Twenty Years Of Community-Based College Success: Oral Histories From Practitioners, Partners, And Peer Mentors Supporting City University Of New York (Cuny) Students, Benjamin J. Carey

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

For the past twenty years, community-based college success programs have supported a generation of young people entering all twenty-five City University of New York (CUNY) Colleges. As the country’s largest urban university system, CUNY has historically been a major engine of economic mobility for young people in New York City. However, gaps in academic preparation and navigational support have weakened student persistence and graduation rates. Community-based organizations (CBOs) that have provided college access support to New York City public school students since the 1980s began to extend their services into college to provide targeted interventions and improve student outcomes. Grounded …

The Relationship Between Role Models, Socioeconomic Mobility Beliefs, And Academic Outcomes, Christian Koeu, Marisol Espinoza Garcia

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Objective: This study aims to provide insights into the relationships between role models, socioeconomic mobility beliefs and the education outcomes of students from low socioeconomic backgrounds. While previous studies highlight the positive influence of role models on academic and career aspirations, the specific relationship between role models and socioeconomic beliefs remains unexplored. Our study addresses this gap by examining whether the presence of role models relates with more optimistic socioeconomic beliefs and how these beliefs, in turn, affect academic outcomes (academic engagement, academic intentions, and grade point average [GPA]). Additionally, we investigate the influence of role model characteristics to …

Parity In Higher Education In Prison Programs: Does It Exist?, Michael Lee Griggs, Vianey Luna

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The expansion of college-in-prison (CIP) programs, especially in California, where incarcerated college enrollment increased from 11,472 students to over 15,000 in two years, has spotlighted higher education for incarcerated individuals. This increase, supported by legislation that expands funding for CIP programs and allows time off sentences for successful course/degree completion, is further bolstered by the restoration of Federal Pell funding for incarcerated students after a 28-year ban. Despite the acknowledged benefits of CIP programs in reducing recidivism and enhancing post-release outcomes, existing research highlights the need for additional exploration into the quality of CIP programs. Senate Bill 416 further emphasizes …

Stories Of Dismantling Whiteness In Social Work Educational Spaces, Jeanean Mohr

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

Social work and higher education are rooted in systems of racism and exclusion and continue to operate as racialized spaces. As the social work profession grapples with its past and calls upon social work educators to support efforts to undo structural racism, paying attention to what is happening in educational spaces is essential. In this study, I examined the stories and tensions of White Social Work faculty engaged in efforts to dismantle whiteness in their classrooms, departments, and universities. Using narrative inquiry, I interviewed nine White faculty from different universities representing five regions across the United States. I explored their …

Latinx Students Higher Educational Trajectory Post Covid, Jonathan Felix-Martinez

University Honors Theses

COVID-19 caused many universities to go fully remote during the pandemic. Many Latinx students did not know how to navigate online learning. This paper examines the experiences of Latinx students in their university experiences while online to determine if their higher educational trajectory changed as a result of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. This qualitative project gathered data from 9 Latinx students using in-depth, in-person interviews. Recommendations are presented to help the university create resources that will help improve Latinx students' experiences within the context of online learning and the effects of the recent pandemic.

Therapeutic Approaches To Working With Perinatal Loss Clients: A Grounded Theory Study, Heather H. Olivier

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Perinatal loss (i.e., miscarriage, stillbirth, termination, and infant death) is commonly referred to in the literature as an invisible loss, non-loss, and even medical event. It is an ambiguous loss exhibiting the dialectical contradiction between the physical absence and psychological presence of the baby accompanied by disenfranchised grief, a reaction to a loss that is unacknowledged by society. Despite the likelihood of mental health clinicians working with clients who have experienced perinatal loss, there has yet to be a therapeutic model designed specifically for the unique grief and trauma reactions presented in this population. Existing grief models do not address …

Utilizing Interprofessional Collaboration To Support And Broaden Perspectives Of First-Generation, Low-Income Students, Taylor Stratman

Social Work Masters Capstone Projects

First-gen, low-income students face significant barriers when it comes to postsecondary education. In order to be successful, professionals working with this population has utilized value-led programming and provided expansions of their cultural perspectives.

Resilience, Outcomes, And Burnout In Social Service Workers, Savanna Muse

Morehead State Theses and Dissertations

A thesis presented to the faculty of the College of Science at Morehead State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science by Savannah Muse on August 9, 2022.

