Undocumented Latinx students are currently one of the most disenfranchised racial/ethnic groups in the United States. As demography reaches critical mass levels in many states, visibility has triggered new economic and policy imperatives. The Latinx populations in many states have created a sense of urgency regarding socioeconomic concerns. This…

Small businesses with emphasis in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) are catalytic in launching the United States' global presence and competitiveness into the twenty-first century through innovation and technology. The projected growth compared to non-STEM occupations, is almost twice as high for STEM occupations which further…

This qualitative study examines how Mexican American students participating in an AVID for Higher Education course perceived their preparation for the workforce and efficacy of completing a college credential. A focus group approach was used to explore how social and cultural networks (networks for success) contribute to college completion. The…

Students with disabilities face several barriers during their academic lives. However, as many of them manage to access a variety of resources, their experiences can be examined through the lens of salutogenesis, which is employed to analyze the mechanisms whereby people succeed in preserving their wellbeing while dealing with stress and…

Student-faculty interactions are a component of social integration, a key concept in Tinto's theory of student persistence which has received empirical support. However, the influence of social integration for commuting students has been questioned. Furthermore, student-faculty interactions in the classroom are under-researched and arguably…

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore and to tell the stories of low socioeconomic status (SES) men in college who persisted beyond the halfway point of college at a Midwestern metropolitan university. Prior research suggested men from low socioeconomic status backgrounds matriculated and persisted in college at the lowest…

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of college students who are mothers at a large, public Midwestern research university. Using a feminist theoretical perspective, the focus of the research was to better understand how students who are mothers experience college. I sought to understand how the gendered…

Resilience is understood to be the ability to adapt positively in the face of adversity. In relation to new students on a distance learning module, this can mean how they adapt and make sense of the demands of their chosen study to enable them to persist in their studies. This article reports a small-scale study involving semi-structured telephone…

Colleges and universities have used a multitude of strategies to ensure that historically marginalized men of color graduate from their institutions. However, these schools have utilized deficit-based approaches that assumed this population did not have the skills to be successful in college. There was little evidence that utilizing this…

This paper draws on self-determination theory (SDT) to explore reasons for college students' decisions to either continue or change directions (and hence their persistence) from their STEM-intending majors. We therefore sought to gain insight into why some college students persisted in their STEM-intending degree programs while others, faced with…

The number of students with learning disabilities (LD) attending postsecondary institutions with the intent of graduating and pursuing employment is progressively increasing. This paper was developed from the experiences of Mitchell's (a pseudonym) participation in a four-year research study with nine other college students with LD. At the end of…

Why do over 90% of the learners in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) never finish the course? There is a need for further studies focusing on the learners' experiences of participating in MOOCs and factors that influence the decision to complete or drop out of the course. To deepen our understanding of why learners complete or drop out of MOOCs,…

A set of studies is reported describing the demographics, outcomes, and motivations of students who start in engineering and switch their major to engineering technology. There has been extensive research in engineering persistence, but little focus has been given to the "T" in STEM. Most research combines technology with other science…

The tutorial system is considered to be a useful pedagogical intervention to improve student retention, particularly in the context of a first-year student's experience of entering university. For these novice students to achieve academic success, it is important that they are given access to the subject-specific knowledge and practices in their…

Sense of belonging is recognized as a factor contributing to persistence to graduation. Furthermore, interactional diversity is associated with learning and civic outcomes--touted higher education goals. Hip-hop culture, one of the most influential cultural creations of the mid-20th century, has succeeded in attracting devotees from diverse…