“What’s True for Them, Isn’t True for Me: Investigating the Paradox of Academic Success for Historically Minoritized Students in STEM”

Dr. Destiny Williams-Dobosz ‘19
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Boston College
Department of Educational Leadership and Higher Education

Majoring in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) can often result in isolating, stressful, and even spirit murdering experiences for college students, especially those who are Black, people of Color, women, or the first in their family to attend college. To better understand the complexities of these experiences, this research examines the paradox of academic success for students of Color, first-generation college students, women in male-dominated STEM fields, and those at the intersections of these identities.

In this seminar, Dr. Williams-Dobosz will present insight into her research on educational help-seeking as it shapes the academic performance and well-being of historically minoritized students in undergraduate STEM majors. Drawing on hermeneutic phenomenology and intersectional human development frameworks, her research explores students’ meaning-making of the co-existence of resilience and vulnerability and how educational help-seeking is nested within these constructs. In addition, she will discuss the implications of her work towards reimagining help-seeking as a multidimensional process and towards advancing holistic academic support in a shifting higher education landscape.

Pizza will be served.