WIP: An Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis of Computer Science Undergraduate Student Professional Identity Development

Becoming a professional is a core identity we develop as we fully mature. This identity is developed quickly as one progresses through college curricula, as this is likely the first major exposure an individual will have to the profession and its members. A well-developed professional identity correlates with many positive characteristics of successful students, such as high resilience and low anxiety. This work in progress presents initial results from an ongoing interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) on the experiences of computer science students developing their professional com-puter scientist identities. The individual discussed in this single case (n=l) analysis was a fifth-semester computer science major enrolled in an Rl, Southeastern, land-grant University. In this work, we discuss themes of his experience and the implications of connecting his story to his peers in the complete work.