<p> Student retention is considered a complex human behavior. Adding to the complex nature of student retention is the ever changing landscape of higher education due in large part to the growth of Hispanic undergraduate student enrollment on college campuses. While notable gains have been made increasing the number of Hispanic students graduating from high school and going on to college, little progress has been made in increasing the college graduation rate of this group. Narrative inquiry and autoethnography methods were used in this study to explore the family background and lived experiences of the researcher along with those of a sample population of 19 current and former Hispanic undergraduate students of a private Christian university. Tinto&rsquo;s Theory of Student Departure (1993) served as a theoretical framework for this study because it was well suited for exploring student persistence as longitudinal process impacted by a multitude of institutional factors, external influences, family background characteristics, and student attributes. Primary data was collected using demographic questionnaires, individual interviews, focus groups, and reflective journaling. Several common themes emerged from data analysis and interpretation which shed light on the topic of Hispanic undergraduate retention at a private Christian university. The emerging themes from this study were comprised of: family, family support, motivation, religion, transition, institutional support, and supportive relationships. These themes point toward a connection between a student&rsquo;s family background, individual skills and abilities, and pre-college academic readiness to the development of initial academic goals and commitments to earn a college degree. This study provided evidence that the cultural beliefs, values, and language reflected in the emerging themes converge with the cultural elements of the university in a way indicating connections between students and institutions were important determinates of student success. The findings revealed that a university&rsquo;s ability to effectively engage and retain Hispanic students may be a function of a broad and supportive network of persons dedicated to the success of minority students throughout the university. This study provided evidence that supportive relations provided by agents of the institution and sources external to the university played a major role in a participant&rsquo;s educational journey. </p>

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a sexually transmitted infection that represents a serious health issue that can lead to significant morbidity and mortality. Although FDA-approved vaccines for the prevention against the majority of strains responsible for cervical cancer and genital warts have been available for many years, immunization rates remain low. This study will consider cervical cancer as the main consequence of HPV and thus will investigate parents of daughters. This is of particular relevance to Arizona, given the large Hispanic population and the racial and ethnic disparities that exist in the incidence, mortality and survival of cervical cancer when compared to the national average. Administration of the three-dose series is recommended for girls and boys beginning at 12 years of age. The target population of this study was parents as the HPV vaccine necessitates parental consent and immunization rates remain low. This study specifically aimed to explore the knowledge, attitudes and beliefs of Hispanic parents in Maricopa County toward the HPV vaccine in efforts to identify barriers to immunization and create future implications for practice. Findings were consistent with previous literature: Hispanic parents exhibited suboptimal knowledge regarding HPV and HPV vaccination. Specific opportunities for education include the etiology, transmission and health consequences of HPV. Despite many areas for education, the majority of Hispanic parents indicated they would follow their health providers' recommendation on vaccination.

<p> Health literacy among the elderly Hispanics is a problem for 44% who read at the lowest level due to issues with recognition, cognition, or vision. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent that elderly Hispanics have problems with medication adherence due to health literacy. The social cognitive theory was the framework for this study. Inclusion criteria consisted of being 65-75 years of age, and speaking and/or reading English and/or Spanish. Questionnaires from 156 individuals were completed in Cobb County/Atlanta GA and analyzed using multiple regression to determine the relationship between health literacy and medication usage. Medication adherence was the dependent variable and independent variables were gender, age, Hispanic origin, education, income, income means, health insurance, health literacy, and medication usage. Statistical significance was noted in medication adherence, health literacy, and working full-time. Results were based on the correct answers from health literacy questions, which showed an association between medication adherence and health literacy and a reduction in medication adherence problems among elderly Hispanics who worked full-time. These findings showed a significant association between medication adherence and health literacy level among elderly Hispanics. No medication adherence problems were noted among participants who had good health literacy, unlike participants with poor health literacy. A larger ethnic group may show a variation of problems in future studies. Implications for social change could include recommendations for the use of Spanish language hotlines and reading materials to provide care, knowledge, and medication information assistance.</p>

