Matriculation Of Students Research Articles

Development of a Prepharmacy Underrepresented Mentorship Program for Undergraduate Students

ObjectiveTo describe the development of an innovative prepharmacy underrepresented mentorship program (PUMP) to provide guidance and support to prepharmacy students who are committed to serving underrepresented communities with health disparities. MethodsThree virtual PUMP workshops were designed and delivered per admissions cycle for prepharmacy students who were applying to any school of pharmacy and self-identified as interested in serving underrepresented communities. Faculty, current pharmacy students, staff, and school leadership provided guidance and support on the application and interview process and how to select a program once offered admission. Data collection included the number of students who attended each workshop and were accepted to and matriculated at the school of pharmacy. Preworkshop and postworkshop surveys provided insight into communities that attendees were committed to serving, perceptions of the workshops, and intent to matriculate, if accepted. ResultsDuring the first three admissions cycles, 189 prepharmacy students participated in 8 PUMP workshops. A favorable trend was observed with an increased number of participants annually and an increased number of attendees who matriculated (an average of 34% over 3 cycles). Attendees were committed to addressing health disparities in various communities including but not limited to Southeast Asian; Latinx; Native American; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, intersex, or asexual; Black/African American; Refugee; and Pacific Islanders. Most attendees (96%) reported that attending PUMP workshop(s) positively changed their impression of the school. ConclusionA pilot prepharmacy mentorship program was developed and implemented. A growth in program participation and matriculation of students over 3 cycles who self-identified as committed to serving underrepresented communities was observed.

Disparities in pre-health advising across California's public universities.

The Supreme Court's decision in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc., v. Harvard College is likely to result in the matriculation of fewer students from historically excluded racial/ethnic groups at more selective colleges and universities and matriculation of more students at less selective colleges and universities. Because of this, it is important to understand how resources for pre-health advising, a modifiable factor that can help increase the diversity of the health workforce, vary across institutions with differing levels of selectivity. Colleges are known to vary in resources, structure, and investment in pre-health advising but data are lacking and there is no estimate of any pre-health advising resource gap. To quantify availability of advising resources and identify perceived challenges in pre-health advising in California's highly diverse public and select private undergraduate institutions. Structured 60-minute Zoom interviews from June 2022 -October 2022 at 18/23 CSU (California State Universities), 9/9 University of California (UC) institutions and 6 select private institutions with varying levels of selectivity. Two investigators independently analyzed interviews using a Grounded Theory Approach. The full study team reviewed transcripts and themes. Pre-health advisor capacity varied greatly across the three types of institutions. CSU: mean = 1 FTE advisor: 24,620 graduates (range: 1: 1,059-1: 150,520); UC mean = 1 FTE advisor: 4,526 graduates (range: 1: 1,912-1: 10,920); private institutions mean = 1 FTE advisor:1,794 graduates (range: 1: 722-1: 5,300). Participants reported common challenges: advising capacity, lack of advisor training, advisor turnover, and student difficulties in accessing clinical opportunities and required coursework. CSU and UC participants noted that these had greatest impact for first generation and racially/ethnically underrepresented students for whom lack of informal professional networks, lack of other mentors, and financial responsibilities complicate college navigation and professional school application. Students at CSU campuses had 5 times less access to pre-health advising per graduate than UC students, and 13 times less than students at private institutions. Much greater investment is needed in California's public institutions, particularly CSUs, to increase equity in access to advising for pre-health professional students. Research should examine pre-health advising resource capacity in other states, especially those that are now facing race-neutral admissions policies at undergraduate institutions and health professions schools.

Re-Envisioning the Culture of Undergraduate Biology Education to Foster Black Student Success: A Clarion Call.

