Integrating Critical Consciousness and Technology in Entrepreneurship Career Development With Diverse Community College Students

Abstract

The United States faces shortages of professionals in science, technology, engineering, and math enterprises, which are complicated by underrepresented minorities facing systemic barriers to their educational and career success. Addressing this, we used social cognitive career theory and critical consciousness to create a program named Poder (Spanish for “to be able to” and “power”). We analyzed interviews from 36 diverse community college students who experienced this 5-week program, which included mentoring and seed funding opportunities as they designed ventures addressing societal problems. Initial findings highlighted themes on how students developed and integrated critical consciousness, entrepreneurship self-efficacy, and technological understanding during Poder. Students displayed high expectations for entrepreneurship careers that leveraged technology to promote social change, as well as high expectations to persist through graduation and/or transfer to a 4-year university.

Keywords

critical consciousness social cognitive career theory entrepreneurship underrepresented minorities

Underrepresented minorities (i.e., Latinxs, African Americans, and American Indians) are a growing segment of the U.S. workforce but are largely underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers (National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering, 2013). For instance, the White-Hispanic and White-Black college degree attainment gaps widened between 1990 and 2014 (Kena et al., 2015), and these disparities are even more dramatically pronounced in STEM fields (Buzzetto-More, Ukoha, & Rustagi, 2010). As a result, the United States continues to lack enough educated workers to keep up with the rapid growth of STEM enterprises, fields dominated by White males (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2001).

Additionally, a number of systemic barriers, such as low access to education and widespread workplace discrimination, keep underrepresented minorities oppressed in these fields once they enter them and cause billions of dollars in turnover costs (Bahn, Willensky, & McGrew, 2016; Scott, Kapor Klein, & Onovakpuri, 2017). Community colleges provide an ideal space to help address these gaps within STEM entrepreneurial fields, and this article demonstrates how a culturally grounded intervention can provide an option to help close these disparities.

In 2015, 38% of U.S. undergraduates were enrolled in 2-year institutions, and it is projected that between 2015 and 2026 enrollment in 2-year institutions will increase by 21%, to about 7.8 million students (McFarland et al., 2017). Community colleges signify a highly accessible and affordable option for many low-income, underrepresented minority, and nontraditional (e.g., ages 25 and above) students to begin their path in higher education and obtain training for career advancement or transitions (Ma & Baum, 2016). In fact, community colleges attract 44% of low-income students, 56% of Latinxs, 44% of Blacks, 39% of White students, and most nontraditional students (Ma & Baum, 2016). However, persistence rates remain low in community colleges due to barriers at the individual (e.g., social inequality, academic challenges, and economic limitations), institutional (e.g., access coursework, pedagogical practices), and macrolevels (e.g., power, governance, and funding; Goldrick-Rab, 2010). In the current study, we address this gap by investigating how community colleges can serve as a space to implement interventions that engage marginalized communities to pursue entrepreneurial endeavors, while sparking interest in technology, using an innovative and culturally responsive educational program made possible with university, nonprofit, and industry partners.

Theoretical Framework

We utilized principles of social cognitive career theory (SCCT; Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994) and critical consciousness (Freire, 1973) to conceptualize an educational intervention to support the engagement in entrepreneurship career pathways for diverse community college students. SCCT is an integrative theory of career development that explains individuals’ career interests, goals, actions, and performance domains (Lent & Brown, 2013). Self-efficacy is at the core of SCCT, which is defined as individuals’ appraisals of their own ability in specific tasks.

SCCT acknowledges that self-efficacy is informed by learning experiences, also referred to as sources of efficacy, such as performance accomplishments, vicarious learning, social persuasion, and physiological states. SCCT is one of the most empirically studied theories in career psychology with underrepresented populations (Brown & Lent, 2017).

Critical consciousness was popularized by Freire (1973) and is defined as marginalized individuals’ ability to analyze and take action to address social oppression. We operationalize social oppression by defining it as “the circumstances that result from long-term, consistent resource asymmetry” (Watts, Griffith, & Abdul-Ali, 1999). The study of critical consciousness is increasingly receiving attention in educational and vocational development (Diemer, McWhirter, Ozer, & Rapa, 2015; Watts, Diemer, & Voight, 2011), which identifies theoretical elements of critical consciousness such as critical reflection, critical action, and political self-efficacy. Findings from several studies point to how critical consciousness may boost the educational and career outcomes of underrepresented groups (Diemer & Blustein, 2006; Diemer & Hsieh, 2008; McWhirter & McWhirter, 2016). A combination of these two theories was used as a framework to develop the Poder program, described in the next section. Conceptually, by boosting self-efficacy in critical consciousness, entrepreneurship, and technology, students may also experience increases in their interests, goals, and behaviors related to pursuing education and careers related to entrepreneurship in science and technology fields as a way to address social oppression.

