This Education Leadership Portfolio (ELP) documents my efforts to enhance the transition experiences of international students at the University of Delaware by optimizing orientation programming. Orientation programming for international students consists of pre-arrival orientation, upon-arrival orientation, and extended orientation, which are…

This qualitative study will focus on students' views toward their sense of connection and engagement within the postsecondary environment amid the unexpected, forced learning environment which resulted from the COVID-19 Pandemic that caused a global shutdown at the beginning of March 2020. This research is relevant to any college presidents or…

Stressors inherent to training and stemming from the learning environment are associated with high rates of burnout, depression, and mental health problems in health professions students (HPS). There is evidence that disadvantaged or stigmatized groups are particularly affected. These problems not only impact students after graduation but may also…

More than half of U.S. college students are first-generation students (i.e., without a parent who completed a bachelor's degree), yet these students are at increased risk compared to continuing-generation students for earning lower grades, not completing their degree, and lower life satisfaction. First-generation students are also less likely to…

The first year of university is a challenging period of academic and personal development for students. Through phenomenographic analysis of 27 interviews with students who had just completed their first year at university, this study provides valuable insight into students' perceptions of adapting to learning in a university environment. Four…

China has emerged as one of the leading destinations for international students, attracting growing research interest in examining their cross-cultural adjustment. Our study moved beyond prior work by offering the first systematic review on predictors of international student adjustment in China, with all its three domains taken into…

Those who have spent time in state care as children, and are therefore 'care-experienced', are known to have lower life chances than the general population. While we know that care-experienced young people are significantly underrepresented in Higher Education nationally and internationally, little is known about their progression to postgraduate…

The transition to kindergarten can be a memorable, yet stressful time for children and families. For children with disabilities and their caregivers, the transition to kindergarten can be especially difficult due to changes in environment, supports, and services that occur as part of the transition. The purpose of this article is to highlight…

This book reports a systematic synthesis of research on teachers' use of adjustments to support students with special educational needs who are currently in their mainstream classrooms. It presents a comprehensive analysis and synthesis of both quantitative and qualitative data, including studies involving observation, artefact examination,…

This study aimed to identify the main stressors in the transition and adaptation processes to higher education in nursing students. Two reflective groups were conducted with 136 students. The thematic-reflexive analysis revealed that the main stressors were the excessive workload of course activities, the need for maturation, psychological…

Successful delivery of transition services for students with disabilities remains a significant challenge in the developed and developing countries like Botswana as students continue to experience poor post-school outcomes. This study examined teachers' perceptions about barriers concerning the effective implementation of transition practices and…

Non-parent mentoring relationships are important protective factors for first-generation college students. Previous research has focused on singular mentoring relationships measured at one time point, failing to capture the breadth and dynamic nature of social networks. The current study is a longitudinal investigation of first-generation…

This qualitative study examines communicative processes associated with graduate students (N = 124) in their struggles with the impostor phenomenon (IP, commonly known as impostor syndrome) and their integration into and experience in graduate programs (aspects of organizational assimilation). We identified two mutually implicative relationships.…

Our multi-disciplinary research team explored the experiences and concerns of Latino/a students and their parents related to being welcomed and included in Catholic high schools in a United States diocese. We collected both qualitative and quantitative data in order to create a fuller picture of Latino/a experiences in these high schools. We make…

In this article we extend the idea of humanizing an online course to humanizing within a cohort-based online doctoral program. We provide examples of humanizing through student agency, faculty presence and peer presence across the main stages of doctoral work in the United States: transition and adjustment, coursework and the process of attaining…