Research studies have indicated that Black male collegians have the lowest retention rates in the higher education setting in predominately White institutional (PWI) settings. Several factors, such as spirituality, involvement on campus, and other positive experiences are cited as contributing to a lower retention rate for Black males in the PWI higher education setting; however, research in the PWI religiously affiliated setting has been limited. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore the campus engagement experiences of religiously involved Black males who attended religiously affiliated PWIs. Astin's student involvement theory and Astin, Astin, and Lindholm's findings on spiritual development in the higher education setting are used as a conceptual framework. The research questions explored how religiously involved Black males who were at religiously affiliated PWIs during college described their campus engagement experiences, how their religious belief influenced their campus engagement, and how other factors influenced their campus engagement and contributed to their graduation. Interviews with 8 Black male participants were analyzed for codes and themes using Merriam and Tisdell's coding method. The themes that emerged suggested that although participants perceived initial negative experiences, overall, they had positive campus experiences due to involvement experiences. The participants recalled that their religious engagement fostered more participation in religious involvement, developed their spiritual identity, and that family and community fostered engagement. This study may contribute to positive social change by providing administrators of religiously affiliated PWIs with approaches to increase the engagement and retention of Black male students.

This basic qualitative study examines the parental investment strategies of first-generation African American rural college graduates in cultivating college student success. Extant literature has demonstrated that the role of the family is necessary to support the college student and that the investment of the parent is paramount to student college completion. Although educational attainment is an important goal for African American rural residents, research detailing strategies that cultivated student college completion among this population is needed to fill the gaps in the literature. The objectives were to discuss communication, involvement, and factors of influence to determine how these parents transferred their educational beliefs to their children and supported them through college graduation. These stories of success were told through the eyes of first-generation parents and their second-generation adult offspring. Research detailing the parental investment strategies toward college completion is necessary to inform parents, educational institutions, and rural college student completion in postsecondary institutions of the strategies necessary to ensure college success in this population. Lieberman’s transgenerational theory, along with concepts extracted from parental investment as it relates to education, provided the conceptual lens for the study. Data collected through interviews and documents were analyzed utilizing content analysis. Ten semistructured interviews were conducted with parents and their adult offspring. Interviews gleaned the lived experiences of the participants. Data analysis revealed six themes: (a) Catch Them Early, (b) Set the Tone, (c) Keep Them Busy, (d) Don’t Let Them “Break Rank,” (e) Encourage Advancement, and (f) Tell the Generations. The findings support the importance of developing a family investment team, how a return on parental investment occurs, making use of rural extracurricular programming, and transferring positive beliefs regarding higher education.