This work aims to support a more equitable science education culture that better supports students who have historically and continue to be inequitably pushed out of science. Our equity-oriented and anti-deficit research agenda led us to study community college and transfer students as well as their self-efficacy and self-efficacy experiences. This dissertation opens by overviewing the state of STEM education and explaining how research approaches often frame students in deficit ways. Chapter 1 introduces Wood's researcher positionality and relevant literature to her research approaches. Wood's research agenda prioritizes supporting marginalized students in STEM through studying the construct of self-efficacy. After reviewing the research framing, Chapter 2 introduces relevant literature about self-efficacy and two-year college (TYC) transfer student experiences. It ends by addressing how Wood's research positionality aligns with and impacts the ways she researches self-efficacy and TYC transfer students. Chapters 3-5 each open with a transition situating it in the broader story of the dissertation. Chapter 3 reminds readers of the reasons for our qualitative approach to studying self-efficacy. It then describes the development of a qualitative codebook for self-efficacy. Chapter 4 explains the shift to a narrative analysis case study of a single transfer student. It diverges from self-efficacy to discuss the reasons and results of that narrative analysis, stating that supporting characters were instrumental in a transfer student's success story. It ends with implications for universities to learn from TYCs. Chapter 5 broadens from a single student's case study to a positively impactful course experience at a TYC for STEM students intending to transfer. It describes design considerations learned from the course and opportunities the course provided for student self-efficacy experiences. Chapter 6 discusses the story as situated in the research framing and concludes.