Border Crossings: A Narrative Framework for Interventions Aimed at Improving URM and First-Generation College Student Retention in STEM

This volume contains several useful reports of "what works": descriptions of specific interventions for improving STEM major retention of under-represented minority (URM) groups. In this chapter we focus on what is known about why these interventions work based on three major considerations of the lived URM and first-generation student experience in college STEM programs: preparation for rigorous college coursework, student identity and self-efficacy with science, and cultural congruence with the institution and depainnent. Rather than describing these from a theoretical framework, these ideas are discussed using a narrative framework of border crossings. We hope this framework provides a useful means of planning and assessing interventions aimed at improving persistence for under-represented groups.