The purpose of this dissertation is to examine how Nigerian Americans and their families understand academic success, identity, and family influence. This research study aims to understand these three areas by examining the experiences of five Nigerian American undergraduate students and their respective families. The data for this study was…

Biodiversity loss and rising global challenges are directly linked to the current climate crisis. Peoples' behaviors and lives are being negatively impacted daily, ushering in a new wave of physiological and emotional distress referred to as eco-anxiety, which is being experienced by young people. Urgent concerns for the need for environmental…

During the 1980s, an influx of Cambodian Americans resettled in the United States due to the Cambodian genocide. Those Cambodian refugees who came to the United States as either infants, children or adolescents due to warfare, are members of the 1.5 generation. This thesis examines the educational trajectory of 1.5 generation Cambodian Americans…

Academic advising in higher education has been affected by many factors since its development at Harvard College in 1636 (Brubacher & Rudy, 1997). Currently in higher education, 33% of first year students do not return for their second year of academic work ("U.S. News and World Report," 2015); only 60% of students graduate college…

This research investigated the attainment of bachelor degrees by students from different immigrant generational backgrounds and income levels in the United States through the additional family capital variables of student educational expectations, parental educational attainment, and two-parent households. As the nation continues to mature, gaps…

Universities are challenged with finding ways to motivate the increasing number of diverse students so that the largest number of students can be expected to succeed. University success is measured by retention and graduation rates, which affect profit. A lack of academic motivation among increasingly diverse students influences student retention,…

Given the state of the economy, lack of competitive jobs and decreasing number of voluntary retirements, by the year 2018 many institutions of higher education may see five generations working side by side. This study examined three of the four generations working at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP): Baby Boomers, who are those employees…

The purpose of this study was to analyze the impact of "Career Cruising"© on self-efficacy of deciding majors in a university setting. The use of the self-assessment instrument, "Career Cruising"©, was used with measuring the career-decision making self-efficacy in a pre and post-test with deciding majors. The independent…

This dissertation explored multiple factors that impact the satisfaction and success of low socioeconomic status students at a California community college. In an effort to illuminate this impact, a quantitative study investigating extant data collected from a campus climate survey was conducted. The researcher was specifically interested in…

This dissertation evaluates the relationship between African American English and White Vernacular English as spoken in a small rural town in western North Carolina for consistencies in vowel production by group membership and for participation in the Southern Vowel Shift (SVS), a vowel rotation currently occurring in the Southern United States. A…

This dissertation advances research in sociolinguistics by analyzing phonetic variation in a majority Asian American community in San Francisco, California. As one of the first community studies focusing on Asian Americans in an urban US context, this work speaks to ongoing discussions about speaker ethnicity, phonetic variation, and regional…

The purpose of this study was to determine whether differences existed among generations (Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y) regarding the levels of parental involvement within each of these generations. Also examined were additional factors such as the parents. socioeconomic status, educational level, marital status, and ethnicity. The…

This study explored the relationship between engagement in educationally purposeful activities during the first year of college and academic achievement, persistence, and graduation. The study focused on the impacts of engagement on student outcomes related to academic achievement, persistence, and graduation at a comprehensive university located…