The Poder Approach

Poder (Spanish for “to be able to” and “power”) is a culturally responsive program supported by grant funding from a Cisco corporate advised fund at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. Poder is offered as a free, 5-week cocurricular program designed to empower community college students to become social entrepreneurs, with a curriculum that not only focuses on developing a business venture but also incorporates activities to develop critical consciousness as well as introduces the Internet of things (IoT) technology as a mechanism for sparking interest in STEM development. The program began in the spring 2016 semester when a large southwestern university collaborated with one of the largest community college systems in the United States. The program has been offered 5 times since and expanded to five community college campuses and served over 250 diverse students through spring 2018.

As part of the coordination between mechanism, each college selects the dates and times to host Poder on their campus as a cocurricular and voluntary program based on student availabilities and class enrollment schedules to prevent onerousness or inaccessibility. Program leadership works closely with college partners to deliver the program in a way that complements existing courses (e.g., offering Poder through the entrepreneurship centers at the colleges). After their participation in Poder, students are encouraged to compete for seed funding for their project; thus, alleviating some financial barriers that many minority entrepreneurs face to launch ventures.

Social entrepreneurship—the idea that a person can have a business or nonprofit that also helps communities—provides a powerful framework of culturally responsive education. Poder supports and guides students to engage in critical reflection about community issues that matter to them, and to design social ventures to address these issues. The Poder program was specifically designed as a culturally responsive entrepreneurship training and career/college preparation program. In culturally responsive education, underrepresented students’ cultures are not deficits, but rather assets to learning (Wilson-Lopez, Mejia, Hasbún, & Kasun, 2016). The goal is to connect teaching content to students’ backgrounds (including their knowledge and experiences) as well as their community concerns in order to apply this knowledge and come up with possible solutions (Moje et al., 2004; Wilson-Lopez et al., 2016). To do this, teachers and educators encourage them to bring their backgrounds into the learning spaces.

Students committed to participating in 30 hrs of total instruction, including 10 in-person sessions lasting 90-min each and completing self-paced virtual modules (curriculum described in Table 1). The curriculum uses a “flipped classroom model” (i.e., delivering instructional content online and engaging in active learning in the classroom) that consists of students learning in-person about the business model canvas (BMC; a lean startup template for new and existing business models considered a best practice in innovative venture development) to test and validate an idea focused on addressing community issues. The classroom learning environment is student centered, and students collaborate with others, ask for feedback, and iterate their ideas upon critical reflection.

Table 1.

Poder In-Person and Self-Paced Curriculum.

Week	Curriculum Topics In-Person (15 Hr)	Homework Self-Paced (15 Hr)
One	Introduction to: – Poder program – Entrepreneurship – Pitching – Entrepreneurship + culture, technology	Growth mind-set online module Critical consciousness online module Research on social entrepreneurship ideas Brainstorm technology potential within business idea
Two	Introduction to business model canvas: – Customer segments – Value propositions – Customer discovery	Interview customers Prepare homework slides focused on hypotheses, customer segments, and value propositions
Three	Business model canvas topics: – Channels – Customer relationships – Revenue streams	Continue to interview customers/experts Update business model canvas Crowdfunding and websites
Four	Business model canvas topics: – Key partners – Key resources – Key activities – Cost structures	Interview customers Update business model canvas Develop a pitch deck College majors and career exploration online module
Five	Business pitch presentations	Finalize pitch decks Submit online competition applications

Additionally, students learn how the IoT technology can maximize their positive impact, with an introductory lesson adapted from Cisco’s Networking Academy curriculum. With IoT people and devices become connected through web-based application (e.g., smart homes, wearables, connected cars, and among many others). Students also practice “pitching” their projects publicly and have the opportunity to enter a pitch funding competition. To complement the in-person content, students have access to online self-paced modules in the form of homework focused on critical consciousness, growth mind-set, and educational/career planning. The facilitated in-person discussions reference the online topics in the context of social entrepreneurship and the customer discovery process that students conduct in their communities as they validate their business idea. Finally, Poder includes a mentorship component that invites individuals in the community with specialized training to support the students’ projects.

