Running head: FINAL REPORT

Final Report

Alli Botelho, Steffi Huynh, Mallory Kester, & Sophia Man

Seattle University

SDAD 5400: Student Development Theory, Research, and Practice

Professor Yamamura

December 12, 2018

FINAL REPORT 1

Executive Summary

This report focuses on during school programs and support and how the implementation

of our recommendations can support student success. By identifying the weakness gaps within

the Advancement via Individual Determination (AVID) program, we strive to improve AVID’s

structure in providing low-income, marginalized students the opportunity to go to college.

Through our literature review, we identified promising practices and recommendations that can

support the Seattle University Youth Initiative (SUYI) in expanding access to higher education.

Literature Review

Within our review of different literature, we discovered three key themes:

1. Self-efficacy

2. Key Stakeholder Involvement

3. Cultural Capital

Promising Practices

Building off of our literature review, we want to implement three promising practices:

1. Mentorship

2. Self-Motivation

3. Focus on Marginalized Students

Recommendations

Ultimately, there are three recommendations for SUYI to implement:

1. Multicultural Competence Curriculum and Social Justice Training

2. Comprehensive Mentorship Program

3. Financial Consideration
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Campus Collaboration

Before discussing the unique themes, promising practices and recommendations for

development and implementation of a program, our group will introduce the Seattle University

campus, the communities that the SUYI impacts, and other resources and opportunities that exist

within the Washington area that address our topic.

Seattle University

As of Fall 2018, Seattle University has enrolled 4,764 undergraduate students. Of the

students enrolled in Fall 2018, 40% have been identified as all diverse groups: Asian, Black,

Hispanic, Native American or Alaskan Native, & Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander

(Seattle University, 2018).

Seattle University Youth Initiative

The Center for Community Engagement connects the Seattle University campus to the

surrounding neighborhood. In striving to support systems and education for 1,000 neighborhood

youth and their families, SUYI is serving three different schools in the Yesler Terrace area:

Bailey Gatzert Elementary School, Washington Middle School and Garfield High School

(Seattle University, 2018). These schools receive different services that target different

communities within each school. SUYI currently serves 120 students at Bailey Gatzert

Elementary School and 1,079 students at Washington Middle School, of which 64% have been

identified as minority (Public School Review, 2018). At Garfield High School there are 1,712

students, of which 60% have been identified as minority (US News, 2018). There are two

programs that our group is looking to expand on, Bailey Gatzert Elementary School English

Learning Language programs’ field trips and Washington Middle School and Garfield High

School’s workshops and retreats.

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Seattle University faculty and staff are currently able to participate within SUYI in

various capacities. Faculty and staff are invited to connect with the surrounding neighborhood

through the following programs: Community Immersions, Academic Service-learning Faculty

fellows, Community Engagement Justice Fellows, and Community Engaged Research Fellows.

In 2016-2017, the Center for Community Engagement (CCE) had several hundred faculty

creatively design courses and research projects to respond to community identified needs (Koth,

2017). This activity engaged 18 fellows and introduced 34 faculty and staff to CCE partnerships

and specific community issues. Of the 18 fellows, 10 faculty members explored issues related to

race, power and privilege through an eight-part seminar. Additionally through Community

Immersion, 34 faculty and staff were introduced to specific community issues through a four

multi-day experience focusing on various topics such as public health, homelessness, early

learning, and refugee and immigrant issues (Koth, 2017).

Resources and Opportunities

SU College of Education. Teaching and project-centered coursework are the two focal

points of the SU Interdisciplinary Liberal Studies program our group would like to introduce. As

part of the program, students pursuing the Interdisciplinary Liberal Studies degree must teach at

the elementary level and participate in an innovative project which approaches real-world

problems through planning, design, problem-solving and communication skills (Seattle

University, 2018). These undergraduate students could be a resource in implementing a social

justice focused training program for educators, mentors, and students participating in our

program.

Rainier Scholars. Rainier Scholars is a large organization that is serving K-12 schools

across the state of Washington (Rainier Scholars, 2018). Rainier Scholars offers an immense
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range of services, support, and enrichment opportunities for students, the following have been

identified as potential resources for our program. Beginning in elementary school, Rainier

Scholars provides a 14 month enrichment program that focuses strongly on academics with

components of cultural identity and resiliency building. To support the growth of these

elementary students, an older student advisor is matched from a local high school or college to

help in the academic enrichment process and to build a sense of community.

In middle school, students meet one on one with an academic counselor to ensure that

students are on the right trajectory to finish high school. In addition, students engage in topical

workshops, field trips, and retreats throughout the year. Once in high school, students have a

more direct focus in leadership building through retreats and workshops. High school students

also attend one on one meetings with Rainier Scholars counselors to help the student and their

parents with the college application process. Prior to beginning college, Rainier Scholars hosts a

“College 101” retreat which helps students navigate the structure of the university. Students also

receive check-in calls throughout their undergraduate experience from counselors who offer a

variety of resources, ranging from emotional to academic support.

