This research examined the relationships of cultural orientations to preferences for public relations messages on the Internet websites among college students in South Korea and in the United States.

Although first-generation college students and fratemity and sorority members have been explored and described independently within higher education research, less is known about the overlap in these two experiences and the culminating student population which provides the focus for this study. This study investigates the college experiences of six first-generation college students who are members of Greek-letter organizations at universities on the west coast. Case study methodology and community cultural wealth (Y osso, 2005) are used to analyze semistructured, in-depth interviews and provide rich descriptions, which inform an understanding of why students join Greek-letter organizations, the nature of their experience, and how their membership may influence how they experience college. Although participants did not describe their experience in college or in a Greek-letter organization as particularly unique as a result of their generational status, findings indicate a substantial gain in social and navigational capital, which they intended to utilize during and after their college years. Findings also indicate that due to the involvement in the Greek community, first-generation college students experienced college with a greater commitment to persist. By utilizing community cultural wealth to describe and explain first-generation college students in Greek-letter organizations, it emerges as a relevant framework for student affairs educators to incorporate into their practice.

Every year many immigrant families become members of United States communities. Among these are international graduate students whose lives and identities, as well as those of their families, are changed as they negotiate between cultures and experiences. In this study, three Saudi graduate students share their stories about culture, education and literacy. This research employs narrative inquiry to answer the following question: What stories do Saudi immigrant students tell regarding their educational beliefs and experiences, as well as the experiences of their children in the U.S. and in Saudi Arabia? The participants' interview texts are the main data source. The three-dimensional narrative inquiry spaces of temporality, sociality, and place help identify the funds of knowledge in place throughout these narratives. Data analysis uses funds of knowledge as a theoretical lens to make visible the critical events in each narrative. These events point to themes that support the creation of a third space in which the participants negotiate being in two cultures as well as their storying across time to understand their own experiences. Themes of facing challenges, problem solving, adaptation, and decision-making connect these stories and support the discussion of findings within the personal, practical, and social justifications for this narrative inquiry. The participants' negotiation of being in two cultures as revealed here serves as a resource for educators in understanding the instructional needs of immigrant families. The findings also have the potential to contribute to changing existing misconceptions about this minority group and other immigrant groups. In a rapidly growing global community as the United States, such narratives provide insights that invite personal understandings and connections among diverse people.

The problem addressed in this study can be stated thus: There are extremely limited numbers of students from the lowest economic class graduating from our nation's institutions of higher education. The challenge to institutions of higher education is how to improve access, support, and successful completion of higher education for students experiencing the most extreme poverty barriers. Weber's (1946) social-class theory was selected to determine the meanings and interpretations of students from poverty backgrounds in regard to their success and perceived barriers to success in completing college. This theoretical construct is based on the idea that collectively held meanings arise from three distinct although related dimensions of life including, lifestyles, context, and economic opportunity. Focus group interviews with a representative group of 24 people who grew up in generational poverty were the main source of data (Merton, Fiske, & Kendall, 1990). The focus group interviews were open-ended and designed to reveal the participants' subjective experience of completing a college degree (Schatzman & Strauss, 1973). A demographic questionnaire administered to 56 respondents was used to complement the focus group interviews. The grounded theory approach guided the data collection and analysis process (Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Strauss & Corbin, 1990). According to its objectives, the study results provided: (a) a description of the poverty-related conditions, (b) an overview of the early educational experiences of the participants, (c) a demographic profile, (d) an overview of perceived challenges and barriers to higher education and (e) a discussion of success factors. The findings from this study would suggest five areas for educational improvement: (a) development of a campus climate sensitive to social class and poverty issues; (b) implementation of faculty, staff, and student social-class sensitivity training programs combined with curricular reform; (c) facilitation of connections to informal mentors; (d) articulation of connections between obtaining a college degree and earning a higher income; and an (e) exploration of expanding college partnerships with social service agencies that are geared to helping people in poverty.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Drinking and driving is increasingly becoming a detrimental behavior, especially amongst college-aged students in the U.S. and other countries. Additionally, research shows that college-age students in the U.S. are more likely to drink and drive, than college-age students in Germany. Fishbein and Ajzen’s Theory of Reasoned Action asserts that subjective norms and attitudes signify behavioral intentions. In order to test the TRA and understand the drinking and driving differences and similarities in the U.S. and Germany, focus groups of German and American college-age students were conducted to discuss subjective norms and attitudes surrounding drinking and driving behaviors, followed up by an electronic pilot study survey regarding same. The data collected illustrated that college-age drinking and driving is occurs more frequently in the U.S., and that American and German students differ in their attitudes and subjective norms surrounding drinking and driving. Future research would benefit the continued use and circulation of the electronic surveys for larger cross-cultural samples of college-age students to more effectively and quantitatively assess actual drinking and driving behaviors as it relates to subjective norms and attitudes, as suggested in the TRA.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Despite more than 40 years of research and governmental support, African Americans continue to be underrepresented in the nursing profession compared to the population it serves. Though some progress has been made over the past 20 years, the American Nurses Association (ANA), American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), National Black Nurses Association (NBNA) and Institute of Medicine (IOM) continue to identify increasing diversity as a disciplinary priority. Further understanding of the experiences of African American nursing students is needed to inform decisions about recruitment, retention and successful matriculation of these students. This qualitative descriptive study focused on understanding the experiences, and the meaning those experiences had, for African American students who attended predominately European American schools of nursing. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with fourteen African American nurses who shared their experiences in pre-licensure nursing programs. Thematic analysis revealed two salient themes: "Standing out" and "It's not just about me." The findings from this study shed new light on this persistent issue and inform faculty members and nursing school administrators about the strategies and ways of framing the educational experience that may create environments that are welcoming to African American students to address the retention of African American students in pre-licensure nursing programs.

