The degree of access to American higher education has changed over the years. During the 1980s and 1990s, higher education witnessed an increase in the diversity of students while enrollment in higher education reached approximately 14,000,000. With the matriculation of a wider array of students, higher education realized a need to understand these students better. Researchers began to investigate issues that they considered possible influences on the experiences of students in higher education. Questions were raised as to the roles that gender, race, and socioeconomic status might play in a student's college experience. Comparatively, generational status is one factor that has not been given as much attention by researchers. The purpose of the present study was to compare a sample of first generation students and non-first generation students who enrolled at the same institution in the same year. The goal was to provide a description of first generation students' demographic characteristics, pre-college behaviors, and values and beliefs. Data on 3,966 first-year students who completed the Annual Freshman Survey (CIRP) and who enrolled at the selected institution in the fall of 1998 were analyzed. Results revealed significant differences on 64 out of 206 total chi-squares conducted. The majority of significant differences related to issues of money. / Master of Arts

This research project explores the Tri-mentoring Program’s impact on enhancing the student experience, specifically for the new emerging population of racialized and first generation undergraduate students in a Canadian urban university. The study examines how the TMP model attempts to address these students’ unique challenges by creating a holistic student experience, that acknowledges and addresses their lived experiences; encourages them to retain their racial/cultural identities (and values) and external community commitments and beliefs; and facilitates them becoming more empowered and engaged on campus. This research also contributes to the production of knowledge in the area of student engagement. This study introduces and validates the voices and lived experiences of racialized students into the literature, which will be valuable in the future development of new models of student engagement where power is shared and indigenous knowledge and epistemologies are valued- leading to a more engaged and successful student experience.

This research project explores the Tri-mentoring Program’s impact on enhancing the student experience, specifically for the new emerging population of racialized and first generation undergraduate students in a Canadian urban university. The study examines how the TMP model attempts to address these students’ unique challenges by creating a holistic student experience, that acknowledges and addresses their lived experiences; encourages them to retain their racial/cultural identities (and values) and external community commitments and beliefs; and facilitates them becoming more empowered and engaged on campus. This research also contributes to the production of knowledge in the area of student engagement. This study introduces and validates the voices and lived experiences of racialized students into the literature, which will be valuable in the future development of new models of student engagement where power is shared and indigenous knowledge and epistemologies are valued- leading to a more engaged and successful student experience.

First generation students (FGS) are twice as likely as their non-first generation peers to drop out of college (Chen, 2005). FGS experience a host of challenges related to their generational status including poor academic preparation, limited familial support, nonstrategic college learning behaviors, and problematic coping with academic disappointment. When FGS earn low grades, they often attribute their outcomes to an uncontrollable factor such low intelligence (Dweck & Leggett, 1998) rather than poor preparation for success or misunderstanding, more controllable factors. Some FGS, however, matriculate through college successfully despite their risk status. One reason might be that the FGS who are resilient to their risk status exhibit more self-compassion in the face of perceived or actual low grades. The proposed study investigates relations between self-compassion for poor academic performance and college outcomes (i.e., motivation, self-efficacy, anxiety, fear of failure, goal orientation, and theory of intelligence) for FGS using hierarchical regression. The implications for this proposed study result in an intervention: a self-compassion training program designed to supplement a college learning skills course. Ultimately, this intervention will increase students’ self-compassion as well as the previously stated college outcomes. Finally, increases in self-compassion will improve college students’ retention and achievement. / text

First generation and low income college students continue to experience outcome differences despite higher education’s efforts to reduce inequality. Despite abundant research exploring intelligence mindset, there have been few attempts to explore relationships between mindset and scarcity. To reduce this gap in knowledge, and support student success, this study explored relationships between scarcity and beliefs about intelligence – including the intelligence mindset of students and the failure mindset of parents – as well as the connection between scarcity and student demographics. Survey research design was used, and participants were gathered using a census of undergraduate students of a Midwest university in spring 2020 (N = 9,760). Results indicate scarcity continues to be of vital importance to the discussion about inequity in higher education, as found in the direct relationships between perceived scarcity and student demographics, and the indirect relationship of perceived scarcity with intelligence mindset through perceived failure mindset of parents.

This study examined the relationships between first generation college students’ grade point averages and social and academic integration in community colleges. The Institutional Integration Scale was used to measure relationships between grade point averages and social integration and academic integration among first generation college students. A demographic informational questionnaire was used to collect data related to students’ gender, age, ethnicity, degree program, enrollment status and martial status. This study was conducted at Coahoma Community College located in Clarksdale, Mississippi. The study was a quantitative study that consisted of 139 students enrolled during the fall semester at Coahoma Community College. The data were analyzed statistically focusing on the social and academic integration among first generation students and their grade point averages. The analysis revealed no relationship existed between grade point averages and social and academic integration scores. However, the study revealed significant correlations were found to exist between grade point averages and credit hour enrollment, total credits, family income and study time.

