This study was designed to explore the possible connections between student peer relationships and individual students’ roles in a network as it pertained to outcomes such as self-reported academic achievement and personal satisfaction with the first year of college. The research question directing this inquiry is: How does a student’s role within a residential community of peers relate to success in college? Social network analysis was employed for examination of individual engagement within the context of a larger community. The vast learning community literature tells an interesting story: 1.) a history of co-curricular peer learning environments, 2) a tradition of research intended to assess the value of these programs, 3) a body of literature that provides theoretical explanations for why learning communities should work. The gap in the literature is found regarding what happens within the communities. To learn how individuals within community learn from one another, community of practice was utilized as a framework in this mixed-methods approach to examine the influence of relationships, and exchange, acquisition, & development of social capital within a living learning community While this network study indicated that popularity, relational ties to staff, and being someone sought-after for advice were not statistically significant predictors of higher GPA, the network analyses confirmed strong network density, cohesion, and proper structure for ideal capital flow. The results of this study confirm that this community is effective in establishing familiarity and even more so, providing an environment that fosters friendships among participants and staff. Furthermore, students developed the ability to construct knowledge alongside their peers. Given the density and relation-rich nature of this community, this positive environment is able to foster more complex and self-authored levels of meaning-making for the students involved. Building this scaffolding facilitated student development, which effectively created a student transformation from dependence on external authority to self-authorship. This study confirmed that the primary goals of a learning community have been met: a group of strangers developed into a network of friends who reap social and academic benefits by virtue of being together in a shared and successful living learning community environment.

This dissertation examines the relationship between living learning programs (LLPs) and student success at Boston University, a large, private research institution. The focus of this research was to better understand the distinctions between different types of living learning program formats (honors, academic, and special interest) and traditional housing in terms of the types of students they attract and what relationship they have with academic performance, retention, and student perception. Using the conceptual frameworks provided by Astin’s “I-E-O” model and Tinto’s longitudinal model of student departure, a mixed method design employing both quantitative (binary logistic and linear regression) and qualitative (interviews with LLP program faculty, staff, and student advisors) components was used. Results indicate that there were significant differences in student characteristics, academic performance, and perception between LLP participants and students in traditional housing. LLP participation was found to be positively related to retention, academic success and a student’s evaluation of the overall environment of the University. Academic LLP participation was linked to increased retention and first year cumulative GPA, while honors LLP participants were more inclined to rate their overall experience as excellent. These findings demonstrate that LLP format and composition are important in evaluating how these programs impact first year students. While research was limited to the students enrolled at a single institution, this study provides information about LLPs with varying level of academic integration, which can be useful to administrators looking to establish or review LLP programs on their own campus.

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Higher education institutions are facing a major challenge in retaining 1st-year college students and engaging them in meaningful activities and programs to promote their sense of belonging (Strayhorn, 2012; Astin, 1993). Though a few belonging intervention practices have been studied (Perrell, 2018; Peck, 2011), there is a lack of understanding on the dynamic mechanisms of developing belongingness through a combination of belonging enhancement practices (Yob, 2014). Moreover, there is an urgent need to examine which belonging enhancement practice has the most impact on students' academic performance (Slaten, Elison, Hughes, Youg, & Shemwell, 2015). This study used convergent, parallel mixed-methods design to make meanings from both qualitative and quantitative data on the effect of the service-learning leadership program (SLLP) for 1st-year students at a large, public university on perceived sense of belonging and related academic performance, and the mechanism of the dynamic process. Quantitative data contained 2 parts: the 1st part is university student record data from 2007 to 2018 with total of 2,762 students, and the 2nd part of the data were collected through pre-and post-surveys from total of 262 students in treatment and control groups. Qualitative data were collected from 9 participants through individual interviews, focus group and weekly journals. Quantitative datasets were analyzed through mixed-design MANOVA, mixed-design ANOVA and hierarchical (logistic) multiple regressions, and qualitative data was analyzed through spiral approach. The findings demonstrated that the studied program protected against the decline of sense of belonging in the 1st semester of college year, and it brought more benefits to male and racial minority students as compared to female and racial majority students. Moreover, the findings indicated mentorship and living-learning community practices had the most impact on students' sense of belonging and academic performance, and suggested further improvement for performance feedback, social media and service-learning practice. The results of the study have implications for future institutional interventions and provide comprehensive practical guidelines for belonging enhancement programs for 1st-year students. The conclusions provide recommendations for designing and implementing belonging intervention programs that bring maximum outcomes on students' sense of belonging, retention and academic performance.

This case study conceptually illustrated how a leadership living-learning community provided an educational context well suited to enhance development of leaders within changing leadership and educational paradigms. Specifically, it highlighted how both leadership and learning have come to be viewed as sociocultural processes, and presented theoretical and applied descriptions of "communities of practice" and the identity formation process of "legitimate peripheral participation" (Lave & Wenger, 1991). The unit of analysis for this case study was a first-year, leadership-themed living-learning community at a four-year, land grant university in the Eastern United States. The purpose of the study was to explore how college students constructed leadership identities as they moved from first year members to second year peer leaders in the living-learning community. Nine sophomore students serving in peer leader roles and four faculty members serving as program instructors were the primary study participants. In-depth qualitative interviews with students and faculty, analysis of key program documents and students' written assignments, and a confirmatory student focus group contributed to the creation of eight primary themes and one overarching theme describing how students constructed leadership identities through community participation. The eight themes included access to experiences of membership, meanings of the first-year experience, beliefs about leadership, peer leader roles and practices, knowing in practice, meanings of multi-membership, and embodiment of the program mission. The overarching theme illustrated how peer leaders embody the mission-oriented program design as they move through—and ultimately out of—the community. Students' representations of their beliefs and practices enacted through community leadership roles emphasized college success strategies, foundational leadership knowledge and skill development, and preparation for future leadership roles. The findings of this study provided insight for educators who desire to design programs that foster college student leadership development. The findings revealed social and cultural implications related to higher education's call to enhance students' leadership capacity. There is a need to further explore leadership identity formation within other contexts, as well as the long-term impact of learning community experience on students' representations of leadership identity. / Ph. D.