As a cultural responsive program, community college partners select their program facilitators, many of whom are women and/or people of color, experienced in working with diverse student populations, and committed to helping students work through their entrepreneurial idea. Many facilitators are faculty or staff at their respective campuses. This creates a supportive entrepreneurial ecosystem on the college campus that provides students with a space to more comfortably explore their business ideas as well as provide local entrepreneur role models. In order to facilitate critical consciousness development, facilitators encourage students to imagine solutions to problems in their own communities and lead dialogues that challenge students to consider how their social venture idea relates to their intersecting identities along race/ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, immigration status, spirituality, ability, education level, among other factors. Facilitators receive training on multiculturalism and are encouraged to see the diverse backgrounds of the students as assets and to reject colorblindness ideology in the learning space.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of the current investigation is to examine how participating in Poder shaped the experiences of underrepresented minority individuals in relation to entrepreneurship educational and career pathways in science and technology. The following research questions guide our study:

Research Question 1: How did students’ experience critical consciousness development, entrepreneurship self-efficacy, and technology abilities by participating in Poder?

Research Question 2: How did students integrate critical consciousness, technology, and entrepreneurship by participating in Poder?

Research Question 3: How did participating in Poder inform students’ career aspirations?

Method

We conducted this research during the 2016–2017 academic year with institutional review board approval from both the host research institution and partnering community college district to deploy the program. In total, 100 students completed the Poder program at five community colleges in a large Southwestern Metropolitan area. Of those participants, 74% identified as students of color, and 52% identified as women. The average age of participants was 27 years in the fall 2016 session, and 32 years for the spring 2017 session. In order to gain a deep understanding of the program and its impact, a member of the research team attended each session and took field notes on the curriculum delivery and student gains. In fact, the coauthors of this article have a deep understanding of the program through its development, implementation, and/or classroom observation and participation. At the end of the program, we recruited students for semistructured interviews and offered a small monetary incentive for their participation.

Recruitment took place through classroom announcements and e-mails sent out to participants. A total of 36 students participated in semistructured in-person interviews during the 2016–17 academic year (36% of total participants). Within this sample, 77% of participants were students of color and self-identified as the following: Latinx = 11, Black = 10, White = 8, biracial = 4, Asian = 2, and Native American = 1. Women comprised 44% of the sample and the age range of all participants was 18–61 years, with an average of 32.4 years. The age range is in line with community college student demographics, 44% of whom tend to be 25 years or older (Ma & Baum, 2016). Moreover, interviews served to collect contextual data to explore the variety of skills students gained in Poder and how participants’ mind-sets toward social entrepreneurship and technology changed over time. Interviews were conducted in public spaces, such as campus libraries, classrooms, and coffee shops. All interviews were audio-recorded, with the permission of the participant, and then transcribed verbatim. Interviews ranged from 40 to 188 min, with an average interview length of 61 min.

Interview data allow us to answer our research questions with rich narrative descriptions as well as highlight how students perceived their growth as a result of their participation in the program. The interview protocol contained questions surrounding six primary domains/constructs of exploration: college/career aspirations and Poder participation, social entrepreneurship/entrepreneurial mind-set, technology (IoT), growth mind-set (self-efficacy), critical consciousness, and community engagement. Questions within these domains covered topics ranging from intrinsic motivation for program enrollment and venture pursuit, obstacles toward academic and professional goals, likelihood of launching venture ideas after participating in the program, along with questions that explored how students operationalized curriculum themes.

In order to conduct a systematic analysis of the data, a structural codebook was created that clearly outlined inclusion and exclusion criteria for the six constructs of exploration (Bernard, Wutich, & Ryan, 2016). The creation of the codebook was in two phases. During Phase 1, priori themes (deductive codes) for the structural codebook utilized entrepreneurial mind-set, critical consciousness, community embeddedness (e.g., civic engagement), skill development (e.g., business acumen and technology awareness), entrepreneurial self-efficacy, and career aspirations. The lead authors established agreement on how structural codes were defined and further clarified code definitions and criteria in order to collapse overlapping structural codes. These structural codes were then applied to the interview text using the software program MAXQDA (version 12) in order to better systemically analyze the data for core themes.

