Intellectual Merit
This project funded research that advanced our understanding of contributing factors to college students’ persistence in computing degrees and careers. It focused on three areas: 1) evaluating interventions to support persistence, 2) exploring psychosocial factors linked to persistence, and 3) assessing the STARS Computing Corps.

Interventions: We found that career awareness, confidence, and skill development were interventions that strongly predicted students’ intentions to persist in computing, and that career awareness and faculty mentorship were important (Fisk et al., 2024). We studied the effects of a self-assessment intervention (consisting of two automated emails), and found evidence that it brought more students into computing by doubling the likelihood that top-performing, non-major students took another computing course, added on CS as a minor, and applied to be TAs (Fisk et al., 2025). 

Psychosocial Factors: We found evidence that faculty relationships are more predictive of students’ self-efficacy, belonging, and persistence intentions than peer relationships (Wyatt et al., 2025; Dress et al., 2025). Professional Role Confidence (PRC)—belief in one’s fit in a computing career—was a stronger predictor of persistence than grades or technical self-assessments (Dress et al., 2025). Additional research explored how gender, self-efficacy, programming anxiety, and belonging shape computing aspirations (McGill et al., 2025); differences between Black students at PWIs vs. HBCUs (Laffredi et al., 2025); and how social-psychological processes influence occupational segregation (Fisk et al., 2025). We also published best practices for using participant data in BPC research (McKlin et al., 2023). These findings guide future efforts to broaden participation in computing by highlighting which psychosocial factors and relationships best support persistence.

STARS Computing Corps: Our research found that, after controlling for initial intent, weekly time spent on STARS activities predicted stronger intentions to persist in computing (Wyatt et al., 2024). Qualitative interviews with STARS alumni revealed that participation improved both technical and soft skills, increased belonging and self-efficacy, and fostered a “Pay it Forward” ethos that influenced their professional lives.

Broader Impacts
The STARS Computing Corps alliance serves as a national resource to improve computing education and research. STARS conferences, communities, and networks create significant institutional and human resources that reach a larger audience of researchers, educators, administrators, CS departments, and K-20 students and can dramatically increase the number of people engaged in broadening participation in computing. In particular, the STARS Celebration leadership conference has propagated evidence-based approaches for BPC to faculty and students, and supported students in academic and professional development. In this Catalyst project, over 250 undergraduate and graduate students from across the U.S. were supported to engage in the STARS Leadership Corps program. In this program, students attend the STARS Celebration conference to participate in training to conduct K12 computing outreach, engage in academic and professional development activities, and to grow their network; following the conference, students lead service-learning projects at their home institutions with the support and guidance of a STARS faculty leader throughout the academic year. This project also supported the ACM RESPECT research conference, which supports peer-reviewed scholarship, with over 500 attendees from 2022-2024.

Last Modified: 04/26/2025
Modified by: Susan Fisk