The lived experiences of recent high-school graduates in a three credit, semester-long, community-college student-success seminar
| dc.contributor.author | Szamos, Aron, author | |
| dc.contributor.author | Anderson, Sharon K., advisor | |
| dc.contributor.author | Peila-Shuster, Jackie, advisor | |
| dc.contributor.author | Hall, Bruce, committee member | |
| dc.contributor.author | Quick, Don, committee member | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2017-06-09T15:41:08Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2017-06-09T15:41:08Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2017 | |
| dc.description.abstract | Student success has been an emerging topic within K-through-16 education in recent years. Community colleges play a valuable role within higher education, and they are challenged to support and foster the success of students in reaching their goals to earn associate's degrees, certificates, and to transfer to 4-year institutions. Student-success seminars have been linked to positively impacting numerous outcomes such as student grade-point averages, student retention, and student satisfaction. Few studies have explored how and why the experiences of participants in a student-success seminar relate to these outcomes from the perspective of the students who participated in the courses. To gain a better understanding of these student experiences, I conducted a qualitative phenomenological study using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to help answer the following research questions: 1. What are the lived experiences of first-year community-college students who participated in a semester-long, student-success seminar? 2. How do these students' lived experiences of the student-success seminar influence their overall community-college experiences? 3. How do these students' lived experiences of the student-success seminar influence their decisions to remain at their institution? Six students participated in the study through semistructured interviews to explore their lived experiences in a three-credit, semester-long, community-college student-success seminar. Data analysis revealed five superordinate themes that helped to describe participants' experiences through a metaphorical journey at sea. These superordinate themes included choppy waters, a guiding light, a clearer destination, charting a course, and taking the wheel with the crew on board. Findings of this study suggest that the student-success seminar was beneficial to the participants in the following ways: mitigating the stress and anxiety associated with their high school-to-college transitions; enforcing their view of their course instructor as a source of comfort, trust, accountability, and encouragement; helping them to identify and affirm career and major goals; affirming their decisions to remain at their institution and continue their education; providing various resources that helped them achieve major and career goals; and increasing self-confidence to help them become more autonomous in their academic journey. This study provides a unique student perspective into the student-success-seminar experience and contributes to higher education by assisting community colleges in helping their students thrive in their high school-to-college transition and beyond. The findings also provide insight into how and why the student-success-seminar experience may contribute to various student outcomes highlighted in the current study. | |
| dc.format.medium | born digital | |
| dc.format.medium | doctoral dissertations | |
| dc.identifier | Szamos_colostate_0053A_14075.pdf | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10217/181352 | |
| dc.language | English | |
| dc.language.iso | eng | |
| dc.publisher | Colorado State University. Libraries | |
| dc.relation.ispartof | 2000-2019 | |
| dc.rights | Copyright and other restrictions may apply. User is responsible for compliance with all applicable laws. For information about copyright law, please see https://libguides.colostate.edu/copyright. | |
| dc.subject | student-success | |
| dc.subject | lived experiences | |
| dc.subject | student-success seminar | |
| dc.title | The lived experiences of recent high-school graduates in a three credit, semester-long, community-college student-success seminar | |
| dc.type | Text | |
| dcterms.rights.dpla | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights (https://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/). You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). | |
| thesis.degree.discipline | Education | |
| thesis.degree.grantor | Colorado State University | |
| thesis.degree.level | Doctoral | |
| thesis.degree.name | Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) |
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