<p> This study examined the role of guilt among Latino first generation college students and their educational journey as they leave their family and community to pursue higher education. For first generation college students, going to college is breaking away from the norm of not going to college, which for many family members who have no college experience, they cannot understand the reason why their loved one is separating themselves from their close nit family and community. This notion of leaving their family and community behind can elicit feelings of guilt for not being physically available due to distance or the demands of being a college student. This study looked at the lived experience of six participants and their feelings of guilt. The conceptual framework used was a combination of Critical Race Theory and Survivor Guilt to fully understand the stories of the six participants. This qualitative study used was a narrative design to fully understand the lived experiences. </p><p> The findings revealed that guilt was caused when the participants put their needs before the needs of their family and attended college. Another significant finding was that for the females in the study, they all stated that guilt was brought on due to the physical distance between them and their families. As for the males who left home to go to college, they felt financially guilty for either causing financial problems at home or not being able to support their family with the bills. This study is intended to bring forth the guilt that Latino first generation college students face from leaving home and how colleges should be aware. This study also address recommendations for policy and practice that can better support Latino first generation college students and their families at home and in a college setting.</p>

The purpose of this study was to investigate what contributes to Hispanic student engagement and success. The research was twofold, and included 1) a review of highly-engaging and Hispanic-serving community colleges’ programs, practices, and services that contributed to Hispanic student success; and 2) an investigation of Hispanic students’ experiences and relationships that contributed to their success. This was a qualitative investigation to illuminate quantitative data on four colleges across the United States that scored above-average on three or more CCSSE Benchmarks in 2007. Eighteen Hispanic students who were near degree or certificate completion and transfer were interviewed. This research also included Recommendations for Research and Practice, all for the purposes of promoting Hispanic student engagement and success in community colleges. / text

<p> The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine Latinas' access to Advanced Placement/Honors courses in a Catholic female single-sex high school and to examine their experiences and perspectives when they are granted or denied access into an AP/Honors course. This study also aimed to explore how the Catholic single-sex high school is aligned with the Catholic, single-sex, and Advanced Placement advantage for Latina students who have been granted or denied access to an Advanced Placement/Honors course. The case study focused on one Catholic all-female high school in the Western United States and participants included Latina current students and alumnae (n=11), the high school principal (n=1), and teachers (n=2) from the school. Data was collected via document review, the gathering of descriptive data, as well as participant interviews. The theoretical framework used to analyze this data was a blend of Critical biculturalism, Chicana feminist theory, as well as the principles of Catholic social teaching. Findings highlight a fairly exclusive AP/Honors placement process with unclear guidelines to be followed in order to appeal a decision. Latinas' experiences range from feeling like outsiders and being made to feel not good enough, to feeling competitive and being resilient. Their perspectives on why they decided to appeal the decision of their placement had to do with their feeling that they had the capacity for advanced work, their driven nature, and their desire to be exposed to more learning. Further, perspectives also emerged concerning the school's sisterhood and its influence on issues of race and class. In regards to alignment with the Catholic, single-sex, and AP advantage the data illustrates that while participants seemingly agree that there are advantages, they are also cognizant of other factors that overshadow these advantages.</p>

<p>This dissertation is a variationist sociolinguistic analysis of the variable word order and prosody of copular constructions (<i>Nicol&aacute;s es </i> <i><b>feliz</b></i> versus <i><b>Feliz</b></i> <i> es Nicol&aacute;s</i>, <i>Es Nicol&aacute;s</i> <i><b> feliz</b></i>, <i>Es</i> <i><b>feliz</b></i> <i> Nicol&aacute;s</i>, &lsquo;Nicolas is <b>happy</b>&rsquo;) in the Spanish of first- and second-generation Spanish-English bilinguals in New York City (henceforth NYC). The data used for the study come from a spoken corpus of Spanish in NYC based on 140 sociolinguistic interviews (details of the corpus will be presented in Chapter Three). This dissertation addresses the question of whether second-generation bilinguals have a less flexible word order in Spanish as a result of their increased use of, and contact with, English, where a more fixed order prevails. </p><p> We will show that the informants in the present study, like their peers in Los Angeles and other parts of the US, exhibit a more rigid word order compared to their first-generation peers. We have established that this increase in rigidity of word order among the second-generation can be attributed in large part to their increased use of and contact with English. The studies mentioned above have interpreted their results to mean that these speakers are losing or have lost the discourse pragmatic constraints that govern word order. However, the data here show that the first- and second-generation speakers in the present study share many of the same conditioning variables and constraints for word order, although these variables appear to account for a smaller amount of variance among the second-generation. In this way, we have established that the second-generation is not losing the discourse pragmatic constraints that govern word order, but that they are differently sensitive to these constraints. In fact, we show that second-generation speakers are very capable of communicating the pragmatic functions that the first-generation speakers do using word order because they maintain the prosodic details of their first-generation counterparts. In other words, the second-generation communicates these functions in ways that are slightly different from the first-generation, relying more on prosodic resources than syntactic ones. Furthermore, the data indicate that their prosodic patterns are not modeled after the prosody of English. In general terms we show that the second-generation does not have a different grammar from their first-generation counterparts, as is claimed by other researchers. Instead we show that these speakers favor certain first-generation strategies over others. </p>

