Nonwhite Students Research Articles

Equity in hybrid microeconomics classes: Effects on diverse student groups

The Covid-19 pandemic created a sudden increased uptake of online teaching, and though the end of the pandemic signaled a shift back to more in-person learning, many schools have used the existing infrastructure to expand their offerings of online and hybrid courses. While previous studies have identified the impact of online teaching on student score, little work has been done on the heterogenous impact that online and hybrid teaching can have, particularly for underrepresented groups of students. I utilize a randomized control trial in an introductory microeconomics course to test whether there are any differences in quiz score with a lecture delivered online as compared to in-person, mimicking a hybrid class environment. I find that when students watch a lecture online, they score 5 percentage points lower on average than attending a lecture in-person. This estimate is based on an intent-to-treat study design and estimates within-individual effects. I also assess heterogeneous effects across various demographic variables, including gender, race, and First-Generation status, and find that this result is particularly salient for non-White and first-generation students, highlighting the equity implications of moving to online teaching.

Challenging Misconceptions about Race in Undergraduate Genetics.

Racial biases, which harm marginalized and excluded communities, may be combatted by clarifying misconceptions about race during biology lessons. We developed a human genetics laboratory activity that challenges the misconception that race is biological (biological essentialism). We assessed the relationship between this activity and student outcomes using a survey of students' attitudes about biological essentialism and color-evasive ideology and a concept inventory about phylogeny and human diversity. Students in the human genetics laboratory activity showed a significant decrease in their acceptance of biological essentialism compared with a control group, but did not show changes in color-evasive ideology. Students in both groups exhibited increased knowledge in both areas of the concept inventory, but the gains were larger in the human genetics laboratory. In the second iteration of this activity, we found that only white students' decreases in biological essentialist beliefs were significant and the activity failed to decrease color-evasive ideologies for all students. Concept inventory gains were similar and significant for both white and non-white students in this iteration. Our findings underscore the effectiveness of addressing misconceptions about the biological origins of race and encourage more research on ways to effectively change damaging student attitudes about race in undergraduate genetics education.

Medical students’ perceptions of mentorship in cardiothoracic surgery: A Thoracic Surgery Medical Student Association Nationwide Survey

ObjectiveThe study objective was to explore medical students' perceptions of mentorship in cardiothoracic surgery in the United States. MethodsA voluntary, anonymous electronic survey was distributed to medical students through the Thoracic Surgery Medical Student Association. The survey included 28 questions across 4 domains: demographic information, current mentorship status, goals and qualities sought in mentorship, and self-reported barriers to mentorship. ResultsThere were 60 respondents to the survey. A total of 60% identified themselves as male and 35% as White. A total of 75% of students reported having reached out to potential mentors without receiving a response. Lack of access to a cardiothoracic surgery program/mentorship program (37%) or cardiothoracic surgery interest group at one's institution (42%) was the most frequent barrier to mentorship. Overall, 32% reported not having any mentors in cardiothoracic surgery. Students without mentors were more likely to report the lack of cardiothoracic surgery interest groups (53% vs 29%, P = .04). Female students were more likely to prefer a female mentor (48% vs 3%; P < .001). Female and non-White students reported the lack of a relatable mentor more frequently than counterparts. Empathy and commitment/attentiveness emerged as highly valued, with 54% (n = 32) rating them as “most important.” ConclusionsThere is a critical need to optimize the outreach of current mentorship programs for medical students, especially for those without access to cardiothoracic surgery departments. National organizations such as the Thoracic Surgery Medical Student Association can advocate for increased mentorship accessibility and the development of structured mentorship programs. Additionally, efforts should be made to attract more surgeons to serve as mentors and emphasize proactive engagement from students.

Camouflaged prejudice and the affirmation of skin colour differences: assessment of racism among Brazilian undergraduate dental students.

