Design, Development, and Impact of Educational Modules to Broaden Academic Research Cultures (EMBARC) for STEMM Career Development: A Pilot Project

Though historically marginalized and first-generation college students aspire to attend college, educational equity gaps remain in transfer and pursuit of graduate degrees of science, technology, engineering, math, and medicine (STEMM). The purpose of this paper is to describe the process and impact of the Educational Modules to Broaden Academic Research Cultures (EMBARC) to leverage students’ community cultural wealth (CCW) and address cultural mismatch (CM) – the misalignment between the interdependent values shaped by one’s family or culture and the independent values emphasized in Western post-secondary institutions and STEMM fields. Findings from evaluation of the program suggests that leveraging CCW and CM in developing educational modules can contribute to historically marginalized students’ education, career and persistence in STEMM. Findings also illustrated that the modules connect students to resources as well as their cultural wealth and ancestral strength.