understand how their knowledge fit within the workplace

  • Managerial and organizational support were critical to interns' access to learning opportunities and their overall experiences

  • Participants' gender, race/ethnicity, age, and intern status shaped their interactions with colleagues and the way they were perceived in work environments

  • Internships helped participants clarify their career interests and access future opportunities

Sealing the deal: Factors that promote computing interns’ interest in computing careers (2024, Proceedings of the 55th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, with Kathleen Lehman, Kaitlyn Stormes, & Julia Lapan)

• • Computing students believe that internships increased their professional skills and awareness of skills valued in the workplace.

  • Perceived growth in one's professional skillset during internships was a strong predictor of student interest in computing careers

  • Compared to men, white and Asian women were more likely to report that their internship increased their technical skills

  • Interning in an environment with same-gender peers was associated with increased interest in a computing career

“A whole cycle all over again”: The graduate school considerations and plans of first-generation bachelor’s students (2025, Journal of First-Generation Student Success)

• • There is bidirectional relationship between student career aspirations and graduate school plans: 

    • Students may plan to attend grad school because it is required for their career of interest, but grad program structures also shaped career goals. 

    • Graduate programs perceived to be too long or too expensive deterred student interest in related careers.

  • Dual degree or "plus" programs (e.g., 4+1 programs) that provide a direct path between bachelor's and graduate programs were attractive to participants

Understanding first-generation and continuing-generation graduates’ decisions to pursue PhD programs in biological science (2025, Journal of First-Generation Student Success, with Lauren Nutinsky, Maria Walls, Maria Zimmerman, Jessica Hallstrom, Brandi Crawford)

• • Four influences shaped bioscience PhD students' decisions to pursue these paths: 

    • Prior research experiences, which built skills and provided career information and social models 

    • Social support for pursuing a PhD in bioscience (in science and academia, or personal)

    • The desire for career autonomy, and to make an impact on society

    • They were accepted to a program that fit their needs, including financially

  • Some differences were observed between first- and continuing-generation students:

    • Structured research support programs were important to  first-gen students, and Students of Color

    • While continuing-gen students could sometimes rely on parents for social and navigational support, first-gen students relied mostly on undergrad connections

“Our branches are the vines that must bear fruit”: The role of parents in first-generation students’ career development (2023, Journal of Postsecondary Student Success)

• • Parents of first-generation students supported their students' career development by facilitating pre-college opportunities and contributing financially

  • Parents instilled career values, especially related to the importance of ethic, and gave career advice, often encouraging students to pursue careers they perceived as high-status

  • Some participants identified career goals from their parents' experiences and related societal needs

  • Participants' success was largely motivated by the desire to give back to their parents and families 

Effects of federal student loans on college student retention, transfer, and dropout (2024, Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Practice, with Rong Chen)

• • First-year students who borrowed $100-$5,499 in federal student loans were more likely to transfer institutions than those with no loans. The increase in transfer was largest among Black students. 

  • First-year students who had $5,500 in federal loans were less likely to drop out of college than  students with no loans. 

  • Among Black students, borrowing $5,501–$9,499 was associated with leaving higher education. 

  • Analysis (led by Chen) was based on a nationally-representative sample of 2012 first-year students.

When debt deters: Student loans as a predictor of  education-job match among arts bachelor’s graduates (2023, Journal of Career Development, with Hind Albana)

• • Bachelor's graduates in arts disciplines with over $10,000 in student loan debt were less likely to enter arts careers than those with no loans

  • Women and nonbinary arts graduates were less likely than men to enter arts jobs

  • More recent graduates were less likely to have ever worked in arts jobs than graduates from 1990 or earlier 

  • Intention to enter an arts career at bachelor’s program entry was the strongest predictor of entering an arts career

  • Data access was provided by the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (data brief)

Gender and loans: Understanding differences in student debt burden (2023, Journal of Student Financial Aid, with Rong Chen)

• • 1 year after graduation, 39.7% of graduates had a zero-debt burden (no student debt repayment).

  • Among those with debt burden, student loan payments comprised 9.5% of their gross monthly salary. 

  • 1 year after graduation, women were more likely than man to have debt burden (and a larger burden).

    • Largely explained by women earning 10.6% less than men 1 year after graduation.

  • Black men graduates were more likely than white men to have debt burden.

  • Analysis (led by Chen) was based on a nationally-representative sample of 2016 bachelor's graduates.

The North Carolina Teaching Fellows Program: A case study of the use of forgivable loans in recruiting future STEM teachers (2021, Journal of Student Financial Aid)

• • The NC Teaching Fellows Program provides professional development and forgivable loans to postsecondary education students; recipients commit to teaching in NC public schools to relieve program loans

    • Note, the program had different parameters at the time of this study 

  • Qualitative data show that the program meaningfully influenced some participants' institutional choice, academic major (in secondary STEM ed), and career plans (whether to teach, stay in NC, or to pursue jobs at low-performing schools)

  • A  five-year follow-up study with 8 of 10 original participants is in progress