The transfer pathway from community college to university holds promise for advancing equity in STEM because it is followed by disproportionately high numbers of underrepresented students. Among the challenges these students face is cultivating belonging in multiple institutional settings. By combining belonging and validation theories, this…

This chapter describes theory and research demonstrating that the experiences students have within student organizations, and the people with whom they interact within those organizations, are powerful triggers for leader learning and development.

Generation Z (Gen Z) has entered higher education and is not the traditional undergraduate student (18-24) and are the contemporary members of sororities. Gen Z is different from their Millennial predecessors and requires a reexamination to meet the needs of college students today. This qualitative study examined how National Panhellenic…

This qualitative phenomenological study explored strategies utilized by risk management leadership to encourage positive behaviors in student organizations at a four-year mid-size higher educational institution in Texas. Through semi-structured interviews, participants described various protective behavioral strategies implemented to encourage…

This study examined how 10 Latinx students perceived their sense of belonging in engineering programs. Drawing upon Strayhorn's definition of sense of belonging, we sought to understand the experiences and individuals that facilitated Latinx students' connections to their engineering programs and to the larger campus community at a 4-year…

This article details the journey of a Black Greek professor who created yards on a predominately white campus. This piece of scholarship challenges the historical narrative of the civic engagement movement and considers equity and inclusion with existing civic engagement literature. Specifically, this research contends that civic engagement…

This study sought to understand how a leader's leadership is affected by their salient identities. To achieve this, the study employed a qualitative paradigm using a phenomenological methodology. Ultimately, the study worked to craft a shared understanding of how identity is experienced by leaders within the context of their own leadership.…

Although prior studies have examined the influence of career and technical education (CTE) on high school completion in the United States, few studies provided direct empirical evidence on how it worked. Using the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:2009), this study examined public high school students' CTE experience from three integral…

The purpose of this self-study is to examine how transformative leadership in student organizations contributes to doctoral students' professional development in higher education. Drawing from Mezirow's (1997) notion of transformative learning and Bass's (1990) theory of transformational leadership, the researchers discuss how an academic student…

The purpose of this basic qualitative research study was to explore how positional student leaders accessed and developed social capital as a result of their involvement with student organizations. The study was guided by the theory of social capital as the theoretical framework. Through semi-structured interviews and social network maps,…

The scholarly literature on Chinese youth and contentious politics largely claims that in the post-Tiananmen period, university students are apathetic, materialistic and have been successfully co-opted by the regime. They also claim that university campuses are no longer hot beds of political activism. Rather, the regime has made a concerted…

This chapter examines the role of advisors of student-run LGBTQ+ organizations within community colleges as well as offers important recommendations for practice.

Industries across the United States are facing a shortage of skilled technical workers. This qualitative case study investigated how participation in SkillsUSA, a career and technical student organization, "influenced community college students' preparedness for the workforce" and their connection to campus. Data were gathered from…

Purpose: Higher education institutions (HEI) play a critical role in developing student leaders equipped with the skills and knowledge needed to mobilize societal changes that the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) call for. To broaden this understanding, this study aimed to engage with student leaders of a grassroots, student-led…

Black and minority students often do not persist to graduation and voluntarily drop out due to dissatisfaction with the lack of inclusivity and belonging experiences at predominantly White institutions (PWIs). This research examined the sense of belonging and inclusion for Black students at Southern Cross College (SCC; pseudonym), a private,…