Many stakeholders emphasize the importance of diverse populations' participation in the sciences, though the motivations for this vary. Some reference an economic standpoint by emphasizing the importance of either recruiting more science workers to compete in a global economy, or of individual financial success for people from historically…

Community colleges educate almost half of all American undergraduates. These students include but are not limited to under-prepared high school graduates, and individuals who are working full-time while attending school, as well as students of diverse cultural, socioeconomic, and ethnic backgrounds. With such a diverse student population, science…