College completion rates among Latina/o undergraduate students represents a crisis in our national educational system. Latina/o students are seeking higher education, but experiencing multiple barriers which inhibit degree completion. This qualitative case study offers an opportunity to explore components of degree completion of Latina/o graduates…

Students from underserved populations, including Latinx students, are often recruited to increase predominately white institution (PWI) campus diversity, and mentoring programs are created to increase retention and degree completion rates (Bond, Cason & Gray, 2015; Crisp, Taggart, & Nora, 2015). However, Latinx mentoring programs and their…

In the absence of an institutionally sponsored doctoral mentoring program, a small group of women doctoral students developed a new model of mentoring by initiating and sustaining a multifaceted mentorship community (MMC). Using an autoethnographic approach, we present the development of this new model and insights into a mentee-initiated,…

Culturally sustaining pedagogy may be used as an innovative theoretical framework to design an undergraduate research course to engage undergraduate students of color at predominantly white institutions. This article presents the theoretical basis for an undergraduate research course, examples of students' experiences, and the instructors'…

The University of Missouri Kansas City (UMKC) is an urban research university with a special emphasis on fostering diversity. In 2021, the Center for Advancing Faculty Excellence created a Faculty Fellows program to develop comprehensive resources and support in four areas: teaching and learning, service and engagement, research and creativity,…

Preparing successful teacher candidates in urban schools requires educator preparation programs to integrate community exploration into the curriculum so new teachers understand the importance of community, cultural implications, and create new perceptions of urban students. This study was conducted at an urban-serving university offering a course…

Preparing successful teacher candidates in urban schools requires educator preparation programs to integrate the exploration of community and cultures into the curriculum. Understanding the importance of community, interpreting and analyzing cultural implications, and creating new perceptions and understandings of urban students are essential for…