Table 1
Initial Codebook.
| CODE | DEFINITION | EXAMPLE |
|---|---|---|
| Future career | Any aspect of a potential future career, including specific outcomes, goals, and characteristics | “I would like to go into power for my engineering profession” (Matt) |
| Ideal future | The student’s view of their ideal future, including who they want to be and/or what they want to do | “[Ideally] I’d work in California, have a cool mid century modern house outside of LA and then work somewhere where the commute isn’t crazy” (Henry) |
| Steps toward future goals | The steps the student intends to take or can see themselves taking to achieve their future goals | “[The steps to reach my goals are] Get good grades and an internship and then eventually graduate. Like, do like a whole bunch of applications for the grad school or for jobs in the industry. Then take it from there” (Larry) |
| Alternate pathway | An alternate option to the student’s ideal future career, which may or may not involve engineering | “[I’ll] probably end up in either biology/molecular biology… somewhere still within the biological field, just not engineering.” (Alex) |
| Future influence on present | How a goal or future plan influences how students view themselves or a situation in the present | “I’m always trying to do better […] I’m trying to find the best job for me. I’m trying to make as many connections now […] so then I can see which job is best.” (Larry) |
| Influential people | A specific experience with an individual or group of people that directly impacted the student’s goals | “[My] parents are incredibly supportive of me pursuing an engineering major and studying. And they both have backgrounds in STEM fields. So they know they’ve been through what I’ve been through, or I’m going to go through.” (Jear) |
| Influential experience | A specific experience a student describes as having directly impacted their goals | “In the fifth grade […] my teachers had this group of female engineers come in; they had a little girls in STEM Day. And they showed us how to make lip gloss and […] I just loved it. I was like, Oh my gosh, I want to be an engineer. I love lip gloss” (Bella) |