The purpose of this paper is to present an argument for why there is a need to re-envision the underlying culture of undergraduate biology education to ensure the success, retention, and matriculation of Black students. The basis of this argument is the continued noted challenges with retaining Black students in the biological sciences coupled with existing research that implicates science contexts (i.e., the cultural norms, values, and beliefs manifesting through policies and practices) as being the primary source of the challenges experienced by Black students that lead to their attrition. In presenting this argument, we introduce the Re-Envisioning Culture Network, a multigenerational, interdisciplinary network comprised of higher education administrators, faculty, staff, Black undergraduate students majoring in biology, Black cultural artists, community leaders, and STEM professionals to work together to curate and generate resources and tools that will facilitate change. In introducing the REC Network and disseminating its mission and ongoing endeavors, we generate a clarion call for educators, researchers, STEM professionals, students, and the broader community to join us in this endeavor in fostering transformative change.

Factors and barriers that influence the matriculation of underrepresented students in medicine.

Despite many initiatives over more than 4 decades, the diversity of United States physicians still does not reflect the diversity of the United States population. The present study undertakes a literature review of the last 30 years to investigate barriers and protective factors underrepresented college students encounter as applicants for medical school. Known barriers that influence matriculation into medical school were analyzed such as academic metrics and test scores. Additionally, elements that are less well studied were investigated such as factors perceived as barriers by underrepresented applicants in addition to protective factors that allow them to persist in their journey in the face of difficulties and adversity.

Understanding the factors that influence matriculation and persistence in Black medical students.

The Association of American Medical Colleges' (AAMC) Strategic Plan lists 10 action plans one of which is focused on understanding how systemic barriers, such as racism and access to quality education, may negatively impact diversity in academic medicine. Thus, the purpose of this study was to understand the factors that impact the matriculation and persistence of Black medical students. A qualitative phenomenological study using Tinto's Model of Institutional Departure as an organizing framework was used for this study. Participants were asked a series of questions covering topics related to their goals, their medical school experience, their preparation for medical school, what could improve their medical school experience, and advice for future Black medical students. Forty in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted during the fall 2022 term from October to December with Black medical students enrolled in over 16 US or Caribbean medical schools. Findings reported that two factors impacted matriculation for Black medical students (exposure to the medical field and resources, particularly financial resources). Findings also reported that three factors impacted the persistence of Black students once in medical school (diversity, support, and emotional resources). The five factors identified by participants that impact matriculation and persistence for Black medical students can be used by medical schools to increase their enrollment and graduation of Black students.

A Student’s Nontraditional Path to Pharmacy School

Although professional pharmacy programs tend to require and focus heavily on applicants’ grade point averages and pre-admission test scores, there is noted value in the matriculation of students exhibiting strong leadership and soft skills. Such attributes are advantageous to a pharmacist, particularly when considering the current need to develop trailblazers prepared to adapt to the ever-changing demands of our healthcare system. Pharmacy school applications and enrollments have been declining across the nation for the past decade. Pharmacy job prospects, particularly in community pharmacies, are projected to decline over the next decade, but inpatient and clinical roles are projected to increase in demand. To accommodate this role shift, schools may consider engaging with and recruiting students with unique skill sets from less traditional backgrounds. This commentary explores one student’s pharmacy school experience via the lens of a nontraditional background and postulates that pharmacy schools may benefit from altering their admissions approach.

Scaffolding & Fading: Enhancing Literacy Skills across a Curriculum to Achieve Mastery

This paper discusses the use of paragraph frames in a formative assessment activity within an introductory sociology course. The paragraph frame scaffolding allows the student to be a more informed and engaged learner in lower level courses and feel success with their introductory summary writing. This self-confidence allows the student to move forward into no longer being reliant upon paragraph frames or others (peers/instructors). The Sociology in the News activity incorporates scaffolding and fading via the use of a similar activity across the curriculum. The use of the paragraph frames focuses on mastery of information literacy, and accommodates student needs through effective instruction (using paragraph frames). This allows for retention, progression, and matriculation of students. The sociology curriculum is discussed via the use of scaffolding and fading based on Vygotsky’s scaffolding concepts within the student’s zone of proximal development, using paragraph frames across a curriculum, using the concept of IRMA level of ability (Introduce, Reinforce, Mastery, and Assessment) in formative assessments. As universities are focusing general education assessment of students, particularly Post-Covid19, information literacy is a skill that is can be assessed using IRMA level of ability. Literacy skills are particularly important in moving the students toward life-long learning and understanding how information is situated from a social situated perspective as well as the production from a scholarly standpoint. Keywords: IRMA Level of Ability, Paragraph Frames, Literacy, Vygotsky, Scaffolding DOI: 10.7176/JEP/14-3-01 Publication date: January 31 st 2023

