October 30, 2024

BATON ROUGE, LA – Jennifer Curry, PhD, professor, is leading efforts to bridge the gap between academic achievement and workforce readiness for underrepresented students in STEM. Her work, which combines academic support, high-impact practices (HIPs), and career development, is highlighted in a recent STEM REC blog article.

Inspired by experiences that began in 2015, Dr. Curry has championed initiatives to enhance the STEM sense of belonging and career readiness for students from low-income, first-generation college student (FGCS), and underrepresented minority (URM) backgrounds. Her dedication stems from a pivotal moment attending the ASCA National Conference, where Michelle Obama delivered a keynote speech on the disparities in college and career readiness.

“This disparity means that students from higher-income schools are more likely to receive career assessments, have their results explained to them, and access vital resources for college and career planning,” Dr. Curry reflected. “It underscored for me how critical career centers are for helping students from low-income and underrepresented groups receive career development opportunities they often miss in K-12 education.”

The LSU S-STEM PRISE Program

At LSU, the Preparing Resilient Individuals to Succeed in Engineering (PRISE) program, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), supports engineering students from low-income backgrounds. This initiative reduces students’ need to work, enhances their academic focus, and promotes workplace skills through HIPs such as faculty mentorship, service learning, and internships.

Campus Career Center Partnerships: A key component of PRISE’s success lies in its partnership with the Olinde Career Center, which provides students with essential tools for career readiness. Services include:

• Career Assessments: Tools such as the Strong Interest Inventory (SII) and Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) help students gain insights into their personalities and career interests, fostering better workplace relationships and team collaboration.
• Resume Development: Students learn how to articulate unique skills and experiences on their resumes. PRISE faculty guide students from their first semester, with ongoing support from career counselors.
• Workplace Readiness: Mock interviews, professional headshots, and participation in the Engineering Career Fair equip students to compete for highly sought internships.
  These efforts have yielded remarkable results. PRISE scholars have secured internships at organizations like NASA, Tesla, Chevron, and Apple’s AI bootcamp, with many also participating in faculty-led research and national conferences.

Challenges and Advice

When discussing challenges in building partnerships with career centers, Dr. Curry emphasized the importance of early planning. If faculty want to partner with the Olinde Career Center, they need to contact them well in advance. Their services are in high demand, and I always ensure to plan ahead for my classes. She praised the Career Center’s unique model of assigning dedicated career counselors to individual colleges, which provides tailored support for students in fields like engineering.

The Future of Career Center Partnerships

Looking forward, Dr. Curry envisions career centers playing an even greater role in addressing the evolving needs of STEM fields. “With advancements in AI and other technologies, we need to help students articulate how they integrate these tools into their work and prepare them for ongoing professional development,” she noted.

For underrepresented students, the focus remains on showcasing their strengths and addressing potential gaps in their resumes, such as limited extracurricular activities or job histories, by highlighting unique personal experiences and skills.

Long-Term Impact

Dr. Curry’s ultimate goal is to reshape employers’ perceptions of students from low-income backgrounds. “The main impact I hope to have is to change employers’ perceptions of low income students. I don’t want them to view students from low income as coming to STEM fields with deficits, but rather, as individuals with many strengths. I also hope that through partnerships with the Career Center we will empower students with the tools to articulate the many strengths they do have so that they can elucidate those qualities for employers."

For more information about the PRISE program and Dr. Curry’s work, visit the STEM REC Blog.

About the LSU Lutrill & Pearl Payne School of Education (SOE)

A school of the College of Human Sciences & Education, the SOE offers undergraduate programs for students who want to pursue a career as a pre-kindergarten through 12th-grade teacher or acquire dual certification in traditional elementary and special education classrooms. In addition, SOE offers 3 graduate certificates, 17 master’s degree program areas, 9 EdS certificate programs, and 2 PhD degrees in 11 areas of focus. SOE’s focus is not only on preparing highly qualified teachers but also on preparing educational leaders, curriculum studies scholars, educational technology experts, applied researchers, higher education professionals, school counselors, and clinical mental health counselors. SOE specializes in scholarly expertise regarding pressing educational and wellness issues across the entire lifespan.

Visit the LSU Lutrill and Pearl Payne School of Education.

About CHSE

The College of Human Sciences & Education (CHSE) is a nationally accredited division of Louisiana State University. The college comprises the School of Education, the School of Information Studies, the School of Kinesiology, the School of Leadership & Human Resource Development, and the School of Social Work. CHSE has two model demonstration schools: the Early Childhood Education Laboratory Preschool, which enrolls birth to age four, and the University Laboratory School, which enrolls kindergarten through grade 12. The college also has four centers and institutes: the Early Childhood Education Institute, the Healthy Aging Research Center, the Leadership Development Institute, and the Social Research & Evaluation Center. The college is committed to achieving the highest standards in teaching, research, and service and improving quality of life across the lifespan.

Visit the College of Human Sciences & Education website.