During Phase 2, the lead authors identified emic codes from the interviews and field notes to create additional subthemes for analysis. The primary lead authors conducted the coding process to identify most salient and consistently recurring themes. Thematic codes with the highest frequency (70% or higher) were identified across the data. The proceeding results are arranged in four large themes and corresponding subthemes: critical consciousness development, entrepreneurship self-efficacy, technology awareness, and career development. The four themes are also presented with findings in subthemes and exemplary quotes from Poder students. All participant names have been replaced with pseudonyms.

Findings

Critical consciousness development: Reflection and action

Critical reflection: Analysis of self and identity

After participating in Poder, the majority of students displayed a more keen awareness of privileges and barriers related to aspects of their identities, including race/ethnicity, gender, class, ability/disability, sexual orientation, immigration status, religion, and how these may play a role in their career development. Many were more cognizant about how their social oppression experienced in relation to these identities limited their opportunities of educational and employment advancement, and by end of program they saw entrepreneurship as a way to gain agency over their own social progress. Overall, students exhibited a strong desire to change their own social conditions.

I’ve had a lot of experience with basically hitting glass ceilings. I’ve always been right below an owner and at this point in my life, I think that I have enough experience to be one…so I might as well work for myself because I’ve worked really hard for a lot of other people. (Everette, 20-year-old biracial female)

I’m Native American. I don’t see too many successful Native Americans in my eyes. I think I could be one that stands out from everyone else (by being an entrepreneur [and] obtaining a college education). (Jake, 22-year-old Native American male)

Many students directed their awareness toward the creativity and resilience they used in the face of adversity and discrimination, and how these strengths apply in entrepreneurship in the sciences and technology. For many, the risks involved in starting a venture and possibly failing at it did not compare to painful experiences of discrimination they had faced in their lives.

I think of the discrimination that I’ve faced in my life, it was either going kill me or it was going get me up. I think that I can attribute most of my out of the box thinking because of those type of situations. When you’re forced out of the box and you’re not allowed in, it makes you think differently. For engineering and things like that, it’s [thinking creatively to cope with adversity] actually turned out to be really, really beneficial. (Noni, 35-year-old White male)

They also displayed awareness of how social and political changes might affect their future overall as well as their plans to make progress in entrepreneurial careers. This quote from a Latinx student exemplifies this theme:

I’m currently a DREAMer [undocumented immigrant], so depending on what happens in the government, it will shape what I do and what happens with my life. (Alejandro, Latinx, 25-year-old Latinx male)

Some of the students also shared that they experienced dissonance between what they were taught prior to the program and what they learned during it about critical consciousness and social oppression. Many of them shared about becoming aware of social inequities through their own experiences of marginalization in their lifetimes and that addressing these experiences during Poder gave them a better and more realistic outlook that may be different from dominant narratives and myths about meritocracy and equality. For example, Jimmy stated:

Being, I guess, African American, you’re aware of what goes on around you. You’re aware when you see these things happening to other people and other races and other genders. You understand these things better. You get a better look at just the world around you. I think that everything, my age, whereas I grew up indoctrinated into what I was told. [I was told that] You get the best education from school. Then you get to an age where there’s the religious sect. It’s like, “Okay, throw all that stuff away and believe this now.” There’s this cognitive dissidence [sic] that goes on. I would say all of the [this] helped shape me into what I am, looking at what’s—thinking for myself today and not just taking what people are giving me and running with it. (52-year-old Black male)

Identity and resilience

Poder students were overall conscious that aspects of their cultural identities not only disadvantaged their progress, it also afforded them many strengths for their careers as entrepreneurs and as they progressed through college. Many identified finding motivation from their families and broader communities, aspiring to be role models for others, being aware that speaking other languages were advantages, having resilience in dealing with people and ability to connect with them, and understanding the bigger picture in terms of their entrepreneurial goals. This following quote from a Latinx student and exemplifies this theme:

Yes. Being Mexican as well gives me—I’m bilingual. I get through two different worlds, really. Maybe even being a woman will get you through, [laughter] seriously. I think now it’s—obviously, it’s a ladder. You’re not going to take the elevator, but just—I don’t think being a woman is going to make me feel like I can’t do—just climb that ladder. I feel good about myself in that way. I know that women sometimes don’t have that. I’ve met a lot of people, a lot of women who still feel like they need to stay at home for some reason. Just being a mom doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t do all those things. You want to set a good example for your kids too. Those are my strengths. Just being bilingual, being a girl, being the age that I am too because I didn’t come to college right away, but I’m still young. (Delia, 22-year-old Latinx female)

Critical action

Seemingly in connection to exhibiting high ability to critically analyze systems of oppression, and having a positive orientation toward their communities, overall Poder students identified that they were already highly engaged in critical actions in their communities to facilitate positive change on issues that they care about. The type of action that these students were involved in was highly diverse and displayed a spectrum of critical involvement. Many were active in volunteering or donating to help those less fortunate, getting involved in educational programs or mentoring youth, and encouraging friends in the community to pursue education.