Navigating College While Homeless: A Phenomenological Inquiry Of The Young Adult Experience, Bertha Fountain

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Purpose: The study aimed to understand the perspectives of students in college who were homeless. The research question guiding this inquiry was: How do young adults describe their experience of being homeless while in college?

Method: Qualitative research using a phenomenological approach guided this descriptive inquiry. Interviews were held with 10 students from three CUNY Community Colleges and the data was analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Resilience theory helped to understand the barriers along with the strengths and adaptive responses of the students.

Results: Students experienced unstable and inadequate sleeping arrangements and food insecurity along with their academic responsibilities. Homelessness …

A Qualitative Study On Nurse Facilitators Of Mind-Body Skills Groups, Paula D. Blake-Beckford

Mindfulness Studies Theses

The Center for Mind-Body Medicine (CMBM), founded by Dr. James Gordon, provides communities with evidence-based Mind-Body Skills Groups (MBSGs) that foster self-care, self-awareness, and self-expression. MBSGs range from 8 to 12-week series on various mind-body practices wherein group members meet, practice, and reflect on the impact of mind-body skills in their lives. Research has demonstrated that participants in MBSGs have positive outcomes. Healthcare professionals (HCPs), especially nurses, gain resiliency from MBSGs. As facilitators of MBSGs, nurses develop essential skills transferable to clinical and educational settings. MBSGs are therapeutic for adult participants with chronic stress. Prior to this thesis, only one …

Latinx On The Rise Mentoring Program’S Impact On Graduating Student’S Professional Integration Past Undergraduate Studies, Lucero Martinez-Salas

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Mentoring programs are implemented to create a space for skill and information transmission between a mentor and mentee. Mentoring programs are typically implemented in an academic setting with professors or peers acting as a mentor and students as mentees. Based on the under-representation of Latinx students in higher education and further career paths, mentoring with this population could be positively impactful to their student experience. This thesis focuses on the Latinx on the Rise mentoring program and the experience of the mentees with a focus on the Latinx student experience. Implications for implementation of such programs and their impact will …

Teaching White Privilege At A Southern University: A Multi-Method Approach, Morgan Browning

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Fueled by individual and systemic prejudices, racism continuously cycles through American society. Eliminating racism begins with education and awareness on all societal levels. Denying the existence of privilege, specifically White privilege, allows people to ignore racial inequalities and aids in the perpetuation of injustice. This study focused on educating students at a southern university about privilege, oppression, racism, and discrimination with the goal of contributing to a less racist campus. A similar program developed and implemented in a previous study by the researcher was adapted for online modules. These four online modules consisted of presentations, activities, videos, speakers, and reflective …

Gender Perceptions And Female Students' Academic Engagement And Success In Stem Fields, Rheanna Morgan

School of Social Work Undergraduate Honors Theses

Despite an increase of females in higher education and the workforce, fields such as science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) continue to be male-dominated. One explanation for this trend is the lack of gender representation and counterstereotypical role models to encourage female engagement in these fields at the university level. Previous research has looked at instructor gender, classroom gender composition, and involvement in extracurricular activities as possible factors influencing students' engagement and success in the classroom. However, few studies have investigated how gender perceptions influence female students in STEM fields. This study uses self-report data from a voluntary survey to …

The Impact Of Intensive Advising Within Trio Student Support Services On Good Academic Standing And Student Perception: An Explorative Study, Mariesha Shaw

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Challenges in bachelor’s degree attainment for disadvantaged students (e.g., low income, first generation and disabled) within higher education is a social problem. TRiO SSS, a federal program, has been implemented at a private university in Texas to meet the needs of disadvantaged students and positively influence good academic standing, which would lead to higher bachelor’s degree attainment. Intensive advising, which is holistic meetings conducted with participants to meet academic and personal needs, is one intervention utilized in the TRiO SSS program. The purpose of this study is to assess the role and influence of intensive advising by examining whether it …

Intergroup Dialogue: Affecting Real Change, Lauryn Hulett

Honors Projects

Intergroup Dialogue (IGD) is a course adapted from The University of Michigan. In this Honors Project, a systematic literature review is done from eleven sources in hopes to theorize best practices and areas of improvement amongst applications of Intergroup Dialogue.

