  While a lucrative and growing field, low levels of gender and racial
diversity in CS remain prevalent. Education and workforce support programs with
the intention to promote underrepresented students' persistence in CS exist,
which teach skills, inform of career options, and grow students' network in CS.
Studies demonstrate these programs' effectiveness as it relates to changes in
affective outcomes, such as participants' confidence in CS skills and attitudes
towards CS jobs. However, programs' longitudinal impact on participants'
build-up of social capital in CS, and the resulting social capital's influence
on their persistence in CS, remain unexplored. Motivated by the literature that
associates demographic identifiers with access to social capital, and students'
access to developmental relationships and career resources (social capital) in
CS with their persistence, this study explores a CS support program's impact on
persistence through capital building. We focus on Google's CSSI, which provided
graduating high school students with a 3-week-long introduction to CS. We use
interviews with participants who are now 2-5 years out of the program to study
CSSI's impact on their social capital and long-term CS persistence. Thematic
analysis reveals three program elements that influenced students' build-up of
social capital, and that the resulting persistence was realized through
students' progress towards internships and goals for paying-it-forward in CS.
These findings inform our recommendations that future support programs and
educational settings consider mentorship centered on socioemotional support,
opportunities for collaboration, and time for fun social activities. Additional
suggestions center on engaging socially-oriented individuals with CS support
programs. These insights inform CS educators on design choices that can
encourage the persistence of underrepresented students in CS.
