First-generation students often feel alone on college campuses. These students can find themselves excluded from organizations, traditions, and spaces that require financial, social, and cultural capital they may not have. In my Sociology of Work course, I use a family work history project to center and validate their experiences. Using census…

A transfer student experience strategic plan provides direction to transfer professionals, advisory teams, and a university's strategic plan. This article describes how one university used surveys, SWOT analysis, and direct experience to create a plan that identified gaps in services and new initiatives to ensure transfer students' persistence and…

Successful mentoring relationships allow mentees to gain the confidence and knowledge they need to reach their goals, but students from populations generally underrepresented in science and health fields have been shown to receive less mentorship than their well-represented peers. In highly competitive processes, like medical school admissions,…

Although much progress has been made in expanding equitable access to institutions of higher education, there is still a paucity of evidence of successful persistence strategies among first-generation, 18-32-year-old Black male college students. The problem is persistence rates of first-generation, 18-32-year-old Black male college students in the…

This three-article dissertation examined the implementation and impact of corequisite mathematics courses at four North Carolina community colleges located in urban areas. The first article was a multiple case study that examined student and instructor experiences to determine the characteristics of corequisite courses that students and…

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) persons are largely invisible in historically Black post-secondary education research and discourse. To this end, LGBTQ students attending historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are often ignored and their voices are silenced, thus impacting their feelings of marginality and…

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to examine how college undergraduates perceive the effectiveness of internships that lead to career aspirations in their major. The theoretical foundation was Super and Hall's career exploration stages of the working life model. The sample was college undergraduates from a public urban…

Objective: This study expands the literature on risk taking among college students by exploring anti-racism action as a form of positive risk taking. Participants: 346 Black (64%) and Latinx (36%) college students (85% female) ages 18-27 years (M = 18.75, SD = 1.31). Methods: Participants responded to questionnaires on anti-racism action,…

The authors of this study utilized data from the Community College Survey of Student Engagement to conduct a critical examination of perceptions of institutional support among transfer-seeking community college students in North Carolina. We adopted an intersectional quantitative approach by centering racial and ethnic identity, and examining the…

In this article, we explore the experiences of students at HBCUs as they traverse their STEM courses and STEM majors and demonstrate how their paths in STEM are positively shaped by a "culture of family." Our research questions include: What are the experiences of students attending HBCUs and pursuing degrees in STEM? And how do their…

Virtual reality (VR) lab experiences for organic chemistry were developed at NC State University as an accessibility tool for students who are unable to attend in-person laboratories due to disabilities, attendance challenges such as pregnancy or military deployment, or safety concerns. The resulting first-person VR experiences are immersive and…

Students with blindness or visual impairments (BVI) need to participate in scientific laboratory experiences at the K12 level to be successful in college-level science courses. These K12 level students need instruction to actively conduct science experiments and not only allow sighted students to conduct them. While it may be a challenge, with…

As the number of displaced people increases, providing refugee-background students with critically engaging classrooms is essential. Supporting diverse learners, while focusing on issues of social justice and equity, critical literacy facilitates a perspective where texts are analyzed for underlying messages of power and sociopolitical issues.…

Background and purpose: Trans people of color experience health inequities related to their multiple marginalized identities. While historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) provide supportive learning environments for Black students, it is unclear if these protections extend to LGBTQ+ students. As trans youth experience barriers to…

In this study, I examine the mentor-mentee relationships of low-income, first-generation students and faculty and staff in the Pack Promise program at NC State University. Through this study I sought to answer the following research questions: (1) What are the mentoring experiences of low-income, first-generation students and faculty and staff in…