The implications of optional practical training reforms on international student enrollments and quality

AbstractThe Optional Practical Training (OPT) program allows international students to work temporarily in the United States during or directly following their studies. In 2008 the work duration was extended for eligible STEM majors, and in 2011 and 2012 the list of eligible majors was expanded. Using administrative records, we examine how these reforms impacted the enrollment and quality of international students. OPT reforms raised matriculation of international students in bachelor's and master's programs by 18% and 30%, respectively. Additionally, they improved the quality of students, as exemplified by greater scholarship/fellowship funding and matriculation into highly selective universities.

“Why can’t writing courses be taught like this fo real”: Leveraging critical language awareness to promote African American Language speakers’ writing skills

This qualitative case study examined the effectiveness of a college writing curriculum centered on critical language awareness (CLA) aimed at promoting the written language skills of African American Language (AAL)-speaking students. The data collected and analyzed included students’ pre-and-post essays. Results revealed that the CLA curriculum helped support students’ development of critical consciousness, thereby providing them with the tools to replace feelings of what I have termed racialized writing trauma –i.e., feelings of writing anxiety, shame, and distress inflicted on racially and linguistically marginalized students as a result of linguistic racism, linguistic hegemony, and other systemic inequities in writing education–with a sense of writing liberation and empowerment. By the end of the study, the majority of the students evidenced written language growth in the following areas: (1) macro and micro level of writing, (2) syntactic fluency, and (3) rhetorical virtuosity. This article offers college writing instructors, specifically, and K-12 writing educators more generally a model of an evidence-based, anti-racist curricular intervention that has the potential to combat anti-Black racism and promote the writing performance, achievement, and matriculation of AAL-speaking students. Its implications are also applicable to second language writing instruction.

Differences in Marginality Between Nursing Students With and Without Disabilities.

Barriers exist in nursing education for students with disabilities. Students with disabilities often experience associated stigma and a perceived lack of support by nursing faculty and academic leaders. A nonexperimental descriptive design was used to examine differences in perceived marginality between nursing students with and without disabilities (n = 7,399) in the United States. Participants who identified as having a disability described more marginalization (M = 45.9, SD = 10.5) than participants who did not identify as having a disability (M = 38.3, SD = 9.2), t(927) = 19.4, p < .001. Findings suggest marginalization exists for students with disabilities. Academic leaders and faculty should address systems, structures, and polices that potentially pose barriers to self-reporting, matriculation, and progression of students with disabilities. [J Nurs Educ. 2022;61(8):429-438.].

An intensive summer pipeline program for pre-pharmacy students to increase underrepresented minority matriculation to pharmacy school

Background and purposeTo describe the Summer Academic Enrichment Program (SAEP) for underrepresented minority (URM) matriculants at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) School of Pharmacy. Educational activity and settingThe SAEP is a six-week summer pipeline program at VCU for undergraduate and post-baccalaureate students interested in applying to medical, dental, physical therapy, or pharmacy school, divided into school tracks. Demographic and matriculation information about the pharmacy track program participants was obtained from the program and school administration from inception in 2012 through 2019. A retrospective analysis of the impact of SAEP on URM matriculation at VCU School of Pharmacy was conducted. FindingsOf the 80 pharmacy track participants, 56.3% (n = 45) have enrolled at VCU School of Pharmacy. Among those 45 that matriculated, 33.3% (n = 15) identified as one or more of the following URM populations: Black or African American 28.9% (n = 13), Hispanic or Latinx 4.4% (n = 2), and American Indian 2.2% (n = 1). In comparison, the same URM classifications for students enrolled at VCU School of Pharmacy over the last nine years ranged from 5% to 11% Black or African American, 0% to 5% Hispanic or Latinx, and 0% to 2% American Indian with a total URM representation range of 7% to 25% during this timeframe. SummarySAEP is a program utilized to increase matriculation of students from diverse backgrounds, including URM populations. This type of pipeline program is described as one way to improve URM representation.