This research studies the success of Hispanic midshipmen at the Naval Academy. Specifically, graduation, senior leadership positions during first class (senior) year, military performance grades, and cumulative academic Quality Point Rating (college GPA) are examined as the measures of success. A host of pre entry variables are used to control any affect they might have that would otherwise be confounded with midshipmen's ethnic, racial, or gender identification. Midshipmen from the classes of 1999 to 2004 compose the dataset for regression analysis. Hispanic midshipmen cannot be studied in a vacuum, and therefore, this research generates information on a number of different groups. But, the performance of Hispanic midshipmen at the Naval Academy is of primary focus throughout. Of the four measures of success, this study shows that Hispanic midshipmen are likely to have a lower cumulative academic QPR; but, are proportionately represented in terms of graduation, senior leadership positions, and military performance grades.

<p> At a critical time in educational transformation, NCLB incorporated the notion that parents would assume power and engage with schools around this monumental shift for accountability concerning the success of all students. Now the Every Student Succeeds Act, which reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, upholds this task and calls for parent and family engagement in district and school improvement processes and the development of parent and family engagement policies. Traditional notions of parental engagement have rarely addressed partnerships for educational reform and policy change (Cooper, 2009). Furthermore, narratives regarding parents of color are dominated by a deficit discourse of what families &ldquo;lack,&rdquo; described as, &ldquo;empty vessels&rdquo; that need to be &ldquo;filled&rdquo; with knowledge to be able to engage in schools like their White middle-class counterparts (Lightfoot, 2004).</p><p> This qualitative study examines a counternarrative definition of parental engagement according to Latino parents in a particular community in which White privilege contributes to and perpetuates the marginalization and continued exclusion of particular groups. I employed a critical race methodology to focus on the lived experience of Latino families through counterstory that challenges the dominant narrative created and sustained by White privilege and traditional White educational discourse.</p><p> Findings in this study centered on Latino families&rsquo; limited access to the school, school programs, and institutional knowledge and power; systemic barriers maintained by White privilege; the cultural funds of knowledge and expertise of Latino parents as educators and advocates; a critique of the system from participants&rsquo; perspectives; and recommendations participants had for change in current practice. Through the findings, major implications for practice surfaced, including an examination and elimination of systemic barriers, the use of counterstory to disrupt deficit narratives of families of color, and educators&rsquo; and educational leaders&rsquo; utilization of practices to structure venues for authentic dialogue for reform.</p>

<p> Of the research on work-life balance and on the challenges facing women in the workplace, few studies have focused on the impacts of professional business trade associations on career outcomes and the development of work-life balance strategies with a Latina population. This phenomenological study explores the life experiences of Latinas to understand the challenges they encounter in their careers and in their aspirations for career advancement. The study applied the life-story framework (Giele, 2008), which offered questions from the four life course dimensions: identify, relational style, motivation and adaptive style. A question was added to this framework for this study with the intent to explore the strategies that women employ to achieve work-life balance in their life (Weber, 2011). Additionally, the study sought to obtain insight into how professional business trade associations, such as the Association of Latino Professionals For America (ALPFA), facilitate forming relationships that create support systems and strategies for managing careers, families and the demands of their communities. The participants (15) were selected from career Latinas who are currently employed or self-employed and actively engaged in leadership roles within the professional business trade association ALPFA. NVivo software was utilized to perform the analysis. The findings indicate that as Latinas they identified with their family and culture. They relied on their family support and that of mentors and networks for learning how to navigate their career choices beginning with college. Career goals were driven by their family socioeconomic situation, family feelings about education, and a strong desire to be successful. Active engagement in leadership roles is attributed to providing opportunities for growth, mentorship, and career advancement. Lastly, the women shared several strategies such as exercise, earning trust in the workplace, support circles, and setting priorities for coping with work-life balance.</p>