Fostering Sense of Belonging through an Undergraduate Research Scholars Program for Transfers at an HSRI

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Wednesday 2:30 pm Four Seasons Ballroom 2-3
  In Roundtable Session: Leveraging the R in HSRIs: Research for Educational Equity at a Hispanic-Serving Research Institution (Table 1)

Abstract

Objectives
This study examines how an undergraduate research scholars program to increase transfer receptivity (Jain et al, 2020) and developed through a community-engaged partnership between faculty and staff at an HSRI, fostered sense of belonging for Latine transfer students.

Theoretical framework
Servingness has been defined as going beyond enrolling Latinx students to authentically and proactively address their needs dynamically and critically (Garcia et al., 2019). It is crucial to ensure HSRIs engage in practices and policies that foster sense of belonging for their Latinx students (AUTHOR et al., 2024). Sense of belonging can impact students’ persistence, retention, and graduation (Murphy et al., 2020). Transfer students of color experience various institutional barriers and transfer stigma (Buenaflor et al., 2022) which negatively impacts their sense of belonging (Shaw et al., 2019). Conversely, Relationships with peers and faculty are essential sources of support (Solis & Duran, 2022). In particular students’ participation in high-impact practices (HIP), such as research experience increases peer-to peer and faculty relationships, and may lead to higher levels of student persistence and retention. Particularly transfer students of color, have specific participation barriers to high impact practices for example with compressed two-year timelines, the deadlines to apply for HIPs participation may occur before transfer students have matriculated to their new campus, thus automatically excluding them (AUTHOR et al., 2024).

Data and Methods
The current study focuses on the Undergraduate Research and Graduate Pathways program which connects transfer students of color to paid research opportunities. The program provides funding for Latinx transfer students to work on research projects under the mentorship of faculty. Students also received mentorship from 4 graduate students about navigating graduate school preparation. We collected pre- post surveys with the 12 transfer students, 4 graduate student mentors, and 12 faculty mentors and a focus group with 5 of the transfer students. We conducted descriptive statistical analyses for the surveys and thematic analysis (Braun & Clark, 2006) to identify themes informed by focus groups and open-ended questions.

Results
Our preliminary survey findings reveal most graduate school preparation markers and navigational cultural capital increased post-program, however strength of relationships with faculty, staff, and peers did not change and sense of belonging decreased slightly. Our focus group themes included a want to increase connection with other program student participants; more social events to get to know others and build community; appreciation for the support for their personal and professional goals for building relationships their mentors.

Scholarly significance
Transfer receptivity and servingness intentionally validate and support the needs of students of color transferring from community colleges to HSRIs. Our research highlights faculty, graduate student, and staff partnerships that support transfer students from diverse intersectional backgrounds and experiences, advocate for transfer students and develop transfer receptive HSRIs academic programs, curricula development, and relationship building to foster a sense of belonging at the university which can guide institutional policies that and advance educational equity (Author et al., 2024).

Author

• Saskias Casanova, University of California - Santa Cruz