In the Republic of the Marshall Islands, college readiness and early college success are major concerns. More than 75 percent of a recent cohort of incoming students at the College of the Marshall Islands did not place into credit-bearing math and English courses, which suggests that students might not be academically prepared to take…

Alternative Breaks are service trips that occur at colleges and universities all around the United States, but little is known of their long-term impact on the participants. This study explored how alumni of Alternative Break programs were civically engaged in their communities post-graduation. The survey instrument, modeled on the Life After…

This dissertation consists of three projects that were designed to investigate collegiate instrumentalists' practice habits and motivation orientations. The first investigation was a review of the literature about instrumental practice strategies, motivation orientations, and social factors influencing music practice. The second investigation was…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the individual experiences of five Poe High School alumni and to understand how these alumni made sense of their experiences with reading while participating in the Silent Sustained Reading (SSR) program. This study employed the Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) methodology to…

It is well established that the graduate school experience is significantly different for students of color; on top of a rigorous training program, they face additional distinct challenges including racism, discrimination, and feelings of isolation. Insidious Trauma theory provides the framework for this quantitative exploration assessing the…

The partnership model in which universities collaborate with community colleges for the prelicensure Bachelor of Science (BSN) education has been identified by the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) as one of five viable academic progression models for nursing. The current literature lacks evidence on the success of these academic progression…

This study, exploration of Black male mentoring on Black Males' retention and graduation at predominately White systemized universities, examines the impact of Black male mentoring relative to the retention and graduation of Black male university students at predominately White systemized universities. It examines Black male mentoring relative to…

This report describes the 10-year outcome of implementing practices that support and foster success of underrepresented students in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) graduate training at Brown University. The results show sustained improvements in compositional diversity, retention, and degree attainment of supported students…

This study aimed to understand how emerging adults achieve financial independence by asking how emerging adults who are college graduates describe their experiences with the process of achieving financial independence. Using a generic qualitative design, this study drew connections between emerging adult college graduates' common experiences and…

During the 2018-19 school year, only 55 ELL students out of 651 graduated in a Central Florida district. The problem addressed in this study was how well the ESOL endorsement courses prepared teachers to teach ELL students and how this endorsement influenced teacher-student relationships for success in higher education. The purpose of this…

Faculty members in Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University have been reimagining the undergraduate and graduate teacher preparation programs to serve better PreK-12 students and improve the teaching profession. An important feature of the reimagined teacher preparation model included placing teacher candidates (TCs) on teams…

Despite the growing evidence of informational interventions on college and major choices, we know little about how such light-touch interventions affect the gender gap in STEM majors. Linking survey data to administrative records of Chinese college applicants, we conducted a large-scale randomized experiment to examine the STEM gender gap in the…

The purpose of this quantitative study was to discuss and analyze college and career readiness for exceptional students in South Carolina. The overall goal was to determine if there was a significant difference in the outcomes of the exceptional student in the state over a three year timespan using two data points (2016-2017 and 2018-2019) and…

Non-traditional Health Science Education graduate students may not feel a sense of connectedness with their teachers in their online courses, leading to decreased engagement and persistence was the problem this qualitative descriptive study addressed. The purpose of this study was to describe Health Science Education graduate student perceptions…

The lower graduation rates of Black female students are a concern that colleges and universities needs to further explore. This study sought to hear from Black female students about their college experiences to further investigate causes and find solutions to the lower graduation rates of Black female students. Participants in Cycle 1 consisted of…