The number of college athletes in the US has gradually increased, and in the 2020-2021 academic year, a record high of approximately 480,000 athletes participated in NCAA sports (NCAA Research, 2024). Along with this growth, scholars have highlighted various factors influencing college athletes' career development (e.g., career maturity, athletic…

It is a common assumption that students are motivated by summative assessment. This is often considered in terms of grades, which is an extrinsic motivator and overlooks the wide range of other motivations that students experience with regard to classroom assessment. Indeed, motivation is not a singular construct but can have different qualities…

We examined the mentor-protégé relationship and the foundational pillars that make the relationship effective. Through a phenomenological design, we conducted interviews with student leaders to discuss their relationship with their self-identified most significant mentor. Using leader-member exchange and mentor relationship theory as a lens, we…

Higher education institutions have strategically and circumspectly managed the responsibility for students' wellness by departmentalizing mental health support into voluntary services led by the university counseling and wellness departments. Departments such as counseling wellness, academic advisement, and student engagement are just some of the…

Effective mentoring promotes the development and success of graduate students. Yet mentoring, like other relationships, can have negative elements. Little knowledge exists about the problematic mentoring that graduate students experience despite its potentially detrimental impacts. To begin to address this gap, we conducted an exploratory…

The purpose of this qualitative research study was to explore perceptions of first-generation college students with strengths-based development experiences. "Strengths-based development experiences" were defined as those that leveraged a student's results from the CliftonStrengths® assessment provided by the Gallup Organization. This…

Purpose: The number of international students in China has been increasing over the recent decades. The rapid expansion of the international student population aroused concerns over the capacity of Chinese universities to fulfill international students' expectations toward academic development. Perceiving student learning experiences as an…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to pilot an undergraduate teaching assistantship for Emirati students, an area of scholarship underexplored in the Middle East. The teaching assistantship was developed to better prepare students for the workforce, amidst the push for Emiratization. Design/methodology/approach: Over the course of one…

This study provides a thematic analysis of student transformative experience regarding personal and social change in a service learning (SL) course wherein students volunteer in embedded inner-city contexts. Several transformative themes emerged through interpretive analysis of student journals. Especially important to this investigation, we…

While the majority of STEM persistence has focused on outcomes for first-year students there has been little investigation into the outcomes for peer mentors and no investigation into whether peer mentors perceive the experience differently based on gender, ethnicity or other relevant variables. The purpose of this study was to examine an archival…

Play therapy provides a differing perspective into how one interacts with, understands, and engages in relationships with not only children, but also people of all ages. The purpose of this study was to explore undergraduate students' experiences in and perceptions of a play therapy course and to examine if the course assisted university students…

The purpose of this case study was to examine the ways in which an instructor's interventions and guided reflections influenced students' intercultural development during a short-term study abroad experience in Oaxaca, Mexico. The research questions were: (a) What was the impact of the study abroad program on the level of intercultural sensitivity…

Trauma is a present issue on college campuses, yet there is a lack of research on how best to promote positive outcomes for college students who have experienced trauma. With college being an important time for developmental growth, it is vital to encourage more research that investigates the effect of trauma on students as well as ways that…

Self-determination theory (SDT) posits a framework for human motivation, highlighting an individual's interactions and perceptions of his or her environment. Research incorporating a SDT framework has identified antecedents of psychological need satisfaction (PNS) in human motivation. Individual motivation broadens levels of social interactions as…

To conduct this qualitative dissertation study, a phenomenological approach was utilized. The purpose of the study was to examine the perspectives of highly motivated, economically disadvantaged, middle school students to discover the factors that they identified as integral to their overall development and their intrinsic motivation, over time,…