TPC Journal V8, Issue 3- FULL ISSUE

266 The Professional Counselor | Volume 8, Issue 3 retention data (Hypothesis 2) because fewer participants had matriculated this far during the life of the project. Table 1 also breaks down each subset of the data based on which students were retained in a STEM major and which were not retained. Table 1 Descriptive Statistics for Categorical Variables Second-Year Retention Descriptives Third-Year Retention Descriptives Variables Retained Not Retained Total Retained Not Retained Total n % a n % b n % c n % a n % b n % c Gender Male 159 58.9 74 46.5 233 54.3 72 55.8 65 44.8 137 50.0 Female 111 41.1 85 53.5 196 45.7 57 44.2 80 55.2 137 50.0 Total 270 100.0 159 100.0 429 100.0 129 100.0 145 100.0 274 100.0 Ethnicity Caucasian/White 147 54.4 100 62.9 247 57.6 66 51.2 85 58.6 151 55.1 African Am./Black 31 11.5 16 10.1 47 11.0 16 12.4 18 12.4 34 12.4 Hispanic 57 21.1 34 21.4 91 21.2 29 22.5 32 22.1 61 22.3 Asian/Pacific Islander 24 8.9 4 2.5 28 6.5 10 7.8 5 3.4 15 5.5 Other 11 4.1 5 3.1 16 3.7 8 6.2 5 3.4 13 4.7 Total 270 100.0 159 100.0 429 100.0 129 100.0 145 100.0 274 100.0 Course Career Planning 137 50.7 120 75.5 257 59.9 76 58.9 112 77.2 188 68.6 STEM Seminar 133 49.3 39 24.5 172 40.1 53 41.1 33 22.8 86 31.4 Total 270 100.0 159 100.0 429 100.0 129 100.0 145 100.0 274 100.0 Initial Major Undeclared 130 48.1 72 45.3 202 47.1 65 50.4 63 43.4 128 46.7 STEM 124 45.9 40 25.2 164 38.2 55 42.6 39 26.9 94 34.3 Non-STEM 16 5.9 47 29.6 63 14.7 9 7.0 43 29.7 52 19.0 Total 270 100.0 159 100.0 429 100.0 129 100.0 145 100.0 274 100.0 Note . a = percentage of the Retained group. b = percentage of the Not Retained group. c = percentage of the Total group. Gender representation within the two samples was split relatively evenly, with female participants represented at a higher rate in the sample than in the larger population of STEM undergraduates and at a higher rate than STEM professionals in the workforce. Both samples were predominantly Caucasian/ White, with no other ethnic group making up more than one-fourth of either sample individually; these ethnicity breakdowns were reflective of the university’s undergraduate population and somewhat reflective of STEM disciplines. The students who took the STEM-focused career planning course accounted for a larger percentage of both total samples and also of the not-retained groups. Regarding initial major, the largest percentage of students fell within the initially undeclared category, with the next largest group being the initially STEM-declared group (these students officially declared a STEM