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The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic forced many institutions of higher learning across the United States to pivot to online instruction immediately or close altogether. This transition highlighted many inequities in access to education as well as the sense of community on college campuses for the students. Earlier digital divide research focused mainly on physical access, identifying patterns of hardware access by different social identities such as race, gender, and socioeconomic status. Soon after, digital divide researchers began to recognize that the divide exists even when there is physical access to hardware, because the usage and the quality of usage varies (Katz & Aspden, 1996). During the COVID-19 pandemic, many students have lost access to the free, public technology resources at their college or university. These inequities in online learning and the potential impact on student success were highlighted by our team in our prior publication (Simpson, 2020). In addition to access to education, students also lose connection with their community available on college campuses. The purpose of our study was to understand the challenges of online learning and the relationship between the Digital Divide and Sense of Belonging in underrepresented students amid a global pandemic. Using qualitative research methods, we examined the questions "How does the Digital Divide currently impact Sense of Belonging and community in students?" and "What patterns will be revealed when we investigate Sense of Belonging across different social identities?". We conducted 20 semi-structured interviews with current and recently graduated undergraduate engineering students. We were intentional to compose a diverse group of interview participants including students from underrepresented groups, including ethnic and gender minorities as well as first-generation students. Of the 20 participants, five self-identified as men and 15 as women; nine self-identified as Black/African American, eight as White, and three as Asian. Four were firstgeneration students. Four participants were rising juniors, 10 were rising seniors (one 5th year senior), and five were recent alumni (December and May 2020). We conducted first and secondcycle coding data analyses to identify themes regarding the impact of COVID-19 and Digital Divide on Sense of Belonging. Preliminary results suggest the presence of themes highlighting both victories and defeats within the realms of Digital Divide and Sense of Belonging. Digital Divide was highlighted by limitations of students' Physical Home Learning Environment, Internet Connectivity. The negative factors affecting students' Sense of Belonging included Social Isolation; Impersonal Learning; Missing Professional Opportunities, and Individual Differences. The themes highlighting factors that increased students' Sense of Belonging were: Student Organizations Impact; Togetherness in Pandemic; Group Work Benefits; and Connecting Through Tech. The COVID-19 pandemic provides a unique perspective for researchers to study the commonalities and differences among the experience of engineering students from diverse backgrounds. These findings will help to inform higher education administration of the impact of Sense of Belonging on college campuses and how it contributes to students' success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]