RISE-UP in California: Reimagining Graduate Student Success Through Place-Based, Healing-Centered, and Equity-Driven Futures

• In Event: Navigating graduate education and opportunities

Abstract

This paper presents preliminary findings from RISE-UP (Resilience, Inclusion, Skills, & Empowerment for Underrepresented Practitioners), a healing-centered pilot program supporting first-generation and racially minoritized graduate students in healthcare fields. Rooted in Critical Race Theory and trauma-informed engagement, RISE-UP addresses historical exclusion in graduate education while fostering student agency, academic confidence, and belonging. Drawing on participant reflections and program data, the study explores how students navigate imposter phenomenon, systemic marginalization, and cultural mismatch. It highlights self-regulated learning strategies, affinity-based mentoring, and counter-storytelling as tools of resistance and transformation. This work offers a vision of graduate education as a site for future-making—one that honors student histories, centers community knowledge, and builds sustainable, equity-oriented support systems within public institutions.

Authors

• Marcella Cardoza McCollum, San Jose State University

• Melisa Kaye, San Jose State University