Higher Education M.Ed. alum Elana Denham presented her research at the 7th Annual Texas Higher Educational Symposium at The University of Texas (UT). Her research focused on Factors Affecting the Access, Retention, and Graduation of Black, Hispanic, and Female Students in STEM Fields.
Denham considered it a wonderful honor and opportunity to present her research at the symposium. “It was an honor because I knew that I was in the presence of a truly diverse, passionate, and committed group of people dedicated to higher education,” she said. “It was an opportunity because I was able to share my research with people who can have a direct impact on changes needed to better support students.”
Denham’s research primarily consisted of reading, analyzing, and comparing published studies, articles, and journals. “The difficulty was that most research focused on quantifiable data rather than qualitative, and usually they focused on a particular minority or gender,” she said. “My goal was to find concepts that could be applied to all underrepresented groups in STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics] fields so that changes could be implemented or addressed more easily, especially from a qualitative perspective.”
Read the full article here.