This qualitative evaluation of Emory's Oxford Summer Experience Program examined rural students' college aspirations. Educational and economic barriers hinder rural students' college enrollment and degree attainment (Adelman, 2002; Byun, Meece, & Irvin, 2012; Means, Clayton, Conzelmann, Baynes, & Umbach, 2016). Because of these barriers,…

The first year of college or university is a crucial phase which significantly influences students' persistence, academic achievement, and degree completion. The challenges associated with transitioning to college are often amplified for students who are the first in their families to attend college and may be less familiar with the norms and…

The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) aims to increase diversity in research and health-related careers. The SURP provides underrepresented minority (URM) and disadvantaged students with research, mentoring, and networking experiences; real-life surgical observations; and simulated…

The Research Apprentice Program is a pre-college, summer enrichment program that seeks to recruit underrepresented students into the field of agriculture and the College of ACES at the University of Illinois. The program has been in operation for more than thirty years and has reported many successes. Among these successes are a recruitment rate…

The teaching tip described here relates to a department level initiative to gather and act on student experiences in real-time during the COVID-19 outbreak in the Spring 2020 semester. The survey was developed to be an ongoing, department level, data collection source that could capture, triage, and react to student's unique situations as they…

Ithaca College S-STEM is a Track 1 National Science Foundation (NSF) Scholarships in STEM (S-STEM) initiative designed to address the challenges of recruiting and retaining high-achieving, low-income students majoring in physics, mathematics, and computer science. The program focuses on improving retention by fostering a sense of belonging among…

Background/Context: The Holistic Oasis for Parents' Education (HOPE) Program is an on-campus summer program designed to serve the whole student with a three-dimensional support model. Low-income, Black, and Hispanic parents experienced some of the most egregious effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which reflects the demographics of one in three…

In this article, we report on a National Science Foundation-funded immersive international summer research program for biology students. Six students, representing Cohort 1 of a three-year program, spent 9 weeks at one of three institutes in Japan, working on related molecular, cellular, and developmental research projects under the mentorship of…

The current research sought to examine the impact of a week-long mathematics camp on motivation and self-efficacy beliefs of participating middle school students. Middle school students participated in a one-week mathematics camp on a college campus, where they worked on authentic mathematics activities that were applied to real world concepts.…

The increased attention to the use of popular music within the classroom is not new. In fact, music educators in many countries have discussed the incorporation of popular music into mainstream music education for decades. South Korea is no exception, and the younger generation has a genuine interest in and sensitivity toward popular music. Yet,…

Attract, Inspire, Mentor and Support Students (AIMS[superscript 2]), a grant-funded program from the U.S. Department of Education for the HSI-STEM and Articulation Programs, focuses on improving outcomes for Hispanic and low-income students in STEM. Using a quasi-experimental design (QED) approach, this study examined outcomes between students who…

Undergraduate research experiences (UREs) have been shown to facilitate students' pursuit of graduate studies and careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, including geoscience. Less is known about why or how UREs have a lasting impact on participants, particularly through graduate school and into careers.…

Although many summer undergraduate research programs made the decision to delay, cancel, or suspend their summer experiences in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the Morehouse College McNair Scholars Program instead offered a completely virtual summer research experience to 14 Scholars with faculty-led remote research. The program…

Preservice teacher study abroad experiences and its influence on cultural awareness and teaching is explored in this paper. Participants in this study include preservice teachers from a large teacher education program. Teacher reflections and one-on-one semi-structured interview data were gathered, transcribed, coded, and analyzed for themes. The…

This paper describes the first cycle of an action research study investigating the impact of new blended learning courses in a professional doctorate program, the results of which will inform future course planning and pedagogy. Specifically, core researcher-faculty members associated with the program were interested in understanding how a blended…