We surveyed 196 individuals who study or work in STEM regarding the role models and inspirations that had an influence on them pursuing STEM education and careers. The data showed that role models influenced around 30% of the sample. These role models can then be divided into three overarching types, teachers, family, and well-known scientists,…

The influential role of familía remains a crucial aspect to understand Latinxs' success in postsecondary schooling. Rather than relying on a deficit lens, this study employs an asset-based lens to gain insight into the paternal influence that assists Latinas' persistence to degree attainment in engineering. More specifically, this study examines…

As community college students often come from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, report greater financial challenges, and experience higher cohort default rates on student loans compared to peers attending four-year institutions, it is important to understand how community college students develop a sense of financial wellness. Moreover, research…

This study explores the factors influencing women's enrollment, experiences, and retention within the Applied Science Engineering (ASE) program at Rutgers University. Amidst the broader context of women's underrepresentation in engineering fields, this research aims to elucidate the complex interplay of personal, familial, academic, and social…

In recent years, increasing research attention has been devoted to "first-generation" or "first-in-family" university students. For a sizeable cohort of students there is still little or no family tradition of supporting new university entrants into, and few expectations of, the novel and unfamiliar territory of university life…

Mainstream America needs a reorientation. Despite the focus portraying all Black Americans as living in inner-city poverty by mass media or social scientist, the African American middle-class is growing. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to understand African American middle-class graduating students on Historically White College…

Influencers are individuals or entities that meaningfully contribute through a socially constructed process to the formation of educational aspirations and possibly to their attainment. The effect of a specific influencer may differ within the context of multiple influencers. The aim of the current mixed methods study was to investigate how…

Although African Americans report the lowest graduation rates in the United States--approximately 35% at undergraduate level--the rate is lower for African American males (30%) than African American females (37%). The performance of African American males in higher education is influenced by faculty role models and faculty expectations of their…

This study explored multisystem protective/risk factors for explaining resilience/adjustment in emerging adults with/without neurodevelopmental disorders facing the transition to a stressful non-academic context, mandatory military service. Participants were 904 conscripts (498 males, 55%) ages 18-25 years (M = 18.70, SD = 0.77) in four groups,…

While Americans gave $471 billion to nonprofits in 2020, according to Giving USA, little is understood about the factors that contribute to the learning of philanthropy. The study's purpose was to examine how donors to institutions of higher education (IHE) acquire a philanthropic disposition, by asking the following research question: How do…

This study examines the experiences of the only three female headteachers leading boys' senior high schools (SHS) in Ghana to understand the uniqueness of their career journeys, on-the-job experiences and the leadership strategies. Qualitative phenomenological approach was used for the study. The three women were interviewed multiple times over a…

The very low college success rate of American Indians and Alaska Natives has inspired a scholarly literature that seeks to explain this outcome and, more recently, to account for why some Native students persist in college. Few studies, however, look at Native students who actually have graduated from college, and these rarely reflect Native…

Introduction: Somali American adolescent tobacco use has increased over the past decade amid a high prevalence of tobacco use among Somali American adults. While established adolescent tobacco use determinants may apply for Somali youth, a deeper understanding of these influences is imperative to the development of effective prevention strategies…

Postgraduate output is important in any country's knowledge development and their knowledge economy. The development of postgraduate output especially at master's and PhD levels in South Africa is at risk due to its slow pace. An argument that can be made is that undergraduate experiences lend to postgraduate access and success. This article…

The acquisition of cultural capital can only be understood in the light of the formation of habitus, including the socialisation process, and in the context of the field in which any such capital has value. Yet, the relation between cultural capital and habitus is seldom discussed in research. Drawing on the data from focus groups with 96 students…