We implemented a single-case research design (SCRD) with a small sample (N = 2) to assess the effectiveness of solution-focused brief therapy (SFBT) for Latine clients experiencing mental health concerns. Analysis of participants' scores on the Dispositional Hope Scale (DHS) and Outcome Questionnaire (OQ-45.2) using split-middle line of progress…

Historically, low-income Catholic secondary schools have provided opportunities for underrepresented students to receive quality education and matriculate to community college and four-year universities. This trend continues today, yet for schools like one in this study who identify as college preparatory schools, what happens to students once…

Critical service-learning is a form of engaged pedagogy that supports development of students' critical consciousness. However, critical service-learning continues to prioritize the development of white students, oftentimes at the expense of marginalized communities and minoritized college students. This study seeks to disrupt this approach by…

This teaching case explores the racialized administrative burdens placed on Latinx staff and students as a Latinx campus cultural center becomes institutionalized or more structurally embedded within a Predominantly White Institution. This case leverages the perspective of the center's Assistant Director to demonstrate how Latinx staff navigated…

California Community Colleges (CCC) served over 20,000 Justice-Impacted Individuals (JII) between 2021 and 2023, and the California State University (CSU) system saw a 280% growth in the number of justice-impacted students participating in their PRb program pursuing graduate studies between 2018 and 2021. (CCC Chancellor's Office--Data Mart, n.d.;…

The COVID-19 pandemic revealed how much the science education community has yet to understand about myriad variables that impact accurately informed socioscientific issue decision-making. Toward that end, this study investigated 415 university biology students' COVID-19 behaviours and opinions regarding how COVID-19 mandates might be associated…

Since the inception of the Higher Education Opportunity Act in 2008, there has been an increase in the number of post-secondary education institutions in the United States that have established inclusive postsecondary programs for individuals with intellectual disabilities to attend college and achieve higher levels of employment. Previous studies…

Historically, racially marginalized communities are less likely to access health care, partly due to structural inequities as well as distrust for white providers. This need for increased racial and ethnic representation is specifically an issue in the pharmacist career, as more than 90% of the United States population lives within five miles of a…

The COVID-19 pandemic was a primary cause for the decline in college enrollment rates for Latino/x college men over the last two years. The aim of this qualitative study was to explore how these students discussed their decisions to attend and enroll college since the onset of the pandemic. Using the Theory of planned behavior (Azjen, 1991), we…

Presenting novel numbers about climate change to people after they estimate those numbers can shift their attitudes and scientific conceptions. Prior research suggests that such science learning can be supported by encouraging learners to make use of given benchmark information, however there are several other numerical estimation skills that may…

During the COVID-19 pandemic, college faculty took many different actions to support student success during the transition to online instruction. However, the conclusions we draw about the "impact" of these adaptations and their implications for racial equity may vary depending on the outcome measures we examine. We explore this…

This qualitative descriptive study aimed to explore how nineteen Latina college students described their unique challenges as Hispanic women and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) students while attending a STEM program at three Hispanic Serving Institutions in southern California. Women, particularly Latinas, remain vastly…

This study examined how 10 Latinx students perceived their sense of belonging in engineering programs. Drawing upon Strayhorn's definition of sense of belonging, we sought to understand the experiences and individuals that facilitated Latinx students' connections to their engineering programs and to the larger campus community at a 4-year…

This dissertation addresses the unequal incarceration of African-Americans and Mexican Americans in the United States. It examines the historical foundations of the construction of race to create criminality toward African-Americans. The legacy of the prison industrial complex perpetuating and prolonging further criminalization to enslave people…

At the southernmost tip of Texas, the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) opened its doors on August 31, 2015 as a 'bilingual, bicultural, and biliterate' campus--the only one of its kind and at a scale never before attempted in the United States. This is a categorical achievement in the near 200 year-long quest for the educational…