The purpose of this study was to test a conceptual model for assessing the effects of student aid on community college student persistence. A sample consisting of all students who had entered a public community college during the 1980 fall term was drawn from the database of High School and Beyond, 1980 Senior Cohort. Omitting transfer students brought the sample size to 1,364 students. The model of student persistence was based on Tinto's theory of student integration and prior research that suggested student aid may be related to the persistence of community college students. Persistence was defined as the number of terms of enrollment over a two year period (1980-81 and 1981-82). Receipt of aid was associated with lower socioeconomic status, higher tuition charges, above average high school grades, and an ethnic background other than Asian or non-Hispanic white. Aid recipients considered college costs and the availability of aid more important factors in their college choice. A model of student persistence composed of eight exogenous and five endogenous variables was tested through path analysis. It was found that the receipt of student aid did not have significant effects on any of the subsequent variables in the model. Estimation of a reduced path model omitting the aid variable did not result in a significant reduction in explained variance. Degree goals, initial expectation regarding higher education, encouragement to attend college, academic integration, and full-time work were the most important influences on persistence. These findings validated the importance of some of the major constructs in the theory of student integration, but they did not support the research hypothesis that student aid recipients would have a higher rate of persistence than nonrecipients when other factors were held constant. Since encouragement from significant others had a strong and positive association with student persistence, it was suggested that future research consider the role of encouragement on persistence. / Ph. D.

Huang, Xiaorui. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 84-103). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese.

In the U.S., about 7,000 high school students drop out each school day, representing a loss of talent and ability. Concurrently, there are a decreasing number of enrolled students taking science-related courses at the high school and college levels. Adults, who return to obtain their General Educational Development (GED) certification, are an untapped resource that could be steered toward STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) careers. In this case study, 15 GED students were shown a STEM video, and then peer mentored by 8 CLA (Clinical Laboratory Assistant) students, in a student-centered laboratory experience. Individual interviews of the GED students prior to and after the treatment were used to assess STEM attitudes. Additionally, the CLA peer mentors were given self-assessments regarding their level of self-efficacy. The most marked difference in the pre- and post-treatment data was with the male GED students. Initially, only 2 of the 7 had definite career goals, 5 with undefined career goals, with 4 showing no interest in STEM. After the treatment, 6 exhibited interest in pursuing STEM education or employment. The female GED students' interest remained unchanged, resulting in the male and female students showing equivalent interest in STEM post-treatment. The CLA peer mentors showed an increase in self-efficacy using Bandura's four sources of self-efficacy in social cognition (1997). The preliminary results of this study suggest that interest in STEM education and STEM careers can be generated with peer mentored learning. (Contains 1 figure and 8 tables.)

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