First-generation and ethnic-racial minoritized college students experience greater academic disparities, but limited work has focused on intersectional experiences underlying academic achievement in higher education during the COVID-19 pandemic over time. The current longitudinal study examined the associations between various forms of well-being (i.e., emotional, psychological, and social) at T1 (Time 1; acute pandemic) predicting academic achievement (GPA) at T2 (ongoing pandemic), while accounting for T1 GPA. We also examined whether academic stress disrupted the association between T1 well-being and T2 GPA. We tested differences between first-generation college students of color, continuing (i.e., students who are not first-generation college students) college students of color, first-generation college white students, and continuing college white students ( = 880). Consistent with expectations, results indicated that the associations varied based on the intersection of ethnic-racial background and college student generational status. Among first-generation college students of color and continuing college students of color, psychological well-being at T1 predicted higher GPA at T2 but only when academic stress was low (high academic stress disrupted this association and it became non-significant). Among continuing students of color, T1 emotional well-being predicted greater T2 GPA. Inconsistent with expectations, among continuing white students, T1 social well-being was associated with lower T2 academic achievement. Overall, findings indicate that examining the intersectionality of identities provides an important, nuanced understanding of students' academic achievement and how academic stress impedes positive processes over time.

PhD programs have long struggled to recruit and retain trainees and scholars representative of an increasingly diverse U.S. population. In this practice brief, we describe barriers facing marginalized students in pursuing a PhD and offer recommendations for institutions aiming to provide equitable opportunities across the doctoral training pipeline. Recommendations are informed by the burgeoning success of a graduate student-led mentorship program that offers prospective underrepresented PhD students support in the application process and beyond. We highlight the importance of incentivizing the efforts and assets of graduate student mentors in cultivating and sustaining strong peer-to-peer support networks necessary to ensure the success of the next generation of diverse scholars.

College can serve as a transition point that encourages exploration and development of one's ethnic identity (Syed & Azmitia, 2009). This may be especially critical for Native American (NA) college students given the turbulent history between the U.S. government, institutions of higher education, and Tribal Nations. Thus, it is important to examine how NA ethnic identity interacts with the climate of universities. This study examines changes in NA students' ethnic identity over the course of their college careers. Results reveal three distinct, stable ethnic identity trajectories with low, moderate, and high intercepts. Those with high ethnic identity trajectories demonstrate higher levels of campus comfort and better experiences with faculty than those low in ethnic identity. However, those with high ethnic identity levels also reported poorer race-based interactions on campus and reported higher levels of discrimination and stress.

Diversifying the academic workforce requires equitable and inclusive training environments. Essential to achieving this goal is understanding the relevance of racial and cultural identities in our interactions, and a willingness and ability to engage in frank discussions about race and racism. Grounded in reflective practice, somatic abolitionism, and social justice education theory, this practice brief articulates six guiding principles for culturally responsive facilitation within diversity, equity, and inclusion workshops for adult learners. We use our collective experience implementing a mentorship education intervention, , with faculty in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine to illustrate these principles.

Racial microaggressions often occur in U.S. higher education. However, less is known about how White American students reason about their evaluations of racial microaggressions. The current study investigated how 213 White college students (54.46% cisgender women) attending a PWI in the Southeast U.S. in the Fall of 2019 justified their evaluations of the acceptability of racial microaggressions presented in vignettes. Following Social Domain Theory, to assess participants' social reasoning, we conducted quantitative content analysis of participants' open-ended justifications for their evaluations. Multiple regression analyses revealed that participants were less likely to evaluate racial microaggressions as negative the more they employed justifications focused on 1) assuming that the behaviors in the situation followed conventions of the classroom, 2) judging the professor's response as correct, and 3) asserting that the behavior was likely to happen to anyone. Further, the higher participants' endorsement of color-blind attitudes the more likely they were to evaluate racial microaggressions as appropriate. However, reasoning centered on 1) assuming differential treatment based on race, 2) perceiving the behavior as harmful, and 3) considering the behavior was against conventional expectations was associated with finding racial microaggressions to be more negative. The current study highlights the value of investigating underlying reasoning behind evaluating racial microaggressions in addition to color-blind attitudes. The findings suggest that higher education professionals should consider interventions which pay particular attention to unpacking students' reasoning, untangling acceptance of Ethnocentric narratives and providing information that challenges classroom behaviors that, while potentially appearing conventional, in fact perpetuate harm through microaggressions.

Within higher education, professional networks are critical to faculty success. Prior research on the networks of faculty belonging to marginalized groups has taken a deficit model perspective, focusing on limited access to and structural exclusion from professional networks. We counter this deficit perspective, shifting the research to examine how network ties-the relationships between individuals within a network-form within counterspaces. Counterspaces are settings in which individuals belonging to systemically marginalized groups exchange support and share resources. Using interview data, we find the interactions occurring within the counterspace setting of the Broadening the Representation of Academic Investigators in NeuroScience (BRAINS) program allowed participants to recognize their shared values around diversity, equity, and inclusion, which in turn facilitated the formation of trusting network ties. In addition, we find that the development of these network ties positively impacted interviewees' understanding of and approach to networks and networking beyond the BRAINS counterspace.

