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The Desert Sunflowers Pathway: Under-Resourced and Under-supported Engineering Students

Geraea canescens: Desert sunflowers are plants that grow in scattered shrub formations and in sandy desert soils. These plants yield petals that grow in a simple formation.

Overview of Students’ Experiences:

These students represented by this pathway experienced a rough transition to college life. In many ways, they are the opposite of the privileged students represented by “The Succulents'' pathway. Women in this group were frequently graduates of under-funded public high schools that did not offer many AP or Honors courses. As a result, they often had difficulty with introductory mathematics, science, and engineering courses in college. Women in this group were also: less connected to campus resources (e.g. on-campus clubs, tutoring centers, faculty mentors); and were often the first to major in engineering or have a college degree. These women also faced noticeable financial constraints, and thus sought out part-time jobs, financial aid, grants, scholarships, and loans to cover the cost of their education. Students articulated feelings of being an imposter (Bothello & Roulet, 2018). Moreover, they were often sheltered or limited in their mobility outside of their home (i.e. due to strict family norms, religious expectations, etc.), which made it challenging for them to deal with the social dimensions of university life.

 
 

"I feel like especially engineering, software engineering, there's a lot of smart people but then there are a lot of people who…have been in the industry… they already have projects out there, apps out there and you're like, "Wow. I'm just beginning that. Some of the professors also have an expectation... Like the way they teach, like you already should know some of this and it's not very beginner-friendly. The software engineering courses, it's not very beginner-friendly...people can already come into the major of coding like through the apps or someone who is absolutely new can be in the same classroom. It's weird…I remember taking my first coding class. It was like CSE 110. you have your guys in there already having an app in the store and you're just like, "Where do I even begin? I don't even know what any of this means and they're asking all of these questions…You're like, "Oh, wow. I really don't know what's going on." I refrained from asking questions because I didn't want to sound like the least knowledgeable person in the room. Also, it just feels like as a Black woman and as a person of color, one of the only girls in the room, you don't want to be like, "Oh, yeah. She's dumb. She doesn't know what she's talking about." It's very hard to not know ... It's a pressure to over-achieve to even feel like you're on a level playing field, unfortunately. You have to do above and beyond to even be considered which it's terrible…just being in the realm of coding, they know other engineers and their parents are engineers and all that stuff and I'm just like, "Hey, what's up? " I'm like forging my own path."
- Kaitlyn

"It doesn't matter what major it is or what course it is, everything is kind of difficult for me. It was hard. For me, my first time going to college was the first time I ever left home and first time I ever got a taste of freedom. I was very sheltered. My parents are very, very, very, very strict. I do come from a preacher's household, so they were very by the book…no nonsense type of people. When I first went into college…it was very wild for me. I didn't have a sense of direction. So the first two years were terrible. I got on academic probation. First two years I was a business major. I was a biology major, then a business major, then a finance major. It was just a lot going on. I didn't know. I didn't have a sense of direction. I didn't know what I wanted to do at all... I don't know about anybody else, but school is just really, really hard for me. It doesn't matter what major it is or what course it is, everything is kind of difficult for me. It took me a while to learn what learning habits would be best for me. So my first year, I think I took Calc one and Calc two. Then that second year I took Calc three. I think I had to repeat Calc three twice. I remember taking Calc two and every single day after math class I'd get in the elevator and cry just because I didn't understand it and I'd just be so devastated because I could not get it."
- Hilda

"I wish that they understood how it is to be discriminated against and not listened to. Sorry, I wish that they're a little more receptive of the fact that not everyone in engineering has the same shot. Not to make myself into a victim or be like, "Oh, I can't do it." But there's definitely inherent, I would say, advantage. Possibly, being not white or being white in engineering and being a man. I feel like I wish that professors understood that there's definitely a level of discrimination that you're going to have to face, regardless. I wish that students…not even so much professors…could understand that…if I do bring up something about race or something like that, I feel awkward. Because, people try and make it into ‘Oh, you're using that as a crutch or that's an excuse.’ No, but it doesn't discount the racism that I faced…I do wish that they knew that not everyone has the same starting place in engineering. Even if we're all running the same race, we're definitely not all starting at the same point. Some of us have to run a little longer. Some of us have hurdles in our way."
- Brandy