Overall, students found value in collective action, and during the program, they became more reflective about new ways they can engage in collective action or how to begin to engage in it for the first time.

Having the chance to find a group of people that are on the same page as me, and all of us realizing what’s an issue or a social problem that’s going on, and all of us wanting to go fix that together. Rather than just one of us—that has a lot of power, one person that can do a lot, but having a large group and all of us on the same page can really get a lot more done. I feel like that’s something recently that’s happened. (Mike, 20-year-old Latinx male)

An example I can think of [participating in community critical action] would be that, I myself, could act as an example of a positive role model or a positive person that shows the benefits of people like me, DREAMers that can have in the community. (Alejandro, 25-year-old Latinx male)

Critical action and links to entrepreneurial endeavors

A common theme among many students was a desire to tackle community issues in a similar way as they would their social venture projects, utilizing their strengths and creativity as entrepreneurs. Many students stated having interests in engaging in critical actions as part of a group or organization. Many were already civically engaged in the community, organizing parents or students within K–12 schools, raising awareness about local issues, participating in political causes, immigration advocacy, feminist movement, protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline, and so on. Indeed, some students had already started their own groups to engage civically, had the desire to start their own organizations in the future, wanted to create scholarship funds for students, were planning for future events, or were organizing fellow workers to change oppressive work conditions. Therefore, their critical reflection and action is directly linked to their business venture ideas.

Development of entrepreneurship self-efficacy

During Poder, students were able to channel their desire for critical action toward developing social entrepreneurship projects that would provide them opportunities for social change in the community issues they identified. The projects that students worked on were just as diverse as the social issues that were important to them. A description of these social venture ideas is in Table 2. Based on common themes emergent from interviews, it was clear that the program was helpful to students as they developed a general sense of self-efficacy as entrepreneurs. Many students described that the program supported them in feeling more prepared to be entrepreneurs, and some described experiencing an “evolution” in them, from having no real experience with entrepreneurship to now having a developed project. Students were also able to identify strengths and weaknesses as entrepreneurs holistically and articulated that learning experiences of repeated practice of certain skills was helpful to become more confident in those skills. Students stated appreciation for the social support built into the program in the form of peers, teachers, and mentors. Many students also stated that learning the language to describe their work in the frame of social innovation and social ventures was also a source for increased confidence as social entrepreneurs.

Table 2.

Social Entrepreneurship Venture Projects.

Pseudonym	Race/Ethnicity	Age	Gender	Venture Idea
Alejandro	Latinx	25	M	Home computer system incorporates security, internet, appliances, etc.
Brad	Black	23	M	Cultural preservation of Burundian culture through animation
Cindy	Latinx	23	F	Haunted house business
Delia	Latinx	22	F	Salon in mother’s community
Elliot	Asian	27	M	Affordable eyewear business
Everette	Biracial	20	F	Inclusive, multipurpose lemonade shop
Ezekiel	Black	44	M	Patron’s weight tracked by shoe sensors
Jake	Nat. Am.	22	M	Tourism business/tour agency
James	Black	48	F	Crime scene cleanup business
Jimmy	Black	52	M	Animation company
John	White	34	M	Equipment sensors for mobility injured
Joshua	Biracial	31	M	Community gardens in urban areas
Justin	Black	27	M	App for more reliable transit systems
Kao	Black	24	F	Inner-city kids learn makeup/prosthetics
Kelli/June	White	20	F	Back seat sensors for child safety
Luke	Black	35	M	Videography for small business social media advertising
Marco	Latinx	39	M	Leadership training for children
Mike	Latinx	20	M	Charter school sports club for youth
Milly	Latinx	21	F	Wearable hiking tracker
Molly	White	49	F	Sympathetic nervous system wearable
Monica	White	39	F	Legal document assistance program
Natalia	Biracial	41	F	All-natural sunscreen product
Noe	Latinx	43	M	Housing to reduce recidivism
Noni	White	35	M	Primary school Android robots teach engineering/computer skills
Omar	Latinx	35	M	Communication/promotion business
Paulo	Latinx	27	M	Electricity for gym produced by bicycle
Peter	White	20	M	Fitness app promotes health and fitness
Sara	Latinx	20	F	Homeless shelter for youth and students
Steven	Black	61	M	Elderly gym/physical therapy business
Steven II	Black	61	M	Motivational speaker business
Susana	White	52	F	Nonprofit insurance company
Tina	Biracial	35	F	Initiative ends youth incarceration
Tom	Black	23	M	Cell phone app for informed decisions
Tyana	Asian		F	Computer lab educated girls
Yasinia	Latinx	18	F	Baking business promotes healthy eating and acts of kindness

