This qualitative, multiple case study examined how peer mentors at a public, four-year university supported the transition of first-year college students. Using Schlossberg's (Anderson et al., 2021) Transition Framework the study was guided by the following questions: 1) How did peer mentors, in light of the Approaching Transitions phase in…

Since its inception in 1992 at Ball State University, safe zone trainings (SZT) have been conducted at hundreds of institutions of higher education (Poynter, 2017). While previous studies have focused on SZT programs, ally development, and the campus climate for the LGBTQIA community, there is a lack of scholarship on SZT facilitators. This…

Sino-foreign cooperative education, a cornerstone of China's international higher education collaborations, plays a pioneering role in its higher education reforms. This mode not only offers a bridge to global education markets but also shapes the trajectory of higher educational reform. The research presented here aims to improve the…

Purpose and Method of Study: The purpose of this study explored student perceptions of their spiritual formation in the online undergraduate degree program at Southwestern Christian University. This study was a replication of Lowe's (2007). An explanatory sequential mixed method approach, or QUAN-qual design, was used and the results from the…

The M.S. Chemistry -- Chemical Education Specialization program at South Dakota State University provides in-depth general chemistry coursework to in-service high school science teachers in a virtual format. The goal of the program is for the teachers enrolled to become more effective teachers while gaining content knowledge in chemistry; in…

Arts entrepreneurship educational efforts within U.S. university music departments vary between institutions. Music history and theory course sequences and content remain relatively unchanged over the decades. Set against this, arts entrepreneurship is still in its conceptual phase as administrators and educators navigate elusive definitions and…

This Education Leadership Portfolio (ELP) documents my efforts to create a new program for women in mid-level administrative positions at the University of Delaware (UD) through the Division of Student Life's Staff Development Committee. This program is designed to address the lack of diversity within leadership roles, especially the…

The purpose of this single, descriptive case study was to gain new insight into how members of a successful higher education institution--Virtual U--are learning to adapt to the dynamic and ever-changing environment. This study examined one successful institution of higher education that has experienced exponential financial and student growth in…

As students transition from one phase of the education pipeline to the next, support programs are often put in place to make the transition and onboarding process as smooth as possible. While support programs for first-year students entering college directly from high school are common place at most institutions, onboarding practices for transfer…

Students are not learning to read well in California public schools. This is particularly true for students in special education. If more of California's students in special education are to demonstrate literacy skills to state and national standards, it will require more of their teachers teaching those skills. With the plurality of California…

This phenomenological qualitative study examines a problem of practice and its context within equity, ethics, and social justice. Nationwide, African American students represent a small percentage of all students enrolled in an honors program or college. This study explores the experiences of African American students who are members of the Sally…

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…

This dissertation maps the landscape of the cross-national educational transfer of American higher education in the Arabian Gulf region, with a case study of Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service in Doha, Qatar. It examines how and why Qatar has borrowed, and Georgetown has lent, the American model of higher education, specifically…

The purpose of this study was to explore and to compare the programs at two Pennsylvania Universities for students with intellectual disabilities (ID). The study explored how each university began the program from idea to implementation, including why and when it was started. The first university in this study was a four-year private school that…

The number of U.S. undergraduates who study abroad is growing, as are expectations that the experience will result in increased intercultural competence. Conclusions in the literature regarding actual outcomes of study abroad, however, remain limited, and often are contradictory. This research examines whether a semester of study abroad is…