According to Inkelas et al. (2008), Living Learning Programs (LLPs) that are collaboratively led by academic affairs and student affairs units tend to have a significant impact on student learning, when compared to students who participate in LLPs that are operated by one unit (Inkelas et al., 2008). Despite evidence that co-authored LLPs are beneficial to enhancing the LLP student experience, there is little to no research that explores how administrators facilitate collaboration between the units used to co-author the LLP student experience. For this reason, the focus of this study was to explore how administrators facilitate collaboration between academic affairs and students affairs units in the context of LLPs. A sequential explanatory mixed methods approach revealed that collaboration between both units is facilitated through a series of four factors; (a) Mutually supportive relationships, (b) LLP coordinators, (c) collaborative networks and (d) mechanisms for collaboration. In addition, LLP administrators throughout the study demonstrated a high effort of collaboration on co-curricular programming and slightly less of an effort to collaborate on items related to curricular or judicial engagement of LLP students.

The college experience for many students is an exciting and sometimes awe-inspiring journey. For the first time many students find themselves responsible for making life altering decisions that will determine the course of their adult lives for years to come. They are making the decisions to participate in specific academic majors, a variety of housing options and a multitude of extra-curricular activities. Unfortunately, without proper guidance and structure many of these students find themselves unable to cope with the new challenges of academia, faculty staff interaction, peer relationships and financial obligations. It is because of these challenges that institutions of higher education must take a proactive approach in addressing the unique needs of their students. Of the estimated three million undergraduate college students entering higher education today ". . . nearly 30-40% of these students drop out without obtaining a college degree" (Enochs & Roland, 2006, p. 63). As a result of the challenges faced by these students, institutions are recognizing the importance of developing initiatives and support services to address the deficiencies in maturity, academics and social skills. One such initiative being implemented by institutions is the development and execution of living learning communities. The strengths of living learning communities are their adaptability, affordability and potential to address institutional concerns such as engagement, student persistence rates and academic success. Growing out of the college retention research of Alexander Astin (1993) and Vincent Tinto (1993), this current study examines the relationships between living learning communities and their influence on academic success and persistence rates of students who first matriculated in the Fall of 2010 or 2011, and were still enrolled in the Fall 2012 semester for first-year and second-year students at the University of South Florida.

The purpose of this study was to expand on the current research pertaining to women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors, better understand the experiences of undergraduate women in the sciences, identify barriers to female persistence in their intended STEM majors, and understand the impact of the STEM co-educational Living Learning Community (LLC) model on female persistence. This study employed a mixed-methods approach that was grounded in standpoint methodology. The qualitative data were collected through focus groups and one-on-one interviews with the female participants and was analyzed through a critical feminist lens utilizing standpoint methodology and coded utilizing inductive analysis. The quantitative data were collected and analyzed utilizing a simple statistical analysis of key academic variables indicative of student success: cumulative high school GPAs, SAT scores, first year cumulative GPAs, freshman persistence patterns in the intended major, and freshman retention patterns at the university. The findings of this study illustrated that the co-educational LLC model created an inclusive academic and social environment that positively impacted the female participants‟ experiences and persistence in STEM. The findings also found the inclusion of men in the community aided in the demystification of male superiority in the sciences for the female participants. This study also highlighted the significance of social identity in the decision making process to join a science LLC.

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Female mentoring success was investigated as an undergraduate intervention utilizing career development practices to reduce dysfunctional career thinking and STEM major retention in first year freshmen females within a living-learning community. Repeated measures MANOVAs and canonical correlations in the causal comparative research design evaluated mentoring’s influence on first year females. Male voluntary participants (n = 126) formulated the comparison group, and female voluntary participants (n = 75) filled the treatment group. Repeated measure multivariate analyses of variances compared differences between the interaction of mentoring and gender over time on dysfunctional career thinking using two assessments: Career Thoughts Inventory (CTI) and Career Decision Scale (CDS) and their five subscales (decision-making confusion, commitment anxiety, external conflict, certainty and indecision). Canonical correlations analyzed the effect participation rates had on student change scores on the CTI and CDS, indicating mentoring intervention effects on reducing dysfunctional career thinking and decidedness. Conclusions included: (a) females had higher levels of dysfunctional career thinking than males; (b) overtime both groups decreased dysfunctional thoughts, and solidifying their STEM career choices; (c) females had reduced levels of career decidedness compared to males; (d) both groups increased certainty overtime, solidifying their STEM career choice, and (e) when the STEM career choice was made, female certainty was more solidified than males. The study adds to the career development research within STEM at the undergraduate level providing colleges and universities with a structured first year female mentoring program in STEM. The iv GEMS model may be ideal for colleges and universities utilizing living-learning communities to increase underrepresented female retention and those without STEM career planning courses.