2 minute read
Session II
Concurrent Sessions
Session II
Thursday, January 28 | 11:15 am – 12:15 pm
We're All Fighting: Experiences of Black Women HBCU Graduates Enrolled in HWI Doctoral Programs
Dr. Dawn Y. Matthews
Several studies have shown that Black women at HBCUs have more positive experiences with faculty and peers and greater overall satisfaction with their college experience as compared to their peers at historically white institutions (HWIs) (Alexander & Bodenhorn, 2015; Mitchell, 2018). HBCUs provide an environment that is advantageous to the development of Black women and nurture the elements of Yosso’s (2005) conceptual model of community cultural wealth. This wealth creates a counternarrative to existing research on Black women in higher education. Thus, Black women’s cultivation of cultural wealth and capital in the HBCU environment produces an array of knowledge, skills, abilities, and relationships to help them succeed. However, the transition from an HBCU to an HWI for the pursuit of a doctoral degree can challenge the value of this cultural capital and impact the doctoral socialization process. This qualitative study used a Black feminist methodology to explore the experiences of ten Black women graduate students that earned their bachelor’s degree at an HBCU and transitioned to an HWI for a doctoral program. Community cultural wealth was applied as a conceptual lens to understand their experiences. This presentation will share insights from this study and offers implications for Black women doctoral students and faculty/staff at both HBCUs and HWIs.
UNPACKING Experiences of International Students!
Gaurav Harshe
The session will shed light on the larger internationalization of the higher education space. The international student experience will be contextualized by a number of factors such as the political headwinds, immigration rhetoric, and the larger recruitment for the international student around the world. Transitions are inherent to this functional area of student affairs and this presidential year along with the pandemic have only exacerbated that. Leadership is paramount in this space and we will discuss ways in which the lack thereof can be detrimental to the field. Community building best practices will be shared as they have adapted since the shift to virtual spaces and in the acknowledgment that the virtual spaces are here to stay. Emphasis will be laid on the regulatory restrictions of the federal administration and the ramifications of those on the international education field in the U.S. as it relates to international students. Advocacy efforts will also be alluded to as grassroots campaigns tend to make all the difference in the policy-making and the re-envisioning of them.