Selection for health professions education leads to increased inequality of opportunity and decreased student diversity in The Netherlands, but lottery is no solution: A retrospective multi-cohort study

Background Concerns exist about the role of selection in the lack of diversity in health professions education (HPE). In The Netherlands, the gradual transition from weighted lottery to selection allowed for investigating the variables associated with HPE admission, and whether the representativeness of HPE students has changed. Method We designed a retrospective multi-cohort study using Statistics Netherlands microdata of all 16-year-olds on 1 October 2008, 2012, and 2015 (age cohorts, N > 600,000) and investigated whether they were eligible students for HPE programs (n > 62,000), had applied (n > 14,000), and were HPE students at age 19 (n > 7500). We used multivariable logistic regression to investigate which background variables were associated with becoming an HPE student. Results HPE students with ≥1 healthcare professional (HP) parent, ≥1 top-10% income/wealth parent, and women are overrepresented compared to all age cohorts. During hybrid lottery/selection (cohort-2008), applicants with ≥1 top-10% wealth parent and women had higher odds of admission. During 100% selection (cohort-2015) this remained the case. Additionally, applicants with ≥1 HP parent had higher odds, those with a migration background had lower odds. Conclusions Odds of admission are increasingly influenced by applicants’ backgrounds. Targeted recruitment and equitable admissions procedures are required to increase matriculation of underrepresented students.

Stepping in and up to meet community needs: How community-based college access and success programs responded to COVID-19.

The current study uplifts the efforts of community‐based college access and success programs (CAS) to support the college preparation, matriculation, and persistence of underserved students during COVID‐19. Fifty‐eight CAS across the United States completed an online survey that gathered information about organizational demographics, COVID‐19 challenges, responses to challenges, and communication with constituents and funding needs during COVID‐19. Results suggested CAS faced multiple challenges due to COVID‐19 that affected the organization, staff, and constituents. Results also revealed organizations of varying sizes, locations, and demographics responded to challenges by revising existing programming for students, creating new programming for students and caretakers, and updating staff policies to meet ongoing and emergent needs despite limited resources. CAS are essential service providers for students who are under‐ and mis‐served in formal education systems. Recommendations are provided for how such organizations can be invested in and better prepared for future disruptions.

Transgender student experiences in single‐sexcolleges

AbstractThis article reviews popular and scholarly literature on transgender students' experiences who are enrolled in single‐sex colleges. Because such colleges rely on bounded conceptions of sex/gender to determine who can and cannot be eligible for admission, the enrollment and matriculation of transgender students pose a challenge to the central organizing logic of the single‐sex environment. As such, I first draw upon theorizations of gendered and queer organizations to highlight the utility of sociology in analyzing the transing of organizations through transgender inclusion. Using this framework, I then address trans student experiences at the time of admission and during matriculation at single‐sex colleges. These perspectives frame transgender inclusion as a new organizational form but one that is rooted in the social construction of transnormativity rather than institutional transformation.

Factors that Impede and Promote the Persistence of Black Women in Athletic Training Programs

Context:Black women are dramatically underrepresented in the health care profession of athletic training. The research identifies impeding barriers such as racism, sexism, lack of support, and unpreparedness to the successful college completion of ethnically diverse students. However, there are black women who have successfully overcome those impeding barriers to become athletic trainers (ATs). Mentoring is one factor that has been identified as supportive to the retention of ethnically diverse college students.Objective:The purpose of this qualitative study was to identify impeding barriers and promoting factors affecting the retention and credentialing of black women ATs.Design:Qualitative.Setting:Education.Patients or Other Participants:Ten certified ATs who self-identify as black women and matriculated through athletic training programs over the last 4 decades.Main Outcome Measure(s):The perceived factors that impede or promote successful college retention and attainment of the Board of Certification credential of black women athletic training students.Results:There are barriers that impede and factors that promote the successful matriculation of black women athletic training students. Impeding barriers include a lack of support, sexism, and racism. Factors that promote include personal characteristics; experience with white culture; faculty, preceptor, and peer support; and the clinical education experience.Conclusions:Recognizing the factors that impede or promote the academic persistence of black women in athletic training programs allows athletic training educators and preceptors to improve the experiences of black women enrolled in those programs and potentially increase their participation and advancement in the athletic training profession.

