This study examined three influential factors of junior college students' learning engagement: (a) intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, (b) career decision-making self-efficacy (CDMSE), and (c) self-regulation. Participants included 206 students enrolled in the secretarial administration program in a junior college in South Korea. The primary…

Times of adversity often require an intentional focus on fostering people's inherent strengths to help them not give up on their life's most cherished aspirations. The outbreak of the Russian war in Ukraine has created unprecedented struggles and uncertainties among the entire Ukrainian population, including college students (Limone et al., 2022).…

Some researchers have reported that people with higher levels of proactive disposition are more conscientious (Major et al., 2006) and that proactive personality is related to career self-efficacy in career exploration (Qu et al., 2015; Shang & Gan, 2009). In other words, undergraduates who have a stronger sense of responsibility might…

The impact of college STEM [science, technology, engineering, and mathematics] summer bridge programs is not well understood. This nationwide study pooled data from 27 colleges and universities involved in the NSF's [National Science Foundation's] STEM Talent Expansion Program to model changes in college career aspirations for 2 groups: 383 STEM…

Career choice theory traditionally defines career selection as a choice, not a competition; however, desirable limited-access majors often have selective admission processes. For transfer students who come from open-access community colleges, the competition can be an unanticipated obstacle. In this qualitative study, we found that among transfer…

Using social cognitive career theory and the cognitive information processing model as frameworks, in this constructivist case study we examined the career-related experiences and decisions of 10 women engineering undergraduate seniors who accepted full-time positions. From the data analysis 3 major themes emerged: critical undergraduate…

For this multisite qualitative case study, framed in Bourdieu's social reproduction theory, we examined mentoring experiences among Students of Color majoring in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines at both a predominantly White institution and a historically Black institution. Findings revealed that faculty served…

This qualitative, retrospective study explored how educational experiences provided as part of an undergraduate intervention program helped to shape career decisions for minority biology students. A key goal for the program is to increase minority entry into science research and teaching careers, yet actual career choice has not been studied.…

Despite their popular portrayal as high achieving and structurally incorporated, race continues to shape the career choices of Asian American college students. As second-generation Americans, Asian Americans negotiate a constellation of factors when deciding their career choices, most notably, pressures from immigrant parents, awareness of labor…

This study examines and enriches understanding of the career choice process for graduate students of color. Social identity theory (SIT) is used as a framework to expand our understanding of how and why graduate students choose (or do not choose) faculty careers. Graduate students' cultural social identities influenced their career choice…

Given the complex and gendered messages college women receive about their future professional and personal lives, a woman's college experiences play an important role in helping her make difficult life choices. In this article, we present a narrative analysis of the envisioned futures of students at two Catholic women's colleges in the Midwestern…

Although more high school graduates are attending college, many are not graduating (The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, 2004). First-generation, low-income, and underrepresented students are especially at risk for falling through the cracks. To help address this issue, programs such as TRiO Student Support Services (SSS) assist…

This study sought to determine how identification and engagement with the hip hop culture influenced the educational experiences of undergraduate students at a Midwestern, predominately White university by interviewing 11 students who self-identified as being immersed in the hip hop culture. Through a qualitative, phenomenological investigation,…

The purpose of this study was (a) to explore the factor structure of a Spanish version of the Career Decision Scale (CDS; Osipow, Carney, Winer, Yanico, & Koschier, 1976) with Puerto Rican college students, (b) to examine the relation of trait anxiety to the identified dimensions of career indecision, and (c) to explore differences in anxiety…

Attempted to identify role of career exploration in the career decision making process using college student (N=103) subjects. Found internal search instrumentality beliefs to be associated with the planning phase of career decision making, and environmental exploration was predictive of vocational commitment. (Author/ABL)