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This study identified factors contributing to Mexican-American student persistence in higher education. Tinto's model of student withdrawal was blended with Astin's theory of involvement in a theoretical framework that also gave special focus to hispanic and Mexican-American student concerns. The data consisted of unstructured interviews with a small sample of Mexican-American students at the University of Arizona. Content analysis was used to categorize the data and symbolic interaction theory was used for its interpretation. Findings about personal and institutional factors, were combined to understand persistence in the context of person/environment interaction. The personal factors influencing student persistence were "self," human support, financial adversity, commitment, acculturation, and gender differences; none of these factors stood alone, and each was present to some degree in each of the successful students. Commitment was the most important overriding theme in these personal factors. The institutional factors influencing persistence were academic preparation, use of student services, student/instructor interaction, and academic experiences. Symbolic interaction theory was the analytic framework used to interpret these factors of student persistence in the light of the meanings students attached to events in their college experiences. Empowering students to succeed is proposed as the organizing model for institutions to influence persistence.

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The purpose of this study was to ascertain the perceptions of the University of Arizona College of Agriculture graduate students on the importance of Extension functions for rural development. In this study graduate students were grouped into: (1) American and international graduate students; and (2) graduate students with and without previous professional work experience. A questionnaire was mailed to 200 graduate students for the assessment of the importance of 34 Extension functions for rural development. The total response rate was 58%. To analyze the responses two statistical tests were used: the Student's t-test and the Spearman's rank order correlation (rs). It was found that the American and international graduate students perceived a majority of the Extension functions alike, but the international students gave them greater importance. Overall, these students ranked the functions similarly. The graduate students with previous professional work experience gave greater importance to the Extension functions than those without such experience, but their rankings were similar.

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