The transition to college, combined with abrupt changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic and online learning, has increased challenges for first-year college students. Resilience theory, defined as the study of how people rebound from adversity, can help us understand how students triumph over challenges during an unprecedented time of change and…

Through this research I explored the challenges faced by first-generation and low-income students during their transition to higher education, focusing on the role of pre-college programs like TRIO. The study aims to identify barriers to college accessibility and success for these underrepresented students and assess the effectiveness of TRIO…

The Upward Bound Math and Science (UBMS) program at Temple University (TU) seeks to guide first-generation, low-income high school students from Philadelphia in their quest to obtain postsecondary STEM degrees that lead to related careers. This study aims to evaluate the efficacy of the program by analyzing its students' performance in light of…

Although the growing attendance of first-generation college students attests to higher education's commitment to access and social mobility, by many measures students who are the first in their family to attend college are not as successful as their later-generation peers. The increasing number of first-generation students and the social,…

First-generation college students are students for whom neither parents, natural or adoptive, mother/ father/ guardian, have completed a four-year college degree. The students are more likely to be racial and ethnic minorities, female, immigrants, low income, enrolled part-time, and/or work more than 13 hours a week. Similarly, first-generation…

The purpose of this current study was to explore the experiences of Latinx first-generation students in four-year undergraduate college programs. This research also explored what had contributed to these students' dedication to obtaining their degrees and how they had made meaning of relational resilience and resistance in light of their…

This article aims to examine alternative explanations of social disadvantage on the university-to-work transition experiences of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) students. 'Becoming employable' during the university-to-work transition is reflected in three ways: students' cognition/patterns of thinking (i.e. perceived…

Biologists produce knowledge that can be applied to both global and personal challenges. Thus, communicating this knowledge to the general public is becoming increasingly important. One way information can move between different communities is through boundary spanners. Boundary spanners are individuals embedded in both communities who can…

Research shows that undergraduate students' achievement emotions are critical in determining motivation and success in higher education. This article reports on the results of a pilot study using the Achievement Emotions Questionnaire involving 10 (n = 10) mostly ethnic minority undergraduates at an urban 4-year university. In general, findings…

The purpose of this quantitative study is to evaluate the learning outcomes of academic advising, particularly for low income, minority, and first-generation students, as well as how those outcomes relate to persistence. The learning outcomes tool is designed for broad use; it was designed through the same rigorous process as health outcomes…

First-generation college students often encounter challenges when applying to post-secondary education. They may also come from households where some family members have also attended college, earned a college degree, or alternatively did not attend college at all. This research study aimed to explore resources that first-generation students and…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to understand how I--and many other students--became first-generation college students (FGCSs) by exploring the rise and retraction of TRIO. Originally, TRIO was a set of three college access and retention programs created in the 1960s to address the needs of a population designated as academically and…

This qualitative study examined factors which led to the success of 14 non-traditional age female, Hispanic early childhood educators enrolled in an Early Childhood Bachelor of Applied Science program as first- generation college students at an HSI in the southeast. Data analysis utilized constant comparative analysis and analytic induction.…

This study probed the predictive effects of accelerated college credits over and above the predictive effects of FAFSA EFC index number, sex, and first-generation status on baccalaureate outcomes on first-time college students. A hierarchical multiple regression on 2,817 students who graduated from a private university in central Arkansas was…

This study examines whether self-efficacy predicted academic success (via self-regulation) for first-generation and continuing-generation college students (Model 1) and among various racial/ethnic groups (Model 2). The 3,316 ethnically diverse incoming freshmen from a large, urban, public university (53% first-generation) participated in this…