Developing Tools for Professional Societies to Better Understand Students' Motivations and Needs

Professional societies, such as the American Physical Society (APS), lead many programs that can improve students’ experiences in physics education (teaching and learning of courses, advising and mentoring, career preparation, etc). As such, they can use personas that articulate the needs and motivations of high-school and college-aged students, which can inform how these programs design, disseminate, and market their activities.

Personas are a powerful tool used to understand different audiences and demographics. By interviewing and surveying members of a specific audience, a persona can be created that represents the motivations, needs, deires, and core characteristics of a “typical member” of that audience, as informed by research.

We present preliminary personas and their potential applications drawn from interviews with college students participating in the Society of Physics Students (SPS) Summer Internship Program.