HSI Pilot Project: Improving Experiential Skills for a Diverse Software Engineering Workforce via Project-based Internships

With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions Program, this Track 1 project aims to prepare undergraduate students for careers in the software industry. Software is utilized across the entirety of the workforce and the demand for qualified developers is constantly rising. This poses a significant opportunity to improve recruitment of Hispanic students and women with interests in software careers, as these groups have historically been underrepresented in the computing workforce. Further, software development students often need to complete additional online training to obtain employment, which can represent a challenge to low-income students, working individuals, and others. This project at Georgia Gwinnett College (GGC), an open-access HSI, will address the need for a larger and more diverse technical workforce and provide rigorous training through high-quality mentorship, long-term collaborations with nonprofit organizations, and paid project-based internships. The anticipated outcomes of this project are: (a) increased pre- and post-graduation success and improved representation of low-income and underrepresented students in the software workforce; (b) new knowledge about effective approaches for training students on real-world software projects with real clients; and (c) improved efficiency of local nonprofit organizations that serve diverse communities. The project will explore best practices for internship programs that combine specialized training, mentoring, and implementation at community nonprofits. Providing engaging pathways to broaden participation in software careers is critical as the need for well-prepared software professionals continues to grow. As a Hispanic-Serving Institution, GGC provides an ideal campus to help increase post-graduation success of Hispanic students, low-income students, and others. The project aims to achieve this by (1) offering internship positions, training, and mentoring to software development students, allowing them to gain marketable skills as they engage in authentic, high-impact projects for nonprofit organizations; (2) fostering a software development community at GGC that includes alumni and industry partners and provides ongoing professional development; (3) develop strategies to recruit, engage, and support Hispanic women in software development experiences, courses, and degree programs; (4) creating sustainable collaborations with nonprofit organizations in local Hispanic communities; and (5) disseminating program outcomes nationally through a web gateway, open educational materials, conference presentations, and publications. This project is funded by the HSI Program, which aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education, broaden participation in STEM, and build capacity at HSIs. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.