Broadening equity through recruitment: Pre-college STEM program recruitment in literature and practice

One way that institutions of higher education try to address racial inequities in STEM is through pre-college programs aimed at racially minoritized high school students. Out of school time and informal STEM programming have the potential to complement K-12 opportunities, and pre-college programs may support the development of infrastructure to increase admissions of minoritized youth in STEM fields. In this article, we focus on the recruitment of racially minoritized youth into pre-college STEM programs to better understand what works for youth and their families to both inform program practices and support clear pathways between STEM in K-12 schools and these programs. Drawing from three sources of data: (1) existing research and evaluation on recruitment; (2) program recruitment data from four pre-college programs currently serving racially minoritized youth, and (3) survey feedback from youth who have participated in these four programs, we examined the recruitment practices of programs designed to serve and support minoritized students. Through this work, we hope to reorient programming to better serving minoritized youth and supporting and enhancing K-12 STEM experiences to broaden STEM career pathways for racially minoritized students.