For too many community college students, transferring to a four-year institution for a bachelor's degree (i.e., vertical transfer) remains an unrealized aspiration. Prior research suggests that forms of capital can assist students in realizing their goals. Therefore, we sought to explore how relationships both within and outside of their…

Our educational system must constantly change and evolve to fully equip our students with the support and resources needed to succeed. However, the needs of first-generation students--students who desire to go to college but whose parents did not attend--are oftentimes not considered as part of these educational changes. These students encounter…

Roughly 80% of community college students indicate that they intend to transfer to a four-year institution, 30% of those students eventually transfer, and 13% of those students persist to graduate with a baccalaureate degree. There has been previous research on transfer students and on first generation students, but the intersection of…

Centered in critical race theory (Latcrit) and conceptualization of community cultural wealth, this study explores first-generation Latina/o/x students' motivations to attend college and persist to degree completion. Additionally, this study examines the overlapping forms of cultural wealth that participants access throughout their educational…

Undeclared students choose their major while enrolled in college, but major choice can have long-term implications on social mobility, career path, and lifetime earnings. Identity can play a role in the major selected by an undeclared student. This research analyzed the relationship between identity and major selection for undecided students to…

First-generation college students are a prominent higher education student population and are well-represented at the community college. Unfortunately, many first-generation community college students do not persist for degree completion. These students face many academic and social challenges that impact their persistence. However, research has…

This study revealed that housing-impacted community college students in the north-central region of California experienced a range of academic, cognitive, behavioral, emotional, and environmental factors while pursuing housing-related resources associated with their institutions, as well as off-campus resources provided by local, regional, and…

Students often see college courses as the presentation of disconnected facts, especially in the life sciences. Student-created Structure Mechanism/Relationship Function (SMRF) models were analyzed to understand students' abilities to make connections between genotype, phenotype, and evolution. Students were divided into two sections; one section…

Although philosophers have long claimed that reading fiction has the potential to improve imaginative capacities, empirical evidence on this topic is limited. We report an experiment that aims to conceptually replicate and extend previous work by Djikic and colleagues by testing whether reading literary fiction reduces the need for closure, and by…

While the topic of attracting and maintaining inbound international students has received much scholarly attention in higher education, attracting female international students has rarely been discussed. This study addresses the issue of attracting degree-seeking female international students. Based on the notion of situational factors and total…

This chapter is a case study of the first and only public musicology program in the United States and how the program's courses embed the teaching of digital literacy. Suggestions for adapting and implementing some of the activities in disciplines outside of music are provided.

Ultra-processed food consumption is a globally increasing trend (Pagliai et al., 2021) correlated with increased obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and all-cause mortality (Elizabeth et al., 2020). American college students consume twice as many calories from ultra-processed food, compared to minimally processed food (Juul et al., 2022),…

Objective: This study examines whether there are differences among first-generation and continuing-generation community college students in the importance they place on achieving college-related goals and difficulties they face from college- and other life-related challenges. Methods: Data were drawn from the "Community College Libraries and…

First-generation college students, who are the first in their family to attend a four-year college, often face barriers while attending college. In a series of studies, we tested whether a professor self-disclosing their own status as a first-generation student would positively impact current students (particularly first-generation students). In…

Nationally, more than 75% of individuals who are credentialed to teach are prepared in traditional college- or university-based teacher education programs (TEPs). But the college and employment pathways that prospective teachers take to TEP enrollment and completion have not been comprehensively examined. A better understanding of how credentialed…