This study explored the activities in which first-generation students engage that might promote academic and social integration. Additionally, differences in activities by race were examined. Participants included fifteen Caucasian and fifteen Multicultural first-generation, first-year students. Respondents maintained logs of their daily academic and social activities for a two-week period during their first semester on campus. The logs yielded both quantitative and qualitative data. The results revealed several interesting findings. First, first-generation students engaged in a number of academic behaviors that often contribute to academic integration and success. Although they were not always confident in their abilities as a student, first-generation participants attended most of their classes, completed assignments, participated in class discussions, and visited their professors to seek assistance. Second, although informants seemed to devote more time to academic pursuits, they did take time to enjoy conversations and activities with peers and attend meetings and events on campus. Third, Caucasian and Multicultural first-generation students were nearly equally involved in academic pursuits. However, Caucasian students focused on developing personal relationships with those who support their success, while Multicultural students focused more on results and achievement. Fourth, both Caucasian and Multicultural students found ways to be involved socially on campus, but Caucasian students were more comfortable describing their time spent out of the classroom. In general, the students in this study were not as much at risk as results from prior research on first generation students has suggested they might be. In their first semester, they found ways to participate successfully in the academic and social environments of college. / Master of Arts

Thesis advisor: Karen D. Arnold / For decades, critics have been calling attention to the slow pace of change in higher education (Cohen & March, 1974; Kliewer, 1999; Menand, 2010; Murray, 2008). This pace is clearly at odds with the significant reform necessary to meet the rapidly changing needs of and demands upon the system. Despite the inertia of the past, it seems imperative that we find approaches to innovation that will facilitate increased college access and cost management. This study examined one organization—College Unbound—that identifies itself as a potential disruptive innovation, an innovation that meets the needs of an underserved population, with the potential to “disrupt” the way entire sector operates (Christensen, 1997). Empirical applications of disruptive innovation theory to higher education are limited, and yet there is a strong rationale for its application to the challenge of increasing access and persistence. In an effort to increase understanding of how disruptive innovation might impact higher education, this study looked at how the characteristics of College Unbound and its relationship to the external environment affected the potential capacity of the organization to disrupt the field of higher education. One common characteristic of disruptive organizations is having a enough structural flexibility to respond to changing market and environmental needs (Christensen, 1997). At College Unbound, the primary pivot was a shift in the organization’s target population, from full-time traditional-aged college students in the first three years of the program, to a model of educating adult learners. This transition occurred in response to both the external market, and to tighten the alignment between College Unbound’s staff and internal resources. College Unbound has also faced concerns from both internal and external audiences because of perceptions about quality. To address these concern, College Unbound adapted by changing its internal configuration, and its external partners and relationship to the external environment. Based on these findings, implications for disruption and innovation in higher education are discussed. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2015. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

This mixed-methods study examined the effectiveness of the Upward Bound TRIO program in preparing a low-income and first-generation population for the successful completion of high school and acceptance into postsecondary institutions of higher learning. Data collection methods for this study were comprised of teacher and student surveys and program director interviews. A comparison of two Upward Bound programs was conducted in the southern regions of Virginia and Georgia. The results were analyzed and queried as to whether the current program objectives were effective in meeting the needs of low-income, first-generation students and whether the program provided the necessary academic and technological skillsets and support needed to gain employment in knowledge capital economy. The goal of Upward Bound is to increase the rate at which participants complete secondary education and enroll in institutions of higher learning. The significance of this study is that it offers insight on the necessary support structures needed to assist low-income and first-generation students. The study was an in depth analysis of the Upward Bound TRIO program’s current objectives in meeting the needs of the 21st century learner. Information gathered from the literary sources as well as other sources provides additional insight for the researcher on program practice, evaluation, efficiency, and low-income first-generation students’ success.

This study seeks to explore the relationship between intercultural communication experiences and college persistence in first-generation college students from the Central Appalachian region. Because Appalachia has a rich and unique culture, which is often misunderstood, the literature review seeks to establish a basis for studying this relationship as a way to understand the multi-dimensional nature of low-educational attainment in the Appalachian region, particularly Eastern Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. Using a survey-based quantitative method this study examines Appalachian first generation students attending college as an intercultural communication process through the frame of acculturation theory. Specifically, the study seeks information about the students’ previous intercultural communication experiences, cultural identity, intercultural sensitivity, and college persistence. This study attempts to predict first generation, Appalachian students’ college persistence with their previous intercultural communication experiences, cultural identity, and intercultural sensitivity.