Another highlight from these themes is that students described feeling a strong sense of entrepreneurial self-efficacy while being aware of the sociopolitical context and the motivations for social change that fueled their entrepreneurial passions. The quote represents these themes:

Absolutely. It made me feel like—not just the people that were in this class that made me view it that way [as a self-efficacious entrepreneur], but also with what is going on right now with politics and all that, it’s like, okay, should I do it? Shouldn’t I do it? Just being in this class, this environment, definitely got rid of all that negativity. It made me feel a lot better of how I viewed my business. Like I said, in the beginning, I didn’t even know there was such a thing as a [societal] problem that I had to fix with a business. That would never have occurred to me until this class. Yeah. The Poder is really poder. It’s really powerful. [Laughter] (Delia, 22-year-old Latinx female)

Development of entrepreneurial skills

In addition to developing a general sense of entrepreneurial self-efficacy that is sensitive to social justice and societal needs, students described that participating in Poder helped them develop self-efficacy in specific entrepreneurial tasks and technical skills. Common themes concerned students’ increased self-appraisals in their ability to solve and identify problems for society, to interview potential customers and think critically about value propositions, to systematically and methodically develop a product or service, to think about partnerships for venture growth, to write a business plan, and to publicly speak about their ventures with community members and investors. The most common themes identified by students were that the Poder program helped them become more self-efficacious in methodically designing their projects using the BMC and in becoming highly self-efficacious about presenting the narrative of their social ventures as a business pitch. The following student speaks to these themes in the context of one assignment that prompted students to interview potential customers and/or consumers of their projects:

I would say when we went out for the interviews to figure out what the people would love, that is super interesting. I never thought of that. I never thought of how I would start. I was like, okay. That makes so much more sense. We ask why, and we make…sure that’s what the people want, the customers. I didn’t think about that before. I knew that it was obviously a priority, but not in that way. Not so specific. Even if someone has a business already, they don’t know how to treat their customers. They don’t know what their customers want. That’s very super powerful. (Delia, 22-year-old Latinx female)

Critically Conscious Integration of Technology and Entrepreneurship

During Poder, students received introductory-level education about IoT technology and the choice of accessing more advanced and free educational materials on this topic. Similar to the flexible way in which students chose their project, they also chose whether technology was part of it. Evidently, as students realized the utility of IoT technology for making progress on social causes in their communities, they made the connection between learning technology skills and the benefit to the growth of their ventures.

Most students did not start the program with ideas for social ventures that involved technology, and most students did not come from programs of study with a technological focus at the community college. However, by the end of Poder, many students were motivated to make technology a larger part of their ventures to facilitate their growth and potential. This quote is exemplary of this theme:

In the beginning, when I had told our instructor in the class my idea, they didn’t have too much technology involved. It was more my initial venture was to let people get away from technology and just be a part of nature. When they told me that (how IoT technology works) I was like oh, okay, I need to reevaluate this.

How can I have technology involved in my company to better not only the company but the customers, pretty much everything else. Definitely helps in the end. (Jake, 22-year-old Native American male)

A majority of the students demonstrated an interest for embedding technology into their venture ideas in intentional ways. Many students expressed interest in further developing their skills and continuing to learn about technology beyond the end of the program. This student worked to apply IoT technology to their existing beauty business to increase customer’s customization of services and improve their experience:

We actually got the vanities, so we’re setting up that. Then we wanted to create an app that—before you get to the beauty salon—you will create an appointment, but it will have us ready for you when you come…the type of skin you have so we have something specialized for you. Everything that’s personalized for your type of skin, your color, your shape of your face, your shape of your eyes. All of that…. We wanted to get an app that would have all those options where you can personalize and then create an appointment. (Delia, 22-year-old Latinx female)

Another student, Molly (49-year-old White female) worked on the application of a wearable device that tracks data from individuals’ physical movements and facilitates communication between patients and clinicians for health treatment purposes. Whereas, Marco (39-year-old Latinx male) worked on a project that provides leadership development through sports to youth in disadvantaged communities, and he integrated technology in the project to bring the program to a much wider audience. He said that being introduced to IoT helped his project evolve. While participation in Poder cannot claim to have a direct impact on students choosing STEM pathways, introduction to IoT has the effect of broadening openness to technology and the possible incorporation of it in their future ventures.