Black First-Generation Social Work Doctoral Students

ABSTRACTBlack students are underrepresented in doctoral programs in social work, and the disparity calls for greater attention to the preparation of such students for doctoral programs. Toward this goal, this article examines the sociocultural influences on the matriculation of Black students in social work who are the first in their family to pursue a doctoral degree. The author expands on the general concept of first-generation college students to capture a more inclusive population of students who may be equally disadvantaged in doctoral programs in social work. The author also identifies strategies social work faculty and administrators can use to facilitate the entry and achievement of Black students in the doctoral pipeline.

Exploring the Utility of Longitudinal Clinical Electives in Training Dual-Degree Students

Longitudinal clinical encounters have proven to be effective alternatives to traditional single-specialty block rotations in medical education. These experiences enhance learning by allowing students to develop longer relationships with patients and mentors and to participate in interdisciplinary care. Though proven useful for students pursuing the MD degree, application and assessment of such longitudinal clinical experiences have not been studied with students seeking a dual degree. At our institution, students working towards both MD and PhD degrees have considerably longer matriculation periods than their single-degree peers. In the years in which they concentrate on research towards the PhD, they traditionally have not taken part in clinical activities, threatening atrophy of clinical knowledge and skills attained to that point. To counter this effect, our institution has developed a longitudinal clinical elective (LCE) in which students can take part simultaneous with their research tasks. We interviewed 16 dual-degree students after participation in the LCE and learned that they garnered similar benefits to those experienced by single-degree students participating in longitudinal clerkships. Additionally, students in our study described ways in which they were able to not only preserve but also enhance their clinical acumen, as well as ways in which simultaneous research and clinical endeavors complemented one another. Our exploratory study suggests that given the long matriculation of dual-degree students, LCEs are effective in mitigating atrophy of clinical skills and are useful in various other ways that we highlight. These findings may benefit other types of dual-degree students (e.g., MD/MBA) as well.

Sexual Violence, Title IX and Women's College Enrollment

Sexual violence has long been a problem on college campuses, yet federal policies to protect students have largely been ineffectual. Spurred by student grievances, the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights recently began investigating how sexual assault cases were handled at a number of institutions under the Title IX provisions of the Education Amendments of 1972. These investigations focus attention on specific colleges' responses to cases of sexual violence and raise the specter that these institutions may fail to properly investigate allegations or punish perpetrators. In this paper, we examine the implications of these investigations on college enrollment, particularly for women. We combine institution-level panel data on enrollment by age and gender, with information on Title IX investigations to study changes in women's college enrollment. We estimate that enrollment of women at colleges under Title IX investigation declined by 16 to 22 percent. The declines are consistent with both declining matriculation and retention of female students.

North American Medical Schools’ Experience With and Approaches to the Needs of Students With Physical and Sensory Disabilities

To determine the nature and frequency of impairments and related underlying conditions of medical students with physical and sensory disabilities (PSDs), and to assess medical schools' use of relevant publications in setting admission criteria and developing appropriate accommodations. A 25-item survey addressed schools' experiences with students known to have PSDs and their related policies and practices. The survey instrument was directed to student affairs deans at all 163 accredited American and Canadian medical schools. The authors limited the survey to consideration of PSDs, excluding psychiatric, cognitive, and learning disabilities. Eighty-six schools (52.8%) responded, representing an estimated 83,327 students enrolled between 2001 and 2010. Of these students, 0.56% had PSDs at matriculation and 0.42% at graduation. Although 81% of respondents were familiar with published guidelines for technical standards, 71% used locally derived institutional guidelines for the admission of disabled applicants. The most commonly reported accommodations for students with PSDs included extra time to complete tasks/exams (n = 62), ramps, lifts, or accessible entrances (n = 43), and dictated/audio-recorded lectures (n = 40). All responding schools required students' demonstration of physical examination skills; requirements for other technical skills, with or without accommodations, varied considerably. The matriculation and graduation rates of medical students with PSDs remain low. The most frequent accommodations reported were among those required of any academic or clinical setting by the Americans with Disabilities Act. There is a lack of consensus regarding technical standards for admission, suggesting a need to reexamine this critical issue.

