The invisibility of geoscience masks its importance in maintaining modern society through managing resources, mitigating natural hazards, and understanding Earth’s systems. Geoscience degree programs at a medium-sized Midwestern public university are experiencing declines in majors and course enrollment in a state that exacerbates misconceptions about geoscience via education and workforce policies. Science identity, or the recognition by oneself and others as a geoscience person, has been used for almost two decades to study recruitment and retention issues in STEM. This explanatory sequential mixed methods study measured the geoscience identity (GEOSCIID) of current geoscience students and graduates using the Quantitative Measure of Geoscience Identity instrument (N = 55), and explored participant perspectives on the impact of their geoscience degree program on their GEOSCIID and retention and recruitment efforts via semi-structured interviews (N = 10) and questionnaires (N = 15). Qualitative and quantitative findings converged, indicating participant geoscience identities are mostly based on moderate to high self-efficacy and interest and relatively low recognition by others. Participants credited the geoscience degree programs with improving primarily their self-efficacy while revealing the social construction of their geoscience identities in a small department. Suggestions for recruitment and retention included outreach emphasizing geoscience career education, field experiences, and opportunities for social interaction with faculty and other students. The implications and recommendations include a recruitment and retention plan that emphasizes increasing field experiences and career education while mitigating low enrollment via degree program restructuring, increasing resources for consistent outreach and recruitment efforts, and increased support from college and university administrators.