Meeting The Psychosocial Needs Of Online Learners In Social Work Programs And Four-Year Universities: What Is Being Addressed And The Many Areas For Improvement, Kathryn Gould

DSW Capstone Projects

Almost half of social work students enter their program with a history of mental health diagnosis and exposure to multiple childhood traumas. Over half of students at four-year institutions are enrolled in one or more courses online, yet retention in online coursework is much lower than in in-person courses. As online programs continue to grow in the field of social work it becomes a vital requirement to address the psychosocial needs of online learners. The call of this capstone is to examine how universities and colleges of social work can meet the increasing need to improve course work and service …

The Influence Of Distance Learning On Undergraduate Social Work Competency: An Exploratory Study At A Private University, Christine K. Fulmer

Theses and Dissertations--Social Work

This is an exploratory study of undergraduate social work education at a private faith-based university. The university offers both online and residential program options. The purpose of the study was to examine the influence of distance education and program option on the educational outcomes of graduates in a newly developed social work program. The program started in 2015 with its first graduating class in 2017. The sample (N = 262) consists of students graduating in 2017, 2018, and 2019. Students could take classes across program options and each student in the sample completed both traditional and online social work courses. …

Barriers To Post-Secondary Success, Douglas Swanson, Najeana Henderson, Maritza Sloan

Dissertations

This study reviews factors that prior studies have identified or failed to consider as barriers to post-secondary success. The three main areas include academic success for Latinx students after high school, organizational systems and their impact on African-American students’ postsecondary readiness, and what workers think of their high school education with regards to career preparedness.

Five factors are identified as major barriers for Latinx students to continue in a higher education system. A survey of former students from Saint Louis, Missouri, and Dallas, Texas, metroplex area identified 56 Latinx students that participated in an initial survey. This led to a …

Assessing The Implicit Curriculum In Social Work Education: An Examination Of The University Of Northern Iowa Students' Experiences, Madison Motz

Honors Program Theses

As part of a social work program’s accreditation process, social work programs across the United States are now being asked to assess their implicit curriculum, defined as the educational environment in which the explicit curriculum is presented, as new evidence has shown that implicit curriculum plays an important role in the learning, development, and professional outcome of social work students. Following the wake of a series of student diversity-related injustices across the state of Iowa, our team set out to create an implicit curriculum survey tool shaped by the experiences, concerns, and feedback presented by students within the social work …

Mission Adrift: The Impact Of Managerialism On Graduate Social Work Education, Carolyn Hanesworth

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Neoliberal policies have led to the installation of managerialism, or the application of business practices and principles in institutions of higher education. Although much is known about the impact of managerialism on faculty in the overall academy, very little is known about its impact in specific disciplines, particularly in the United States. Using semi-structured interviews, this dissertation investigates how social work faculty experience and negotiate managerialism in the traditional pillars of teaching, service, and scholarship.

This study found that managerialism leads universities to place new and increased demands for productivity, efficiency, and accountability on social work faculty. Respondents report major …

An Exploration Of The Experiences Of Faculty With Disabilities In A Research University In The South, Gonzalo Camp

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

While diversity and inclusion has become a benchmark for universities all around the country, faculty with disabilities remain in the margins of higher education discourse and are a neglected population across the spectrum of academia. This thesis aims at exploring the experiences of faculty with disabilities at a specific research 1 university in the South. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with five faculty members who self-identify as having a disability. Four themes emerged from this study: able-bodied lens, fear, social isolation, and coping mechanisms. Building on the existing literature, these findings offer new information to expand the knowledge on the challenges …

An Exploration Of Faculty With Disabilities In Social Work Programs, Kelly Dundon

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Disability is a unique dimension of diversity, yet structural, social and attitudinal barriers can make meaningful workforce participation difficult for individuals with disabilities. Faculty with disabilities (FWD) are a particularly underrepresented population in academia, and even more so in social work programs. Based on this under-representation and a concern for the lack of attention this population has received, this project will explore a subset of this group. This thesis will focus on faculty with disabilities, first by looking into the scant research pertaining to FWD, then presenting the data from a qualitative study and demographic survey. Implications for policy, practice …

Employing Empathy: Using Video Simulations As An Intervention To Educate Social Work Students, Charles Adam Laffiteau

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A video simulation featuring a Master of Social Work (MSW) student assessing a fictional client, portrayed by a professionally trained student actor, dealing with suicidal ideations was developed to model empathetic and reflective techniques. The video simulation was filmed in collaboration with University of Arkansas Global Campus and is part of an interdisciplinary educational pilot program. This pilot program builds upon traditional role-play scenarios by incorporating experiential learning within the creation of cost-effective simulated interactions that employ student actors as standardized clients. Combining social learning theory and constructivism allows Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) students to observe and analyze the …

