There are well documented differences in gendered participation in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields across cultures and societies. Gender inequality in STEM reveals itself in global pay gaps and minority underrepresentation. Previous research has found that student attitudes towards career fields are rooted in their…

This paper outlines a comprehensive project that used the Community Engagement and Social Innovation Model as a framework to drive a continuous quality improvement project focused on enhancing outcomes for Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) college students. Recognizing the persistent impact of modern-day colonialism on NHPI communities…

Purpose: The purpose of this quantitative, nonexperimental descriptive study was to explore whether there has been a significant decrease in attendance rates or a significant decrease in achievement as evidenced by assessment scores for students in the K-12 public school system after the COVID-19 compulsory distance learning period for the Asian…

This dissertation is an examination of the limited number of Pacific Islander students that advance from high school to higher education. It also examines the percentage of Pacific Islander students that attend higher education, but do not acquire their degree. Pacific Islander students informally recognize the dominant United States culture and…

Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) play a vital role in the American cultural landscape, embodying a rich diversity of approximately 50 ethnic groups and over 100 languages. This diverse population encompasses heritage from Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Filipino, Vietnamese, Korean, Hawaiian, and other Asian and Pacific Islander ancestries.…

In spite of a swiftly growing AAPI undergraduate student population, higher education staff remain predominantly White with AAPIs significantly underrepresented within the field. The underrepresentation of AAPI professional staff is a problem not only because it may represent a lack of a career pipeline for AAPIs entering the workforce, but it…

This dissertation investigates the child language acquisition of Kosraean (ISO 639-3 kos) and English (ISO 639-3 eng) on the island of Kosrae of the Federated States of Micronesia, with the aim of assessing the current vitality status of Kosraean and its strength compared to English. The concerns raised by the community regarding child proficiency…

Throughout the centuries of Western colonization of the United States, there has been the repeated denial of educational access for Native students, including Native students in colonized island nations in the Central Pacific. Native Hawaiian students have historically faced barriers in college success (i.e., campuses not prepared for the…

For this research, I employed a qualitative research design using a critical paradigm to explore the racialized experiences of current and former Polynesian college football players at a university in the Intermountain West region of the United States. Participants were identified using a purposeful sampling technique. I specifically sought to…

The purpose of this qualitative study that used a phenomenological research approach is to understand how higher education career services practitioners design and deliver career planning and professional development for Pacific Islander students at 4-year non-profit institutions within the continental United States. This study aimed to discover…

Across the country, Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) students appear to be academically successful, completing high school at 95.9 percent (NCES, 2011). However, upon disaggregation of data, AAPI's ethnic subgroups such as Southeast Asian and Pacific Islander (SEAPI) students in Oakland, CA are dropping out at an alarming rate of 50…

This basic qualitative study contributes to what is known about mentoring in higher education: the mentoring experiences of minority women leading in academic and student affairs at Pacific Island community colleges (PICC). This study examined the mentoring experiences of these minority women leaders and related mentorship to their leadership…

"Pacific Islanders: Wayfinding in Higher Education" examines Pacific Islander (PI) students' experiences in higher education. The purpose of this study was to understand factors enabling PI student success with completing their bachelor's degree in higher education. The study also sought to understand the barriers PI students' face that…

My research examines the influence of community cultural wealth and tauhi va on the navigation of Pacific Islanders (PIs) in STEM. The disaggregation of data on Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) attaining STEM bachelor's degrees revealed that PIs (16%) are represented half as much as Asian Americans (35%) (NCES, 2020). Under the AAPI…

As an indigenous serving institution, the University of Hawai'i (UH) serves all indigenous groups including Pacific Islander groups. Continual and practical training of emerging educational leaders at the UH is critical to the ongoing success of Hawai'i's only public post-secondary institution. Employing the oral history methodology, I examined…