The negative oral health outcomes of disadvantaged racial groups have been well-documented, as racial disparity in oral health persists over time and in different locations1. However, it is important to note that skin colour has no biological meaning, and the observed differences can be physiological expressions of social injustice such as racism. Aim: The aim of this study was to analyse the association between levels of modern racism (camouflaged prejudice and affirmation of differences) and sociodemographic characteristics of Brazilian dental students. Material and Method: An epidemiological cross-sectional online survey was conducted on 441 Brazilian undergraduate dental students using Google Forms. Participants were recruited via emails and social media, using the snowball technique. The Checklist for Reporting of Survey Studies (CROSS) was followed. The survey used sociodemographic variables, and the Brazilian version of the Modern Racism Scale (B-MRS), which measures the cognitive component of subtle racial attitudes. The scale assesses the central notion of disguised prejudice and has two domains: 'denial of prejudice' and 'affirmation of differences'. Participants' self-declared skin colour was categorized as "white" and "non-white" (black, brown, indigenous, yellow). Univariate analysis and Poisson regression with robust variance were applied. Results: Participants' mean age was 24.1 years (±5.4). Most participants were self-declared as white (54%) and 46% as non-white skin colour. Higher B-MRS overall-scores were observed in male (p=0.008) and non-white (p=0.002) students. B-MRS scores for the domain 'affirmation of differences' (representation of those who believe that whites and non-whites are truly different) were higher among male dental students (PR=1.138; CI 95%: 1.019-1.271) and those from low-income families (PR=1.306; CI 95%: 1.089-1.565). Scores for the domain 'denial of prejudice' (the idea that non-whites use their race to receive legal benefits) were higher among male dental students (PR=1.328; CI 95%: 1.129-1.562). Conclusions: In general, male non-white students had higher modern racism indicators. Male students from low-income families believed that whites and non-whites are truly different, accounting for the affirmation of difference in this sample.

Relationship Between Athletic Trainer Access, Socioeconomic Status, and Race and Ethnicity in United States Secondary Schools.

Extensive research has exposed healthcare disparities regarding socioeconomic status (SES) and race/ethnicity demographics. Previous research has shown significant differences in access to athletic training services (AT access) in the secondary school setting based on SES, but with limited samples. This study investigated differences in AT access based on race/ethnicity and SES on a national scale. Cross-sectional study. Database study using secondary analysis. Data were collected from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), Athletic Training Location and Services (ATLAS) database, and US Census Bureau. 10,983 public schools. Descriptive data was summarized by measures of central tendency. A one-way ANOVA determined differences between school characteristics: median household income (MHI), percent of students eligible for free and reduced lunch (%FRL), percent white students, and percent non-white students based on AT access: Full-time (FT-AT), part-time (PT-AT), and no athletic trainer (no-AT). A Bonferroni pairwise comparison was used for variables with significant main effects. Across all schools included in the study, 43.8% had no-AT (n=4,812), 23.5% had PT-AT access (n=2,581), and 32.7% had FT-AT access (n=3,590). There were significant effects between AT access and MHI (p<.001), %FLR (p<.001), percent white (p<.001), and percent non-white (p<.001). FT-AT schools had a higher SES when compared to PT-AT and no-AT schools. Significant differences existed between AT access groups and race/ethnicity of schools. Schools with FT-AT had a significantly lower percent of non-white students (31.3%) compared to schools with no-AT (46.0%) (p<.001). No significant differences between FT-AT and PT-AT based on race/ethnicity demographics presented (p≥.13). Schools with higher SES had greater AT access; whereas, schools with a higher percentage of non-white students were more likely to have no AT access, demonstrating the disparities in healthcare extends to athletic healthcare as well. To increase AT access, future initiatives should address the inequities where larger minority populations and counties of lower SES exist.

How Debt and Attainment Relate through the GPA of Non-White College Students

This study investigated the effects of U.S. student loans on attainment via the GPA of non-white undergraduates. The data for the study were drawn from the 2012/2017 Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS: 12/17), encompassing a nationally representative sample of 1500 African American, Hispanic, Asian, multiracial, and other non-white students. The results, based on regression models and the bootstrapped confidence interval (BCI) method, indicated that student loans were associated with GPA, and both student loans and GPA were associated with attainment. Notably, the indirect effect of loan status on attainment was negative, whereas the indirect effect of high debt on attainment was positive. These findings highlight the indirect relationship between student loans and attainment and suggest that high debt has the potential to offset the negative effect of loan status on academic outcomes. The implications of these findings for higher education practice and policy debates are critical, particularly in the context of addressing non-white students’ financial needs and enhancing their academic outcomes.