Development And Validation Of The Measure Of Perceived Safety In The College Classroom: A Mixed Methods Phenomenological Research Study., Jennifer Ballard-Kang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, safety has become a focus of discussion in the field of higher education as research indicates that college students’ perceptions of safety are related to several indicators of student engagement. Despite increased recognition of the importance of safety, there remains a lack of consensus with regard to its definition and conceptualization in the higher education context. This lack of a conceptualization of safety that reflects the complexity of the construct within the postsecondary context has acted as a barrier to the development of quality measurement instruments that can be utilized by researchers and practitioners to understand and …

The Perceptions Of Foster Care Alumni's Experiences With Four-Year Post-Secondary Institutions: A Case For Capital And Field Advantage, June M. Durio

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

ABSTRACT

The focus of this study was to explore, through the lens of Pierre Bourdieu’s constructs of habitus, field, and capital, the post-secondary experiences of foster youth who transitioned out of the Louisiana foster care system. Specifically, this comparable multiple case study sought out to understand how cultural, social, and financial capital influenced the post-secondary educational outcomes of foster care alumni as compared to first-generation and continuing-generation students. Seven common themes emerged from the study: predisposing factors towards post-secondary education; values, knowledge, and skills associated with post-secondary education attainment; informal and formal social networks facilitating post-secondary support; financial resources addressing …

Critical Black Feminist Mentorship: A Review Of A Middle School And University-Sponsored Program For Adolescent Black Girls, Dyann C. Logwood

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation study aims to illuminate the creation of safe spaces for marginalized youth through mentorship initiatives. Likewise, the study examines the roles of mentorship programs in transforming the lives of Black adolescent girls by providing them with tools to change the narratives depicted by society. A qualitative design was employed that used phenomenological interviewing techniques and ethnographic observations to explore the experiences of the Black adolescent girls in one university-sponsored mentorship program. The findings illustrate what is coined through this research—a critical Black feminist mentorship model that emphasizes an intersectional identity development, the actualization of voice, the creation and …

Race, Sense Of Belonging, And The African American Student Experience At Predominantly White Institutions, Anthony Kane

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research study utilized a critical race theoretical framework and methodology to explore the lived experiences of African American students at a predominantly White institution. The purpose of this study was to identify how race impacts the sense of belonging of African American students at predominantly White institutions (PWIs). This study highlighted the racialized experiences of African American students at a predominantly White institution and how these experiences impacted their sense of belonging. Additionally, this study sought to understand the type of support African Americans students preferred and needed in order to develop a positive sense of belonging.

Six African …

Place-Making By Black And Latinx Students In Predominantly White Institutions: Participatory Design And Meaning Making Through A Social Enterprise, Joshua P.H. Livingston

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Black and Latinx male retention in post-secondary institutions, particularly predominantly white institutions (PWI), remains a critical social problem. Even though many PWIs set up structures to welcome and support Black and Latinx males, those structures are defined and created through dominant cultural norms. They have been challenged to mitigate the individualized facets of disengagement. A social innovation, proof of concept model was conceptualized, designed, and developed alongside Black and Latinx males in college. Social innovation is defined as a new way of approaching long standing and complex problems. Proof of concept (PoC) helps to validate that processes and designs are …

Social Constructivism: An Andragogical Praxis For Critical Thinking Instruction And Evaluation With Graduate Social Work Students, Luella Loudenback

Ed.D. Dissertations in Practice

Critical thinking skills are requisite for graduate social work students to transition competently into professional practice. This mixed methods study was conducted to explore current instruction and evaluation methods for critical thinking skill development. The extent to which faculty perceived changes in student outcomes since the 2015 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards change related to critical thinking skills, was also studied. This study was designed to link critical thinking and social work education in the context of social constructivism as an andragogical praxis for the development of critical thinking skills. The quantitative findings were interpreted to identify multiple approaches for …

Unseen And Unheard: Exploring The Mental Health Of Mostly Heterosexual College Students, Shannon Pendleton

Lyle S. Hallman Social Work Theses and Dissertations

College years have long been understood to be a difficult yet important developmental period in an individual’s life, which may be particularly challenging for sexual minority students who tend to face discrimination on campus, which can undermine their mental health. Research in both college student and non-college student samples has shown that mostly heterosexual is a distinct sexual orientation. However, little is known about the wellbeing of individuals, including college students, who identify as mostly heterosexual. Moreover, among college students, little is known about the intersections between a mostly heterosexual identity and mental health. This study examined the association between …