THE ROLE OF ART COURSES FOR UNDERREPRESENTED STEM TRANSFER STUDENTS PURSUING STEM DEGREES AT A FOUR-YEAR UNIVERSITY: A QUANTITATIVE STUDY

The STEM industries are growing, creating more opportunities for students to enter the field to earn higher wages and improve their quality of life. Currently, the STEM workforce is male-dominated, with limited representation from women and people of color and their unique perspectives for creating society’s solutions. Universities are in a position to change the diversity of the STEM workforce. Therefore, STEM + arts initiatives attempt to bridge the equity gaps in STEM education. The study provided a glimpse of how STEM students, particularly women and students of color, can benefit from coenrollment in an arts course along with their STEM curriculum. The study demonstrated STEM + arts benefited all STEM students for the semester of coenrollment and potentially for the following semester, showing short-term gains in GPA. The study also aimed to showcase the long-term benefits of STEM + arts on university and overall GPA, but the dynamics of the data and limited ability to study STEAM directly prevented more conclusive results. Universities and colleges can take numerous actions to create an inclusive STEM environment for its current student body. Faculty can be mindful of the surroundings in their department and change them immediately to represent the student population and start a STEM community for women and students of color. This study is a small but necessary foundational step in transforming STEM education for underrepresented students who will go on to do wonders for our society