Washington College Access Network. The Washington College Access Network is a

branch of the College Success Foundation that focuses on supporting post-secondary education

completion for low-income, first-generation, and students of color (WCAN, 2018). The

Washington College Access Network provides preparatory materials for students to better

understand college and for educators in all areas, teachers, administrators and community based

organizations to attend workshops. The workshops cover topics from social justice, financial aid

guidance, how to use different state programs related to college access, and professional

development.
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SU campus events and groups. Seattle University holds many campus events and

supports campus groups in various forms. Of the many campus events held at SU, Moral

Mondays and Educating for Justice Gatherings events were closely aligned with the mission of

SUYI and social justice education. In addition to the events held at Seattle University, the law

school’s Social Justice Leadership Committee, the Just Serve Club, and professors who teach

about social justice and multicultural perspectives in the College of Education, were also closely

aligned to the goals of this project.

Moral Mondays, hosted by the Office of Multicultural Affairs, provides the space and

place for staff, faculty and students to discuss race, break down racism, police violence, and the

Black Lives Matter movement (Seattle University, 2018). Educating for Justice Gatherings

through the Office of Diversity and Inclusion provide opportunities for faculty and staff to be

introduced to relevant topics related to social justice with events (Seattle University, 2018). The

most recent events have included Creating Inclusivity on Campus: Understanding Micro-

inequities and Disrupting Barriers to Belonging, Communities of Practice Pursuing Inclusive

Excellence, and Welcoming Trans Students.

Faculty, staff and students at SU’s law school come together to form a Social Justice

Leadership Committee (SJLC) focused on creating an inclusive and equitable environment

where students feel safe and supported (Seattle University, 2018). Each year SJLC has

implemented different proposals on campus. From 2015-2017, the committee proposed and

implemented faculty race equity trainings. The Just Serve Club is connected through the Center

for Community Engagement and is connected with SUYI which engages students in sustained

service to help Seattle University and the broader neighborhood to grow (Seattle University,

2018). Connecting with faculty who teach social justice and multicultural perspectives in the
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Seattle University College of Education would continue to expand resources and opportunities

our group can engage in.

Literature Review Synthesis

While researching various college access programs and practices that were successful in

helping students prepare for higher education, the AVID program stood out for its positive

impact on opportunity gaps and college readiness. AVID has been successful in sending low-

income minority students to four year colleges by untracking promising students, offering

flexibility within its curriculum, and preparing students to meet the requirements of university

enrollment by “focusing on strategies related to writing, inquiry, collaboration, organization, and

reading” (Pugh & Tschannen-Moran, 2016). Even though AVID is academically focused and has

been adopted on an international scale, the program still has some drawbacks. By focusing so

much on preparing students to meet college requirements, AVID doesn’t set students up for long

term success once they get into college, and hinders their ability to leverage the cultural wealth

they bring (Bernhardt, 2013). To help address the limitations that AVID faces, we have

identified three key themes during our literature research. The first key theme that emerged was

AVID’s impact on students’ persistence and self-efficacy. Another emerging theme emphasized

the benefit of having collaborative relationships with both mentors and the government to further

college access. The last emerging theme within the AVID program is the importance of cultural

capital to minoritized students and their success.

Self-efficacy

Buchanan & Selmon (2008) defined self-efficacy as “a person's’ perceptions of his or her

individual capabilities to achieve goals.” Especially for low-income, students of color, AVID is a

program that better prepares its students for academic success, college preparation, and self-
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efficacy by cultivating a family-like environment where students feel a sense of belonging and

supported by teachers (Huerta, Watt, & Butcher, 2013; Pugh & Tschannen-Moran, 2016).

Additionally, Llamas, López, and Quirk (2014) found that AVID’s organizational goals and

teacher instruction helped students create a sense of responsibility, independence, and a sense of

purpose that furthers their self-efficacy and persistence to continue their education.

It’s crucial for students to develop self-efficacy in order to stay motivated, believe in their

potential, and be successful in college. A student’s self-efficacy can be influenced by both social

modeling and sociocultural variables (Pugh & Tschannen-Moran, 2016). In regards to social

modeling, students can get motivated when they observe a teacher, tutor, or peer performing a

target task successfully, while being dissuaded if they observe unsuccessful performances (Pugh

& Tschannen-Moran, 2016). Therefore, it would be beneficial if AVID incorporated long-term

mentors to provide positive social modeling, especially if the mentors come from similar

circumstances or have aligning aspirations.

Additionally, sociocultural variables play an important role in the development of self-

efficacy, but it varies between African American and Latinx students. AVID supports self-

efficacy in an academic context by promoting a strong value of ethnic identity within African

American students, who are then less likely to be affected by negative stereotypes and can

accomplish greater academic success (O’Brien, Martinez-Pons, & Kopala, 1999). The self-

efficacy of Latinx students is greatly influenced by whether they are first, second, or later

generation immigrants (Aguayo, Herman, Ojeda, & Flores, 2011). Thus, it’s important that

AVID adapts and caters to needs of first-generation, students of color, especially since the

motivation of African American students is impacted by ethnic identity and the academic

achievement of Latinx students is greatly affected by vicarious experiences. Ultimately, AVID

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needs to cultivate a strong self-efficacy among its promising students, while recognizing how

various factors will have a different effect on the self-efficacy and motivation of diverse

students.

