School of Education Professors Produce Video to Help Women Succeed in STEM

Fishing Boat SAN LUIS OBISPO — Two professors in the master's program in counseling and guidance have produced a video designed to help women excel in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) majors. In the 12-minute video, eight female Cal Poly grads tell their stories of what it took to succeed.

Professors Steven Kane and Jodi Jaques saw the STEM-focused student body at Cal Poly as a rich source of experience and knowledge. With two highly sought-after grants from the American College Personnel Association Leadership Foundation and Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education, they set out to mine those experiences for strategies that could be used to help other students.

After screening over 100 women who were identified by their professors as "exemplars" of success, Kane and Jaques selected eight for in-depth interviews. Relatively little research has been done in this area using this method, according to Kane. "This is a wiser way of accessing the knowledge women have to share with other women," he said.

The conversations yielded some unexpected results. For example, several study participants commented that women in STEM majors need to have more realistic expectations about grades because earning lower grades is more common in many difficult STEM classes.

The interviews also leant themselves well to the video format. "We wanted to create something that would appeal to the learning styles of today's college students," Kane said. And that meant going digital.

The video is intended not only to give college women the tools to succeed but also to encourage girls in high school to consider STEM majors. "Oftentimes there are not a lot of women role models within the STEM careers, so this provides a wonderful tool," Jaques said.

Kane and Jaques also saw an opportunity to involve their graduate students in some real-world research. Students in the ounseling and guidance program participated in every step of the process, from the initial literature review through filming.

Meghan Farrier Nolan helped produce the video as a graduate student. She now works as an academic advisor in the College of Science and Mathematics and thinks the video will help the students she advises.

"It gives a realistic viewpoint of what a student's expectations should be in the sciences," Farrier Nolan said. "I think that hearing the student voices and experience at a peer level is really important for students."

She's also found the video helpful to her as an advising professional. "It helped me develop relationships with students in the sciences and understand where they're coming from and what their needs are."

Kane and Jaques have been invited to present their findings at two prestigious conferences for advising professionals and are excited about the video's potential for helping women succeed.

"How students are learning is continually changing," Jaques said. "To stay abreast we have to tap in to the experts, which are the women in the STEM fields."

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