Hear Us Out: The Lived Experiences of Non-White OT Students Being Educated With Predominantly White Peers

Abstract Date Presented 03/22/24 This qualitative study explores the lived experiences of five non-White OT students being educated in predominantly White OT classrooms. This study uplifts their voices to create awareness and provide suggestions for our profession to move forward. Primary Author and Speaker: Tamar Mor Additional Authors and Speakers: Therese Meily, Flaminia Avantifiori, Kijai Herring, Rachel Lanzalotti, Laurie Knis-Matthews

Modeling approaches for assessing device-based measures of energy expenditure in school-based studies of body weight status

BackgroundObesity has become an important threat to children’s health, with physical and psychological impacts that extend into adulthood. Limited physical activity and sedentary behavior are associated with increased obesity risk. Because children spend approximately 6 h each day in school, researchers increasingly study how obesity is influenced by school-day physical activity and energy expenditure (EE) patterns among school-aged children by using wearable devices that collect data at frequent intervals and generate complex, high-dimensional data. Although clinicians typically define obesity in children as having an age-and sex-adjusted body mass index (BMI) value in the high percentiles, the relationships between school-based physical activity interventions and BMI are analyzed using traditional linear regression models, which are designed to assess the effects of interventions among children with average BMI, limiting insight regarding the effects of interventions among children categorized as overweight or obese.MethodsWe investigate the association between wearable device–based EE measures and age-and sex-adjusted BMI values in data from a cluster-randomized, school-based study. We express and analyze EE levels as both a scalar-valued variable and as a continuous, high-dimensional, functional predictor variable. We investigate the relationship between school-day EE (SDEE) and BMI using four models: a linear mixed-effects model (LMEM), a quantile mixed-effects model (QMEM), a functional mixed-effects model (FMEM), and a functional quantile mixed-effects model (FQMEM). The LMEM and QMEM include SDEE as a summary measure, whereas the FMEM and FQMEM allow for the modeling of SDEE as a high-dimensional covariate. The FMEM and FQMEM allow the influence of the time of day at which physical activity is performed to be assessed, which is not possible using the LMEM or the QMEM. The FMEM assesses how frequently collected SDEE data influences mean BMI, whereas the FQMEM assesses the effects on quantile levels of BMI.ResultsThe LMEM and QMEM detected a statistically significant effect of overall mean SDEE on log (BMI) (the natural logarithm of BMI) after adjusting for intervention, age, race, and sex. The FMEM and FQMEM provided evidence for statistically significant associations between SDEE and log (BMI) for only a short time interval. Being a boy or being assigned a stand-biased desk is associated with a lower log (BMI) than being a girl or being assigned a traditional desk. Across our models, age was not a statistically significant covariate, and white students had significantly lower log (BMI) than non-white students in quantile models, but this significant effect was observed for only the 10th and 50th quantile levels of BMI. The functional regression models allow for additional interpretations of the influence of EE patterns on age-and sex-adjusted BMI, whereas the quantile regression models enable the influence of EE patterns to be assessed across the entire BMI distribution.ConclusionThe FQMEM is recommended when interest lies in assessing how device-monitored SDEE patterns affect children of all body types, as this model is robust and able to assess intervention effects across the full BMI distribution. However, the sample size must be sufficiently large to adequately power determinations of covariate effects across the entire BMI distribution, including the tails.

The Effects of Unified School Enrollment Systems on School Demographics and Outcomes: Evidence From New Orleans’ Transition to a Centralized School Lottery

Unified enrollment (UE) systems were designed to improve efficiency, equity, and transparency in school choice processes, but research has focused on efficiency gains. This study examines whether moving from decentralized enrollment processes to UE mitigates or exacerbates racial segregation that often occurs in choice systems. Specifically, we examine a subset of charter schools in New Orleans that had enrolled disproportionately high numbers of White students prior to entering UE. We find that UE entry was associated with increased enrollment of non-White students in these schools without offsetting declines in White enrollment, facilitated by schools also increasing total enrollment after entering UE. We find no meaningful impacts of UE on school accountability measures, student or teacher mobility, or student discipline.

How the Visibility of “Whiteness as a Credential” Creates Trade-offs for the Fit and Belonging of Minoritized Students at College

Based on 57 interviews with minoritized students at one highly selective PWI, this project examines how nonwhite students feel judged against two separate standards of hegemonic whiteness, where whiteness is openly valued socially but is invisible academically. This article theorizes how the explicit visibility of whiteness as a community standard of fit influences the degree to which students recognize that valued (white) standards are (1) unattainable and (2) unfair, arbitrary, and linked to a larger system of racialized oppression. The data suggest that while all forms of hegemonic whiteness are costly, visibility creates different trade-offs for fit and belonging. When whiteness is explicitly acknowledged as a valued social credential, minoritized students feel low social fit and belonging because of their inability to fully embody whiteness, but they recognize their racial devaluation is illegitimate and those alternative social standards can exist. When minoritized students do not perceive whiteness as a salient academic credential, they experience academic fit and belonging as they feel that they share individual merit with other matriculated students who have been accepted into an “elite” school. However, they also accept the meritocratic ideals that stereotype them as less academically competent and frame their academic success as racial exceptionalism. Under colorblindness, they accept the racialized status quo, even though it perpetuates their exposure to microaggressions, stereotype threat and imposter syndrome.

