Date of Award

2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Education (Ed.D.)

Department

Administrative and Instructional Leadership

First Advisor

KATHERINE C AQUINO

Second Advisor

STEPHEN KOTOK

Third Advisor

JAMES COVIELLO

Abstract

Retention, persistence, and academic achievement for first-generation students have become increasingly prevalent with increasing access to higher education. Beyond access, the most discernible challenge relates to their identity as a first-generation college student and the lack of mentorship from their parents in navigating the college experience. While research promotes the positive impact of faculty-student mentoring programs for the success of the traditional student, more work is needed to analyze the effects on first-generation community college students. The purpose of the present study was to investigate if there was a relationship between faculty-student mentoring and student success, as defined by persistence, retention, and grade point average (GPA) for first-generation community college students. Utilizing secondary data collected from National Community College (NCC), a pseudonym for a public two-year institution in a major U.S. city, multiple analyses, including chi-squares and multiple regression, were conducted to explore first-generation student retention and academic achievement for participants in the faculty-student mentoring cohort program during the 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 academic years, as compared to their first-generation peers who did not participate in the program. The results of the analyses show that a marginally statistically significant relationship existed between race/ethnicity, program participation, and persistence to graduation and/or transfer. Furthermore, there were statistically significant relationships between participation in the faculty-student mentoring program and one-year (fall to fall term) retention as well as cumulative GPA for first-generation community college students. Ultimately, the results indicate that faculty-student mentoring programs are an effective intervention that can be utilized to support the overall student success of first-generation community college students.

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