The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between life design and student leadership development at Bowling Green State University. Life design is a creative problem-solving framework that empowers students to apply design thinking mindsets and methods in their own lives to creatively solve problems (Burnett & Evans, 2016).…

This dissertation brings together two research strands that study: (a) the ways in which physics and STEM students contribute to growing capacity for institutional change within collaborative teams and (b) the support structures of graduate programs through an innovative methodology grounded in network science. The first research strand is…

The disparity between Asian Americans' high level degree attainment and underrepresentation in executive offices suggests that Asian American college students are achieving academically, but somewhere along the journey from college to career they are missing the connections that will transform them into global leaders. In order to prepare Asian…

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant financial impact on land-grant historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, which have historically faced underfunding by their respective state governments. This study examined the issue of low engagement rates and alumni giving among former…

The needs of contemporary doctoral scholar-practitionership are placing demands on institutions of higher education to assess the methods by which curriculum and faculty resources are invested in student development. As students continue, often, to remain in practice during doctoral studies, the need to develop and assume an identity as a…

The purpose of this study is to understand the professional skill development of student employees in a leadership position through a theoretical lens and applied lens. Research suggests that a deficit of professional skills exist in today's college graduates. In higher education, many colleges and universities use a student employment model to…

This study examined the research question, does having a woman in student affairs as a mentor correlate to higher socially responsible leadership scores of undergraduate men? Overall, there were no statistically significant differences between leadership construct scores on measures of socially responsible leadership for undergraduate men who…

The researcher explored the impact of a student voice initiative (SVI), the Student Ambassador Council (SAC), on the social-emotional competencies (SECs) of middle school, 5th-8th grades students. Drawing upon the principles of youth empowerment, more specifically Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR), and social-emotional learning (SEL), the…

As higher education institutions continue to employ students to carry out operational functions and supplement professional staff, they should question how the on-campus employment experience is adding value to students' holistic development and education (Peck et al., 2015). The purpose of this study was to identify student employees' holistic…

The purpose of this study is to understand how students with historically marginalized identities are developed through their experiences serving on the executive board of departmentally advised student organizations. With marginality and power, forms of resistance, and high impact engagement literature together serving as a framework, this also…

This dissertation study contributes to the dearth of research examining the leadership development of Latina college students. Using critical race feminism (CRF) as a guiding framework, this study centers the experiences of Latina college students, exploring how dominant cultural values, Latinx cultural values, and the context of the collegiate…

Nearly every graduate school, especially professional schools, claims to train, educate, and develop leaders. However, the leader-development literature offers little evidence of how a graduate level leader-development course might actually do that. Developmental theory informing experiential and constructivist leader-development methods suggest…

The purpose of this qualitative grounded theory study was to create a student leadership development model specific to secondary students in a private Christian Hawaiian school system. The paradigm that guided this study was Kouzes and Posner's (2012) transformational leadership theory as it provides a framework of leaders equipping, encouraging,…

The dissertation in education administration represents innovative and relative research that provides administrators with a process that students may use to enhance their academic, social, and emotional development. This study gathered the perspective and experiences of recruited educators from a K-8 school who had recently engaged and interacted…

Contemporary college student activism efforts are growing. Little research has been conducted on student activism and leadership development. As student affairs educators consider leadership an important part of an undergraduate education it is important to consider how the context of activism actually influences student leader identity…