Beyond the Pipeline: First-Generation College Students’ Community Cultural Wealth and STEM Degree Pathways

Abstract This study examines how first-generation college students (FGCS) and continuing-generation college students navigate STEM pathways by modeling four sequential milestones in the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09): high school graduation, college enrollment, STEM major selection, and STEM degree completion. Guided by Yosso’s Community Cultural Wealth framework, we use survey-weighted sequential logistic regression to estimate stage-specific associations between academic preparation, psychosocial resources, and institutional context, conditional on prior attainment. Results reveal distinct generational patterns of STEM progression. For FGCS, rigorous high school mathematics preparation exerts a powerful influence on high school completion, while later-developing math self-efficacy and science identity are central to STEM major selection. At the postsecondary level, attending a public institution is associated with substantially higher odds of STEM degree completion for both groups, suggesting the importance of institutional environments aligned with students’ navigational and familial capital. These findings demonstrate that FGCS STEM persistence is shaped less by early disciplinary identification than by access to rigorous preparation and institutional contexts that recognize and operationalize community cultural wealth. By modeling STEM progression as a sequence of contingent decisions rather than a linear pipeline, this study identifies stage-specific leverage points for advancing equity in STEM education.