Improving Transportation Career Awareness Among Underrepresented Secondary Students

The effectiveness of university-hosted transportation-focused summer camps for transportation career awareness and diverse workforces has been studied through previous research in the 2022 National Summer Transportation Institute and 2023 Summer Transportation Institute summer camps that were organized and hosted at the University of North Texas.It was observed that transportation-focused summer camp activities work very well for students' transportation career awareness, which significantly improved students' familiarity with transportation knowledge and slightly improved their interest in transportation careers.However, summer camp activities worked substantially better for male students than female students and for Asian and White students than underrepresented students (Black, Hispanic, etc.).Therefore, this study explores adding specifically designed components to camp activities during the 2024 Summer Transportation Camp to promote involvement and outcomes among female and underrepresented students.Based on focus group discussions with UNT Black, Hispanic, and Woman student groups, this research added the following specific designed components to camp activities: (1) presentation and discussion of college life with UNT Black, Hispanic, and Woman student associations, (2) working groups of female student campers, (3) female and Latino consular/advisor, (4) camp flyer designed by UNT Hispanic and Woman student associations, etc. Student camper surveys showed that those added components work very well for improving transportation career awareness among female and underrepresented students.