Through using a Positive Youth Development framework and culturally based education program, Konaway Nikka Tillicum Native American Youth Academy aspires to mentor and prepare Native youth through high school and on to higher education. This collaborative research partnership investigated cultural identity, self-esteem, and academic optimism of Native American youth attending the academy. The results of this program evaluation found that cultural identity, self-esteem, and academic optimism were all closely related to each other as well as that they increased significantly when measured before and after the academy. GPA was found to not be predictive of cultural identity, self-esteem, or academic optimism prior to students attending the academy. Lastly, the relationship between cultural identity and academic optimism appeared to be explained through the indirect effect of self-esteem. The results suggest that culturally based education and positive youth development programs such as Konaway are efficacious in increasing protective factors among Native American youth.

Despite the increase in Asian college student population, this group remains one of the most understudied, due to the myth of “model minority.” Many Asian students adjust well academically but often experience high levels of stress, anxiety, or depression due to factors such as acculturation to Western culture, pressure from parents to succeed, ethnic identity issues, intergenerational conflict, immigration status, racism, and discrimination. This study examined the role of five dimensions of Asian values (collectivism, conformity to norms, emotional self-control, family recognition through achievement, and humility) as a moderator in the relationship among peer group cohesion and four dimensions of college adjustment (academic adjustment, social adjustment, personal-emotional adjustment, and attachment) among 150 Asian college students. Data were collected from Asian American and Asian international students attending a college in the United States who completed an online survey. Eighty percent of the students reported low college adjustment on one or more dimensions measured; however, personal-emotional adjustment and attachment was positively correlated with group cohesion. The results of the moderation analyses indicated that Asian value of humility moderated the effects of cohesion and personal emotional adjustment. Specifically, students who had lower Asian value of humility and high peer group cohesion also reported higher personal emotional adjustment. No other dimensions of Asian values were found to be significant moderators. Implications of the study in terms of future research and college programs for Asian students are discussed.

Home—Topia is an ongoing contemporary art research and exhibiting project, putting focus on the current forms of migration, rooting, unrooting and life in between cultures. Home—Topia is examining the notion of home, sense of belonging and its connection to the physical space. Home — Topia is based on the assumption that various forms of mobility, migration and life on the move have become one of the basic characteristics of today's world. The primary goal of the Home — Topia project is the realization of the group exhibition of five Berlin- based artists with ties to the Czech and Slovak cultural environment: Zorka Lednárová, Katarína Hrušková, Petra Debnárová and the duo Julia Gryboś + Barbora Zentková. Following the dialogue between the artists, new artworks will be created and presented in Raum für Drastische Maßnahmen gallery in Berlin. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the event will not take place until 2021. A secondary output of the project is the online platform home-topia.eu. This online platform makes publicly accessible the research trajectory, interviews, essays, bibliography and events archive. The project also included the interactive video installation in the Raum für Drastische Maßnahmen gallery in Berlin, which used elements of augmented reality. Two channels video installation was presented from 11th until 21st of June.

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In a Polynesian feast, food is a metaphor for the essence of Polynesian culture—giving without self regard. As Polynesian culture evolves, its aesthetic standard must necessarily change. Two seemingly conflicting essentials are necessary here for the survival of culture—the evolution of the cultural aesthetic, and the constancy of the culture's essence. One might consider as a metaphor the evolution of a tree through the seasons—though the foliage blooms, changes colors, dies and grows brittle, falls and regenerates, etc., the roots remain constant—ever nourishing the tree and ever supporting it and holding it up. As with the tree, the essence of the Polynesian culture must always remain constant, though the aesthetic trappings evolve and adapt to survive in an ever-changing environment. The work described herein demonstrates the glacial drift of culture and how, in the trappings of a modern, ever-evolving world, the Polynesian culture's essence survives. This work stands as a signpost on the road of identity, helping the earnest searcher to see, through the ever-changing foliage, the root or essence of identity. Thus, this work imbues its viewer with a sense of freedom with respect to her search for identity; for once the viewer recognizes that which is necessarily constant, she can freely embrace that which is necessarily evolving.

For decades, the United States has been known as the nation of immigrants due to the increasing number of immigrant students in the public school system. Although the population of immigrant students steadily increases annually, American society still pressures immigrants into acculturation to fulfill the United States ideals of academic achievement despite the United States claim of multiculturalism (Malcolm & Lowery, 2011). This research focuses on 1st - and 2nd generation immigrant students’ strife of acceptance in U.S. culture, while sill preserving their own native culture, and the influence it has on academic achievement. The researcher interviewed eight (8) adult participants who are either 1st - or 2nd generation immigrant college students. This qualitative case study research aims to determine if forced acculturation or assimilation using stereotypes and perceptions of similarity effects how immigrant students develop their cultural identity, and the influence it has on academic achievement. Four major themes emerged from the participants’ responses: parental approval, peer pressure, environmental influence, and feelings about their ethnic group. Basic findings supported that immigrant students’ cultural identity is threatened by stereotypes and perceptions of similarity.

Thesis advisor: Andrew R. Davis / Thesis advisor: Jaime L. Waters / Thesis (STL) — Boston College, 2023. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry. / Discipline: Sacred Theology.

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No description available.