&lt;i&gt;Neither Jew nor Gentile: Exploring Issues of Racial Diversity on Protestant College Campuses&lt;/i&gt; (review)

Reviewed by: Neither Jew nor Gentile: Exploring Issues of Racial Diversity on Protestant College Campuses Dafina Lazarus Stewart Neither Jew nor Gentile: Exploring Issues of Racial Diversity on Protestant College Campuses. George Yancey. 2010. New York: Oxford University Press. 200 pp. Hardcover: ISBN 978-0-19-973543-3 ($29.95). George Yancey's (2010) latest book continues his research concerning Protestant colleges and issues of racial diversity in this institutional context. The book reports findings of Yancey's study of the matriculation and graduation of students of color at these institutions as well as the perceptions of various institutional diversity initiatives by both racial majority students and racial and ethnic minority students. Yancey uses his findings to make several recommendations to predominantly White Protestant colleges to bolster their recruitment and retention of racial and ethnic minority students and improve the effectiveness of institutional diversity initiatives. The book is organized in seven chapters. The initial chapters provide a context for discussing issues of racial diversity in higher education (chapter 1) and then in predominantly White Protestant colleges (chapter 2). Yancey's review of the literature regarding general differences found between how Whites and non-Whites understand race and racism is thorough and insightful. In chapter 2, Yancey also presents survey data from 161 colleges on the diversity initiatives likely to be used by predominantly White Protestant colleges, distinguishing those initiatives more likely to be used by either mainline versus conservative (defined as those institutions with denominational affiliations or sponsorships that are recognized as fundamentalist or evangelical Christian in theology and dogma) institutions. Beginning with chapter 3, Yancey then proceeds to walk the reader through the data from his study, first reporting the correlational study of factors related to matriculation and graduation of racial and ethnic minority students at the predominantly White mainline and conservative Protestant colleges in his survey sample. Yancey distinguished among those factors significantly related to matriculation and graduation of African American, Hispanic American, Native American, and Asian American college students and found that different initiatives were correlated to the matriculation and graduation of students from each of these four racial and ethnic groups. Among his findings were that the celebration of heritage months and multicultural student organizations were significantly correlated to the matriculation and graduation of African American and Native American college students. For Hispanic American and Asian American college students, their matriculation and graduation were significantly correlated to the presence of diversity-related courses in the curriculum and faculty [End Page 915] from racial and ethnic minority groups. Yancey suggests that differences among these groups' racialized experiences in the United States may account for these differences. In chapters 4 and 5, Yancey reports data from students themselves, both White (chapter 4) and non-White (chapter 5), sharing their perceptions of the effectiveness of various institutional diversity initiatives on changing the racial climate of their campuses and increasing majority student understanding of issues of race and racism. A total of 460 students from ten colleges completed the survey, 324 self-identifying as White and the remainder self-identifying as Black (45), Hispanic (31), Asian (25), multiracial (23), or other (10). The final two chapters, chapters 6 and 7, discuss the implications of Yancey's findings. In chapter 6, Yancey particularly focuses on what he identifies as his most notable findings, including the effect of having racial and ethnic minority faculty. He concludes the book in chapter 7 by offering specific recommendations for Protestant colleges and exploring the transferability of his findings for non-Protestant predominantly White colleges and universities. Although a significant body of literature exists that has studied issues of racial diversity in U.S. higher education, which Yancey reviews in the first chapter, there has been no research that particularly examines the unique institutional context of sectarian higher education and Protestant colleges, in particular. Yancey's research stands as a notable effort to fill this void in the literature. Moreover, Yancey's careful attention to the potpourri of existing institutional diversity initiatives and the realization that these initiatives may differentially influence the academic persistence and experiences of students with respect to race is laudable. Also noteworthy is Yancey's recognition that it was important to study...