The Social Determinants of Health and Athletic Trainer Availability in Indiana Secondary Schools.

The social determinants of health (SDOH) are circumstances under which individuals are born, work, and live that influence health outcomes. Previous researchers have examined 1 determinant of economic stability and found disparities in socioeconomic status and athletic trainer (AT) availability. To examine the SDOH characteristics of Indiana secondary schools and AT availability. Cross-sectional study. Database secondary analysis. A total of 426 secondary schools. All data were collected from publicly available databases. The independent variable was AT availability, and schools were classified as having a full-time AT, a part-time AT only, or no AT. The SDOH variables were gathered for each school (at the school and county levels). Data were summarized using measures of central tendencies, 1-way analysis of variance, and Kruskal-Wallis tests. School enrollment was larger in schools with greater AT availability (P< .001). The proportion of non-White students was greater in schools with more AT availability (P= .002). Greater AT availability was present in counties with higher graduation rates (P= .03). Post hoc comparisons revealed differences in graduation rates between schools with a part-time AT and those with no AT (P= .04). Schools with less AT availability were located in counties with a slightly higher percentage of the population uninsured (P= .02). Schools with greater AT availability were located in counties with a higher ratio of population to primary care physicians (P= .03). Schools with less AT availability were located in counties with a higher population experiencing severe housing problems (P= .02). No differences were found in AT availability based on the 3 social and community context variables (P> .05). Differences were noted in AT availability and SDOH characteristics at the secondary school level. We observed less AT availability where high school graduation rates and the population of primary care providers were lower. Strategies should be implemented to improve access to athletic health care in underresourced communities.

Insufficient Sleep is Associated With Increasing Trends in Adolescent Suicidal Behaviors

PurposeYouth suicide has been increasing and became a public health concern worldwide. Identifying insufficient sleep as the potential risk factor is critical to reducing suicide risk and increasing trends. This study aimed to determine whether insufficient sleep is associated with increasing trends in suicidal behaviors and disparities by sex, age, and race/ethnicity among school adolescents. MethodsThe present study used biennial data from the US nationally representative Youth Risk Behavior Survey from 2007 to 2019. Joinpoint regression models were used to estimate biennial percent changes (BPCs) and average BPCs (ABPCs) of suicidal behaviors by sleep duration. Logistic regression models were used to examine the association between insufficient sleep and suicidal behaviors. ResultsOf 73,356 adolescent students included (mean [standard deviation] age, 16.11 [1.23] years), 50.03% were female. Suicidal ideation and suicide plan among insufficient sleep group increased from 2007 to 2019 (BPC = 2.88% [95% confidence interval {CI}: 1.65%, 4.13%]; BPC = 3.42% [95% CI: 2.09%, 4.77%]), but were nonsignificant among sufficient sleep group. Trends in suicidal ideation (ABPC = 3.03% [95% CI: 1.35%, 4.73%]) and suicide plan (ABPC = 4.03% [95% CI: 2.47%, 5.62%]) among female adolescents with insufficient sleep increased, but nonsignificant among male adolescents with insufficient sleep. Suicidal ideation (ABPC = 1.73% [95% CI: 0.51%, 2.97%]) and suicide plan (ABPC = 2.31% [95% CI: 0.70%, 3.95%]) increased among younger adolescents only with insufficient sleep, whereas suicide trends by sleep duration were similar among older adolescents. Suicide plan among insufficient sleep group increased across the four racial groups, with BPC highest for the White (BPC = 3.48% [95% CI: 1.31%, 5.69%]), and lowest for the Hispanic/Latino (BPC = 1.18% [95% CI: 0.15%, 2.23%]), but were nonsignificant among sufficient sleep group except for the White (BPC = 2.83% [95% CI: 0.62%, 5.09%]). DiscussionInsufficient sleep was disproportionately associated with increasing trends in suicidal behaviors among female, younger, and non-White adolescent students. Ensuring sufficient sleep can potentially reduce suicide among school adolescents.