Entrepreneurship career development

Connection between educational development and entrepreneurship career

After participating in Poder, most students interviewed for this study made an explicit connection between their educational development and their careers in entrepreneurship. For instance, students described how what they were learning in their college classes about human behavior, society, arts, fashion, science, and technology was applicable to the entrepreneurship ventures they developed in Poder. They described Poder as a space to bring it all together:

I think they [college education and entrepreneurship] go hand in hand, because much of the knowledge that I am learning, I’m applying it to I guess what I would be doing in my social entrepreneur advances, I guess. Everything that I learn, it’s going help me do what I can much better. Right now I’m learning about networking and my idea revolved around setting up a network, a whole network. I guess what I’m learning would give me a better understanding and make me more credible to whoever I’m reaching out to. (Alejandro, 25-year-old Latinx male)

Many were also able to identify key parts of their educational background that were particularly helpful for their ventures, and they also identified the skills that they still needed to further develop and grow their ventures. As a result, many students described plans for taking specific classes or engaging in internship and employment opportunities in the summer. The student in this quote makes a clear connection about how college courses are helpful to the entrepreneurial venture:

I’ve taken a lot of classes in logic for valid and invalid arguments which kind of helps weed out the stuff that I don’t need, right, all the irrelevant information. I’ve taken classes in ethics and justice which has kind of helped me learn about police procedures and things that they have in place to work out community solutions. I’ve taken classes in history, science, I mean, you name it. Any class that I’ve taken I have used some bit of information to use that towards [my entrepreneurship project] and kind of making sure that my research is really, really well rounded. (Tina, 35-year-old biracial female)

Benefits of class format

Students also articulated that the unique structure of Poder was helpful to them in creating a learning environment where they were able to begin integrating concepts from different domains in their lives (e.g., educational background, professional background, and community and personal experiences), and harness these toward social impact through their ventures. By participating in Poder, students seemed to perceive entrepreneurship projects as more flexible and having less boundaries than projects and learning in other college courses, and this structure was helpful for them to gain new learning experiences:

It [Poder] was a free flowing class. It wasn’t really super structured, or at least it didn’t feel that way. It was like, “You have to do this, this, this and this.” It was more what you want to do and how you want to grow. It was much easier for me to want to go to. It motivated me more to want to attend than my normal classes. (Tom, 23-year-old Black male)

Future education plans

After participating in Poder, students reaffirmed their commitment to persisting in their educational pursuits. In fact, 35 of the 36 students interviewed stated aspirations to graduate with certificates or associate’s degrees from the community college, and 23 students reported goals to continue on to a 4-year university to continue developing skills in a multitude of fields. This palpable commitment could be due to having gained a higher sense of self-efficacy in entrepreneurship domain–specific skills, many of which are transferable to other fields. It is also possible that participating in Poder further increased students’ sense of connection to the higher education system by gaining supportive peers and educators through the program. Commitment to persist may also be related to having developed a refined critical understanding about how to create change through entrepreneurship with technology.

Discussion

Students in this study articulated clear connections between their interest in social change and how entrepreneurship can advance the type of social impact they want to see in their communities, how technology can support social change by maximizing the impact of their entrepreneurial projects, and how their education provides content knowledge they apply to their social ventures and to advance their careers. The findings demonstrate that the program was helpful to students as they developed self-efficacy as entrepreneurs and our analyses indicate that students’ attitudes toward IoT technology changed in helping them realize the benefit of technology, both in their personal lives and in their ventures. Importantly, after participating in Poder, 97% of the students interviewed expressed commitment to persisting through graduation at the community college, and 64% had goals of continuing their education at a 4-year university to gain skills and advance their entrepreneurial projects.

