The path to a postsecondary education is often constrained by barriers that are systemic and debilitating for Black and Latino males who are low-income and the first in their families to attend college. Barriers such as poverty and lack of access to quality educational resources often have adverse effects on their postsecondary pursuits. These…

Adult learners from the Caribbean diaspora continue to enroll in American colleges as they seek to improve their academic ambitions. As they do, they utilize varying instructional strategies to assist in achieving their educational goals, one of which is cooperative learning. While cooperative learning is widely used across different age groups…

The creation of "universidades interculturales" (intercultural universities, UIs) in Mexico at the start of the 21st century was not only a policy response to the need for more accessible higher education for historically underrepresented students, but also to the call for more culturally and linguistically relevant education and…

Latino college students studying for a Homeland Security degree in Pennsylvania colleges and universities do not graduate at the same rate as their non-Latino peers, despite the availability of academic support programs which seek to help them achieve greater success. The support programs available include providing low-income and other students…

The purpose of this study was to examine college students' experiences of racial microaggressions at a Hispanic serving institution. The participants were undergraduate and graduate students from a large higher education research institution in South Texas. The study had a qualitative approach with a two-step process of Phase 1 and Phase 2. Phase…

The dissertation examined the significance of disaggregated data in relation to college students' sense of belonging among Latinx ethnic subgroups. Sense of belonging has been positively associated with student persistence, retention, and completion of degree (Korpershoek et al., 2020). Latinx consist of numerous ethnic subgroups, and…

Several factors, including stigma and help-seeking behaviors, create barriers to college males seeking professional mental health services. Previous research has focused on socialization, masculinity ideologies, and attitudes to explain this disparity. However, little is understood about how this population's coping style, race, and psychological…

This hermeneutic phenomenological study explored the complex experiences of conditionally-admitted Latinx students during their first semester of enrollment at a public, 4-year university. Previous research on the topic has been built on foundational models of student transition and persistence, but existing theories that shape retention…

This study seeks to learn about and understand what constitutes successful leadership cultures in Latin American universities. The research calls attention to one national university rector and subordinate members of his leadership team, as well as students at the university in order to understand the values and actions needed to fulfill the role…

This qualitative research examined factors that influence baccalaureate degree completion among low-income, first- and second-generation Mexican and Dominican students. This research explored the challenges that students from these specific Latino sub-groups confront throughout their college careers. The literature review offered a historical…

This research looked at Higher Education Leaders' Perceptions of Persistence and Achievement of Afro Caribbean Immigrant Students. The research was qualitative and took a phenomenological, narrative approach. Sixteen administrators, across three campuses, one private for-profit and two public nonprofits were interviewed. The participants consisted…

With the increase of West Indian families of African descent acculturating into new communities and cultivating spaces for their cultures and customs to flourish, there is an increased significance for continued quantitative analyses to examine the cultural patterns, values and practices that take place within the West Indian familial structures…

This dissertation investigated the speech productions of the implosive -r consonant by U.S.-born Puerto Rican and Dominican Heritage Language Spanish speakers in New York. The following main research questions were addressed: 1) Do heritage language Caribbean Spanish speakers evidence the same variation with the /?/ consonant in the implosive…

The purpose of this study was to examine factors that promote transformative learning experiences of college-level adult learners of foreign languages. This study was conducted to analyze how college-level adult learners of foreign languages experience transformative learning through educational and non-educational experiences. Mezirow's…

Second-generation Dominicans have been able to make remarkable gains in college completion rates over the last twenty years, and have higher rates of obtaining a bachelor's degree than native-born Blacks and Puerto Ricans who live within their same under-resourced communities (Hernandez and Stevens-Acevedo, 2004). Also, Dominicans are known to…