Movements at the fiscal/monetary crossroads: Financing a Green New Deal for schools in Philadelphia

ABSTRACT Philadelphia’s schools suffer from an astounding $4.5 billion infrastructure backlog, resulting in toxic school buildings that threaten the lives of predominantly low-income, nonwhite students, teachers, staff, and community members. To combat this issue amidst the ongoing climate crisis, movement groups have demanded policies that would both fix Philadelphia’s schools and reduce building emissions. During their work, a question regarding financing emerged among organizers and researchers: should green infrastructure updates to urban school buildings be financed primarily through grants or loans? In this paper, we use a critical resource theory in education framework to articulate the contours of this question using two organizing campaigns as case studies. We find that there are trade-offs between legislative logjam and the immorality of indebtedness at this impasse.

Increasing Minimum Teacher Salaries: Opportunities and Drawbacks Across Geography and Race

Following record-high public support for improved teacher salaries, many states initiated a variety of pandemic-era reforms to teacher compensation policies to improve teacher morale and retention. In this article, we examine a minimum teacher salary reform in Missouri, a state home to a diverse geographic landscape including major metropolitan areas and large rural regions. On the one hand, we estimate eligible teachers would receive sizable salary increases averaging almost eight percent. Conversely, these teachers were located almost exclusively in the state's rural areas, effectively excluding most urban teachers and students and, due to the state's non-white ethnoracial concentration in urban metropolitan areas, virtually all of the state's non-White teachers and students. As states craft policy reforms to support their teacher workforces, attention must be devoted to the magnitude and the distribution of funding to ensure its equitable allocation across teacher and student characteristics and district urbanicity.

Universal School-Based Substance Use Prevention Using Technology-Supported Cooperative Learning.

Substance use in adolescence is a significant public health issue, particularly in early-to-mid adolescence, which represents a window of risk in the etiology of substance abuse and dependence. Substance use during this development period often results from affiliation with deviant peers, who model, facilitate, and reinforce use. Existing school-based substance use prevention programs have historically aimed to build adolescent knowledge regarding the dangers of substance use and/or enhance peer refusal skills. Research finds that these programs have had some success in reducing substance use, but meta-analyses report that average effect sizes are small. In a small one-year cluster randomized trial (12 middle and high schools; N = 813 students; ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT04478240), cooperative learning (CL) was implemented with the support of specialized technology and evaluated for its ability to reduce deviant peer affiliation and, in turn, reduce substance use. CL is a structured approach to small-group learning that provides at-risk youth with the opportunity to build friendships with more prosocial youth, interrupting the process of deviant peer clustering. Multi-level modeling revealed intervention effects for deviant peer affiliation and alcohol use across the sample, while tobacco use was significantly reduced among non-White students; intervention effects for marijuana use were only marginally significant. Effects for dosage were found for all outcomes, suggesting that every lesson taught had a significant impact. We conclude that CL, delivered with the aid of specialized technology, represents a viable option for universal substance use prevention. Future research should attempt to combine this approach with evidence-based prevention curricula.

Students’ perspectives on the ‘STEM belonging’ concept at A-level, undergraduate, and postgraduate levels: an examination of gender and ethnicity in student descriptions

BackgroundWomen and ethnic minorities have historically been underrepresented in some STEM fields. It is therefore important to understand the factors influencing students’ persistence in STEM fields, and what STEM belonging means from the voices of socio-demographically diverse students, in order to ensure equity among students in STEM fields and to increase their belonging to this field, which has not been clearly defined in the literature, and there is a lack of agreement about the definition of belonging itself. For this purpose, the perspectives of students in England are brought together in this study in an attempt to better understand the concept of STEM belonging within a broader context of integration.ResultThe inductive thematic analysis with the voices of socio-demographically diverse 313 A-level, undergraduate and postgraduate Mathematics, Physics, and Chemistry students showed that compared to male students, it was mostly female, non-binary, non-White, and first-generation students who defined STEM belonging as ‘Feeling safe and comfortable in the STEM community and settings’. This theme was defined by the participants as the group/community/learning environment in which the individual belongs, the interaction with the people in the field, and the comfort that this participation/interaction creates. Students stressed the importance of creating a supportive and welcoming STEM environment so that individuals can feel at home, as well as a safe and comfortable STEM environment for people of all identities, genders, ethnicities, and backgrounds. Based on the participants’ responses, this study also conceptualised the concept of STEM belonging as having four phases: the ‘adaptation phase’, the ‘integration phase’, the ‘continuum phase’, and the ‘transition phase’. These four phases which comprise the STEM belonging concept are consecutive and interconnected.ConclusionThe study concluded that all human beings are connected in a relational way (either strong or weak) and that the concept of STEM belonging develops as a result of interactions with ‘self’ and ‘others’ who have a shared passion and an interest in STEM fields. Although individuals have intrinsic motivation and individual prompts in STEM fields (i.e. resilience, beliefs in their capacity/ability and curiosity, etc.), social determinants (i.e. receiving adequate support from members of the STEM community, social capital and social cohesion, etc.) also play a significant role in influencing individual’s sense of STEM belonging.

