Amanda Case, a new associate professor in counseling psychology, successfully transferred a major grant she obtained while a faculty member at Purdue University to her new role in the UI College of Education.

The National Science Foundation grant is titled, “Fostering Black and Latinx student STEM efficacy, interests, and identity: A participatory study of STEM programming and practices at one community-based organization.”

The nearly $2 million dollar grant was awarded in 2023. This is year two of the five-year grant, which studies DBG’s innovative and impactful STEM-focused youth programming to better understand, measure, and magnify its long-term impact. Case joined the UI College of Education faculty this fall.

Case, who is the principal investigator, continues to work with co-principal investigators Jessica Hauser of DBG Detroit; and Nielsen Pereira and Signe Kastberg at Purdue University.

The project aims to learn why students at DBG Detroit, formerly called the Downtown Boxing Gym, choose to engage in their embedded STEAM lab, and how the STEAM lab is structured that enables that participation. 

DBG Detroit is a free, out-of-school-time program on Detroit’s east side, and STEAM is an acronym that stands for science, technology, engineering, art, and math. 

Every weekday, elementary through high school students opt in to participate in a variety of classes in the DBG STEAM lab – studying everything from computer coding, robotics, and digital animation, to insects, weather patterns, animal life cycles, and more. Researchers want to learn what inspires students to enthusiastically “opt in” and how DBG’s holistic approach, which incorporates student voice in programming decisions, creates opportunities for student engagement.

“We hope to learn from DBG Detroit about how both formal and informal STEM programs can grow students’ STEM interests, identity, and efficacy,” Case says. “The project is particularly unique because the STEAM lab is embedded in DBG, so students who might not otherwise choose to attend out-of-school-time STEM programs, because they may not feel they belong in those spaces, are able to access DBG’s STEAM lab.”
– Amanda Case, associate professor in counseling psychology and grant principal investigator

Case first connected with the Downtown Boxing Gym in 2013 when she was an assistant professor of educational psychology at Wayne State University in Detroit. For more than a decade, she has studied DBG’s work and impact, noting the nonprofit organization’s individualized approach, mentorship methodology, and remarkable results.

Founded in 2007 by Khali Sweeney, DBG serves more than 200 boys and girls annually, ages 8-18, with continued support to 50+ alumni through age 25. The program breaks down barriers, delivering academic and non-academic intervention, athletics, mentorship, transportation, meals, diverse programming, and more, Monday-Friday, all year round.

This grant-funded project has the potential to help understand how marginalized students enter STEM learning spaces, Case says.

This is critical, Case explains, because there’s a huge shortage of qualified STEM workers to meet workforce demands in the U.S., particularly because Black and Latinx students, especially those who come from economically marginalized communities, are not being supported or welcomed in STEM educational and occupational spaces.

“So we need to understand how to construct spaces and implement practices that invite and retain economically marginalized youth of color into the STEM spaces,” Case says. 

Portions of this story were drawn from an article that originally was published on the Purdue University website, written by Robin Schwartz.