Great Expectations is a Virginia Community College System program for youth who were in foster care after the age of 13. Foster youth enter college with multiple disadvantages, including being less academically prepared compared to their peers and often lacking social support for their education. A program evaluation was conducted at a specific…

In 2008, a career-focused university implemented a set of faculty-led retention strategies to address a steady decline in retention. Yet, despite the implementation of this program, retention continued to decline. The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of full-time faculty and part-time faculty regarding what aspects of the…

Most Black males envision community colleges as a gateway to higher education and upward mobility. Unfortunately, success metrics from across the United States reveal that community colleges fail to facilitate equitable outcomes for these students. A combination of factors creates campus climates that are not conducive to Black male student sense…

As the enrollment cliff, fueled by declining birthrates and fewer students graduating from high school, continues to challenge colleges and universities to find new enrollment and revenue streams, one area of opportunity is increasing the enrollment of adult learners in on-campus, hybrid, and online programs. Colleges, like Northeast Religious…

Early intervention is a method institutions use to identify and support students who are having academic difficulty and might be designated as "at-risk", or more likely to leave an institution (Villano et al., 2018). Institutions often adopt early alert systems to support early intervention efforts and student retention (Barefoot et al.,…

This study focused on understanding the circumstances that led to students being placed on academic probation and the effect of a support program on their academic recovery. Understanding students lived experiences that lead to academic underperformance is vital to the development and implementation of academic support programs. Ensuring that the…

High Impact Practices are defined as teaching and learning strategies designed to benefit college students through challenging yet confidence-building coursework, and through establishing connections to faculty, peers, and community, among other positive impacts. The ten High Impact Practices recognized by the American Association of Colleges and…

Adverse life events and trauma have the potential to devastate college students' lives across all domains of well-being, including physical, emotional, intellectual, spiritual, and social. Thriving despite these challenges requires academic resilience. Physical activity is one well-known strategy to support increased resilience. No research has…

The problem of practice (PoP) explored within this Dissertation in Practice (DiP) pertains to the lack of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) graduates within the University of Mississippi and how inclusive excellence (IE) can help increase the number of STEM graduates within the institution. I am interested in exploring…

This dissertation is a historical case study that focused on the founding and continuation of the GSSch to define the term, academic resilience and to determine how the GSSch had impacted "academic resilience." I examined qualitative data from interviews alongside research published during the founding (i.e. mid-1970s) and continuation…

Even though school systems throughout the United States have developed a variety of programs to decrease the achievement gap between underrepresented groups and students classified as members of the majority group, data regarding their effectiveness are either scarce or inconclusive. Some research suggests an increasing number of public-school…

The U.S. physician population lacks diversity, and this lack of diversity is reflected in the medical student population. Medical schools have implemented various types of programs to increase the diversity of their student population, and by extension, the physician population. A public Northeastern medical school implemented a postbaccalaureate…

An ongoing concern at institutions of higher education is persistence among underrepresented minority students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) programs. This qualitative exploratory case study was designed to investigate whether combining two strategies, orientations and gamification, to provide more supports for…

College enrollment and completion rates among low-income and historically underserved students are lower than those of their middle- and upper-income counterparts. "Promise scholarships," also known as "last dollar" scholarships, are becoming an increasingly popular way for states throughout the U.S. to incentivize…

Many colleges and universities face record numbers of first year students leaving during or after their first semester of the first year. With increased access to higher education over the past decade the demographic makeup of universities in Illinois and the United States has certainly diversified. In the state of Illinois universities are…