This study sought to understand how Black students progress in an undergraduate engineering program. Researchers explored how undergraduate engineering majors navigated barriers using heuristic knowledge and action to be successful in engineering. The research questions were: 1) What barriers do Black engineering students experience? 2) What heuristic knowledge do Black engineering students need to overcome barriers? 3) What specific actions do Black engineering students take to overcome barriers? The sample of 16 Black undergraduate current (n = 11) and former (n = 5) engineering students attending a private, Midwestern university in Fall 2020 consisted of a representative group of sophomores (n = 6), juniors (n = 7), and seniors (n = 3). An explanatory sequential mixed methods approach used a survey and interviews to examine the barriers experienced, heuristic knowledge needed, and actions students took to overcome barriers while in engineering. Descriptive statistics and interview theme analysis were used to compare the experiences of current and former engineering students. Results indicated a variation in student experiences and description of racial discrimination with former engineering students experiencing less racial discrimination. Black students need mental health resources, but former engineering students expressed the need to know about and took action to find mental health resources more often than continuing engineering students. Continuing engineering students built friendships/relationships with engineering students that did not look like them more often than former engineering students. Black students' distinct lived experiences are invaluable to their success in engineering. This study supports defining Black student success as the ability to navigate unique barriers, identify heuristic knowledge needed to address these barriers, and take action to manage these barriers to move forward on their path in engineering.
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