Repainting the Stifled Canvas: Awakening Personally and Culturally Relevant Artmaking in Postcolonial Classrooms

This article explores the idea that teachers, even when aiming to implement culturally and personally relevant pedagogies, are subject to passing on colonial agendas and practices that stultify learning in art classrooms. I argue that even in self-governing, majority non-European societies, well-intentioned teachers can unintentionally perpetuate colonial educational agendas that narrow students’ learning, as well as the ideas students deduce about art, culture, and their roles in contributing to them. I focus on Jamaican and Anglo-Caribbean art classrooms, where many teachers and students have non-European lineages and a shared national heritage rooted in slavery and colonialism. I conclude the article by raising implications for how art educators there and elsewhere might avoid unconsciously engaging in neocolonial pedagogies, especially when teaching non-White students whose heritages are rooted in colonial oppression.

The frequency and psychological effects of name mispronunciation in an independent school

Names are a critical part of human identity. In our study, we wanted to observe the occurrence and psychological impact of microaggressions and name mispronunciation on high school student psychological well-being. Limited research in the area of microaggressions has demonstrated racial associations with name mispronunciation, and negative psychological effects of microaggressions in medical school and university level environments. We hypothesized that a minority of students would be unfamiliar with the term microaggression and more than 50% of students would have experienced a microaggression since the beginning of their first year of high school. We also hypothesized that non-white students would be more likely to experience racial and ethnic microaggressions, including having their names mispronounced. To test our hypothesis, we employed an electronic survey to assess the knowledge of microaggressions, frequency of microaggressions and name mispronunciation, and emotional response to microaggressions and name mispronunciation in high school students and faculty. Our results showed that non-white students were 2.55 times more likely to experience racial or ethnic microaggressions compared to white students. Students experiencing microaggressions most commonly reported feelings of exhaustion, embarrassment, and loss of sense of belonging. Future research with a larger sample size and greater representation among racial groups would be beneficial and would likely yield more statistically significant results. Our study can guide educational components for community members to increase awareness of the negative psychological effects of microaggressions and name mispronunciation.

Soda taxes, consumption, and health outcomes for high school students

This paper uses new data from the Youth Risk Behavioral Surveillance System (YRBS) survey to assess whether the sugar-sweetened beverage taxes passed in Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Oakland have led to health improvements among high school students in these cities. I find that students in Philadelphia reduced their consumption by over one soda per week and that this reduction has remained constant or even grown over the first four years since the tax was implemented. I estimate that average BMI went down by 1.3% by 2021 across the three cities and that these effects are larger among female and non-white students.

Evaluation of Academic and Nonacademic Factors of First-Generation Students Transitioning to a Pharmacy Program

ObjectiveTo evaluate the academic transition of first-generation (FG) students to a Doctor of Pharmacy program and the impact of early intervention/outreach. MethodsThe retrospective study evaluated the first semester performance in three classes of student pharmacists (beginning fall 2020, 2021, 2022) at a public university in the mid-South. Student demographics (age, sex, race, relationship status), nonacademic factors (Grit, impostor syndrome, testing anxiety, perceived stress), and academic factors (grade point average, academic probation, early intervention) were assessed. In fall 2022, a required academic meeting was added to the early intervention process after exam one for high-risk students. The data between FG and non-FG students were compared; Mann-Whitney tests for continuous variables and Chi-square tests with risk estimates for categorical variables. ResultsThere were 152 FG and 274 non-FG students identified over the three classes. A total of 88 (57.9%) FG students represented racial minority groups. More FG students and non-White students were identified for early intervention. First-generation students were more likely to receive two or more grades less than C- and less likely to progress to the spring. No significance was noted with generational status and undergraduate grade point average, academic performance, or nonacademic factors. The required meeting after exam one in fall 2022 resulted in less disparity between FG and non-FG students identified for early intervention for exam two. ConclusionFirst-generation and non-White students were more likely to struggle when transitioning to the Doctor of Pharmacy curriculum. A proactive, individualized approach incorporated into early intervention procedures is needed to promote academic success and belonging.