This book focuses on the impact of COVID-19 on Latino/a/e/x students, families, and communities across the educational continuum to better understand the challenges faced by them. The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the gross inequities that exist for Latino students with respect to access to quality technology, highly qualified and culturally…

The agenda for widening participation in higher education has led to increasing numbers of students with a broader range of education and family backgrounds. However, transitioning to the university landscape remains a highly complex negotiation process, especially for first-in-family students, who cannot draw on previous experience from higher…

Background: Stress is commonly experienced by college students, especially engineering students. However, the role of stress within engineering culture and its implications for engineering programs have not been fully explored in the literature. Purpose/Hypothesis: The purpose of this study was to measure and examine the relationships among…

Evaluation must occur at the university level to understand the full impact of undergraduate research (UR). UR assessment is often only completed at the individual program level because of limited technology, time, and/or resources. At our large research institution, we have been documenting a wide variety of research experiences annually since…

This study explores the associations among community college student perceptions and short-term success in college. Guiding the study are two research questions: (1) what is the association between participation in dual enrollment and subsequent college success for CTE students formerly enrolled in dual credit secondary programs and those who were…

Nontraditional college student enrollment in the United States is rapidly growing and is predicted to continue to increase. Similarly, female students are currently the majority student population on college campuses. Although numerous studies document college student experiences, few focus on first-generation Latinas who are student-mothers at…

Part of the higher education structure is the co-curricular experience, and is a way for students to develop a sense of belonging on campus, which leads to positive outcomes, like self-actualization and persistence (Strayhorn, 2012, 2018). This study is to better understand the lived experiences through narrative inquiry of fraternity men's sense…

A significant population of higher education students are first generation students; students who come from a home where neither parent has completed a bachelor's degree (Vasil & McCall, 2018). These first generation students experience a gap of education, knowledge, and support which creates a persistent problem of unequal access to higher…

This study examines the motivating factors for Black female, first-generation doctoral students. The critical problem I found was that little is known how Black female doctoral students persevere to completing their doctoral degrees. Therefore, this study sought to identify factors that influence first-generation Black females to pursue and…

Earning poor grades in early science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) college courses decreases the likelihood that a student will major in STEM. However, grades in first-year STEM courses do not impact students evenly, making it hard to know if early "gatekeeping" courses selectively push some students out of STEM. This…

Earning poor grades in early science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) college courses decreases the likelihood that a student will major in STEM. However, grades in first-year STEM courses do not impact students evenly, making it hard to know if early "gatekeeping" courses selectively push some students out of STEM. This…

The focus of this study was to explore, through the lens of Pierre Bourdieu's constructs of habitus, field, and capital, the post-secondary experiences of foster youth who transitioned out of the Louisiana foster care system. Specifically, this comparable multiple case study sought out to understand how cultural, social, and financial capital…

Background: First generation college students, whose parents' highest earned degree is a high school diploma, go on to earn postsecondary degrees less often than their peers whose parents have a college degree. A current approach to addressing this problem is making sure "first gens" are ready to succeed in college. Purpose: There are…

First-generation low-income students are faced with many challenges during their transition to college. Early involvement is critical for their success. The purpose of this research was to discover the impact that Student Support Services had on first-generation low-income students' retention. The purpose was to determine if student's GPAs, family…

Many Latinx students whose families have resided in the rural areas of the United States for generations face racist, nativist behavior particular to rural spaces that is pervasive and all encompassing. Living and learning under small town oppression affects Latinx students' educational aspirations, trajectory and achievement of higher education…