Conceptual Contributions

The study of cross-cultural entrepreneurship is not new (Moriano et al., 2012), and our research builds on large bodies of work on entrepreneurship education (Kaplan & McFarlane, 1981) and STEM career development for underrepresented groups (Blustein et al., 2013). Nonetheless, Poder represents an innovation in these lines of research, as it is the first program to integrate SCCT and critical consciousness for entrepreneurship career development of underrepresented minorities. The emergent themes in the current study are in line with research on both of these theories, which continues to emphasize the utility of domain-specific self-efficacy and critical consciousness as points of intervention for educational and vocational outcomes (Diemer & Hsieh, 2008; Lent & Brown, 2013; McWhirter & McWhirter, 2016; Watts et al., 1999). Findings from this study can also be conceptualized through a critical resilience framework, which is applied to study the academic success of minority community college students (Campa, 2010).

Furthermore, it is apparent that the unique components of the Poder program support students in reinforcing characteristics that are common of successful community college students (Martin, Galentino, & Townsend, 2014), such as goal clarity, strong motivation, and self-empowerment. Coincidentally, the program provided students with access to many of the elements that facilitate entrepreneurship career decision-making covered by Callanan and Zimmerman (2016), such as career exploration, awareness of self-environment, goal setting, and sensitivity to exogenous forces such as societal, educational, family, and work realities. Additionally, the program was carefully designed to include an explicit mentorship component as well as to build opportunities for role modeling via program facilitators and peers. Our findings also further prior research suggesting the importance of mentorship to happen early in the career development of novice entrepreneurs (St-Jean & Mathieu, 2015), and the key role of role model exposure in minority entrepreneurs (Austin & Nauta, 2016).

Future research may further develop this line of inquiry by analyzing how other constructs in the SCCT framework, such as outcome expectations, emerge for students during Poder, and how they intersect with various constructs related to critical consciousness (i.e., critical reflection, critical action, and political self-efficacy). Future research may also benefit from applying quantitative analysis to test the effectiveness of Poder as related to the outcomes that it hopes to facilitate. A longitudinal approach following students over time, postparticipation in the program may illuminate whether the benefits of the program are long-lasting. Additionally, future studies should explore how students benefit from this intervention depending on whether they intend to pursue entrepreneurship full time or on the side while they are employed elsewhere (Jaskiewicz, Luchak, Oh, & Chlosta, 2016). This is a piece of information that was not captured in this study and presents a limitation.

Practical Contributions

The desire for Poder underrepresented minority community college students to persist in their educational and career goals has implications for higher education leaders to create and sustain community college–university partnerships to increase the number of students who move from one institution to another (Kisker, 2007). The practice-oriented partnership that created Poder addresses many of the challenges in community college–university transfer partnerships observed by Kisker (2007), particularly by involving faculty in this retention and transfer effort and by establishing a collaborative and participatory relationship between the community colleges and the university. The program not only raised awareness of opportunities available to students after community college; it also allowed students to make cognitive connections between their educational development and their careers in entrepreneurship to promote social change.

Entrepreneurial higher education institutions interested in contributing to economic development through innovation are committed to fostering environments where entrepreneurs develop and thrive as this leads to long-term competitiveness, growth, and employment (Etzkowitz, Webster, Gebhardt, & Terra, 2000). A recent Kauffman Foundation paper (Harrington, 2017) argues how “Entrepreneur Development is the heart of any ecosystem’s entrepreneurial culture and momentum” (Harrington, p. 6). While institutions of higher learning have at times not been as successful in encouraging technology commercialization and entrepreneurship (Kenney & Patton, 2011), Harrington (2017) suggests that community organizations and institutions of higher learning ought to commit resources to programs that focus on creating more entrepreneurs who bring innovative ideas to fruition. The development of individuals as entrepreneurs may not only result in increase in capital investment into a region, it also develops successful companies and retention of talent that lead to an improved economic environment (Harrington, 2017).

These practical implications may be particularly relevant for leaders of institutions located in marginalized and emerging communities. Programs such as Poder challenge the elitist culture that may dominate entrepreneurship inner circles, as noted by Edmondson (1999), by making this field viable for people who may be seen as outsiders. In order to counter barriers to entrepreneurship for people of color, women, and low- and moderate-income individuals (Bahn et al., 2016) incubators, innovation centers, and higher education programs must focus on fostering the critical consciousness and valuing the cultural strengths of those they serve.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Silicon Valley Community Foundation 2016-154100 (4012).

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