This case study investigated how mentors and mentees in biology experience and understand race and ethnicity in their research mentoring relationships. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with mentors ( = 23) and mentees ( = 15) who had participated in an undergraduate biology summer research opportunity program at a large Midwestern research-intensive university. Interview transcripts were coded using an inductive, thematic analysis. Themes that emerged are presented, describing both participants' experiences with and beliefs about race and ethnicity in research training contexts (e.g., mentoring relationships, lab and field experiences). Although similarities were identified, the experiences and beliefs of mentors and mentees were not always aligned. Implications of the findings for training interventions and institutional partnerships to enhance the effectiveness of research mentoring relationships are discussed, with the goal of positively impacting the educational success of students from historically underrepresented racial/ethnic groups in science career pathways.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the motivation of research mentors to address race/ethnicity in their research mentoring relationships, using self-determination theory as a conceptual framework. Mentors from STEM fields primarily in the biological sciences ( = 115) were asked to report their level of motivation and the reasons behind their motivation to address the role of race and ethnicity in their mentoring relationships. Mentors' responses were coded using a qualitative approach, and results were examined by mentors' degree of motivation, previous experience with mentoring trainees from different racial/ethnic groups, and mentor race/ethnicity. Extrinsic motivation and amotivation were the most frequently assigned codes to mentors' responses. Implications of these findings for mentor practices, higher education initiatives, and for diversifying the STEM workforce are discussed.

The majority of research examining Undergraduate Research Experiences focuses singularly on student-reported outcomes, often overlooking assessment of the mentor role in student learning and outcomes following these experiences. The goal of the current study was to examine the student-mentor dyad at the beginning and end of a 10-week summer research experience for American Indian undergraduates utilizing a series of actor-partner interdependence models within SEM. Participants included 26 undergraduate interns (50% American Indian; 50% American Indian and White; age = 24) and 27 mentors (89% White; age = 47). Findings indicated that in accounting for all potential paths between students and mentors, the partner path between mentor beliefs at the beginning of the program and students' skills related to autonomy (β =.59, = .01) and academic resilience (β =.44, = .03) at the end of the program were significant. These findings suggest the important impact of mentor beliefs on student outcomes, a relationship that should be adequately assessed and continue to be important focus of undergraduate research experiences. Findings further indicate the important role of mentors for American Indian undergraduates.

To explore the divergent academic experiences and outcomes of U.S.-origin and immigrant-origin Black Americans, we drew on (1993) to test a three-wave longitudinal model of college persistence using path analysis. Our sample was comprised of 101 ethnically-diverse Black students who were randomly selected from nine public high schools in the metropolitan Boston area and went on to matriculate at 32 different, predominantly White colleges and universities. Specifically, we compared U.S.-origin and immigrant-origin Black undergraduates' reported college social support/social integration and academic integration; and measured the influence of these factors (as well as high school grades and socioeconomic status) on college persistence two years later. As predicted, and consistent with previous studies, immigrant-origin Black students academically outperformed their U.S.-origin Black counterparts, earning significantly higher high school grades and demonstrating greater persistence in college. However, when the effects of high school grades and SES on college persistence were included in a multivariate path model together with immigration status and college social and academic integration, immigration status no longer predicted college persistence. Neither social nor academic integration predicted college persistence, within the path model, as hypothesized, but social integration did predict academic integration as expected. In separate correlational analyses, academic integration and SES were associated with college persistence for U.S.-origin Black students, but this was not the case for immigrant-origin Black students. We discuss the implications of these findings for fostering greater success among diverse Black undergraduates.

The National Science Foundation and others conclude that institutional transformation is required to ensure equal opportunities for the participation and advancement of men and women in academic science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM). Such transformation requires changing the habitual attitudes and behaviors of faculty. Approaching implicit bias as a remediable habit, we present the theoretical basis and conceptual model underpinning an educational intervention to promote bias literacy among university faculty as a step toward institutional transformation regarding gender equity. We describe the development and implementation of a Bias Literacy Workshop in detail so others can replicate or adapt it to their setting. Of the 220 (167 faculty and 53 nonfaculty) attendees from the initial 17 departments/divisions offered this workshop, all 180 who completed a written evaluation found the workshop at least "somewhat useful" and 74% found it "very useful." Over 68% indicated increased knowledge of the workshop material. Of the 186 participants who wrote a commitment to engage in new activities to promote gender equity, 87% incorporated specific workshop content. Twenty-four participants were interviewed 4-6 months after attending the workshop; 75% of these not only demonstrated increased bias awareness, but described plans to change-or had actually changed-behaviors because of the workshop. Based on our sample of faculty from a Midwestern university, we conclude that at least one third of STEMM faculty who are invited will attend a 2.5-hr Bias Literacy Workshop, that nearly all will find it useful, and that most will complete a written commitment to promoting gender equity. These findings suggest that this educational intervention may effectively promote institutional change regarding gender equity.

In the present investigation, the authors explored potential predictors of White students' general emotional responses after they reflected on their Whiteness in a semi-structured interview (n = 88) or written reflection (n = 187). Specifically, the authors examined how color-blindness (i.e., awareness of White privilege) and racial affect (i.e., White empathy, White guilt, and White fear), assessed before the interview or written reflection, may predict positive and negative emotional responses, assessed immediately following the interview or written reflection. Furthermore, the authors considered whether affective costs of racism to Whites moderated the association between racial color-blindness and general positive and negative emotional responses of White students. Findings indicated that affective costs of racism moderated associations between racial color-blindness and general emotional responses. Specifically, White fear moderated associations for the written reflection group whereas White empathy moderated an association in the interview. White guilt did not moderate, but instead directly predicted a negative emotional response in the written reflection group. Findings suggest that the interaction between racial color-blindness and racial affect is important when predicting students' emotional responses to reflecting on their Whiteness. Implications for educators and administrators are discussed.