Key Stakeholder Involvement

It’s important for mentors and various levels of government to serve as key stakeholders

with a focus on fostering a positive community that promotes long-term student success in higher

education. Regarding mentorship, graduate engagement can help create a supportive community

within AVID. Additionally, collaborative efforts with government supported programs that

happen during-school can help students gain access to higher education. We believe that the

collaboration and involvement of stakeholders is essential in order to work towards the same

goal of furthering college access for middle and high school students.

While AVID is a during-school program that has seen success in helping students

graduate and transition into higher education, it’s reported that relationships with mentors help

foster greater confidence and improve academic performance for low-income students (Hughes,

Boyd, & Dykstra, 2010). On an academic and personal level, it’s more impactful for students to

have a mentor that has similar backgrounds or shares aligning aspirations (Bialka & Havlik,

2016). In addition to tutoring, mentors offer support, assistance, and advice on the college

application process and sometimes serve as counselors to students’ educational and personal

problems (Born, 2006; Hughes, Boyd, & Dykstra, 2010). Mentorship can only be successful if

both the students and mentors buy into the relationship. Thus, dedicated mentors are key

stakeholders in forming supportive relationships with students and furthering their academic

success.
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Another influential stakeholder is the state government, especially when many states have

“worked to foster collaboration through state P-20 councils” (Rippner, 2017). In an effort to

increase college readiness and success, the state P-20 councils have been working towards

aligning educational sectors by sharing communication about policies between states and

“discussing statewide educational issues” (Rippner, 2017). Even though it can be challenging to

sustain quality collaborative efforts between states, the collaboration between education

stakeholders is still impactful in advancing overarching academic goals for underrepresented

students. Within higher education, the effort of collaboration across various levels of government

can help simplify the complex processes and problems that many low-income, first-generation,

and underrepresented minority students face; their struggles typically consist of navigating

college enrollment, financial aid, and loan options (Rosinger, 2017). Ultimately, it can be

positive to have varying government involvement and mentorship support to promote college

preparation and expand opportunities to enter higher education.

Cultural Capital

AVID has been successful in helping low-income students access higher education, while

attempting to address the challenges that these students encounter due to a cultural mismatch

between the dominant norms of educational systems and the cultural community of students

(Stephens, Fryberg, Markus, Johnson, & Covarrubias, 2012). Since AVID serves many diverse,

minoritized students, it’s critical that AVID develops the “awareness, knowledge, and skills to

address cultural issues” that arise in school (Pope, Reynolds, & Mueller, 2004).

Currently, there are conflicting findings about AVID’s understanding of cultural capital

and knowledge of multicultural competence. Brooks (2018) found that in order to close the

opportunity gap, AVID teachers taught upward assimilation so that underrepresented students
FINAL REPORT 10

could navigate a culturally white structured institutional system (Delgado, 2001). This approach

is based on assumptions that students of color don’t initially have the appropriate cultural and

social capital for social mobility (Valenzuela, 1999). Consequently, AVID operates from this

assumption and tries to “help ‘disadvantaged’ students whose race and class background has left

them lacking” of essential knowledge, skills, and cultural capital that’s necessary to move up the

social ladder (Yosso, 2005).

Yet, Bernbardt (2013) reveals that successful AVID programs serve as a form of cultural

capital by prioritizing family involvement, and educating parents and guardians along with their

students about the college enrollment process. This approach addresses the challenge of AVID

teachers having a white savior complex or viewing their underrepresented students’ communities

through a deficit lens (Brown, 2013). Instead, AVID is pushing to bridge the gap between the

home and classroom by involving families in the college preparation process (Kirk & Watt,

2018). In order to improve its practice and be more effective in closing the achievement gap,

AVID needs to develop its multicultural competence, be able to see the value of community

cultural wealth that diverse students bring to the classroom, and involve families in their child’s

college preparation process.

Conclusively, it’s crucial that AVID improves across the themes of self-efficacy, key

stakeholder involvement, and cultural capital. AVID should be able to recognize how ethnic

identity and cultural influence can affect a student’s self-efficacy and achievement, strive for

collaborative involvement from mentors and various levels of government, and acknowledge the

value of cultural capital that students already have.

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Promising Practices Synthesis

In researching practices and programs that other higher education institutions have

implemented surrounding college access, our group found common themes amongst programs.

In reflecting and synthesizing the programs, the following themes emerged: mentorship,

student’s self-efficacy, and a focus on marginalized students.

Mentorship

Mentorship provides an opportunity for students to connect with others, find support, and

gain insight into structures and processes that are often unspoken. In many programs that focus

on college access work, mentorship was often a key component. The University of Washington’s

Dream Project had one of the most robust mentorship programs dedicated to improving college

access. Undergraduate students at the University of Washington complete service learning

credits by serving as a mentor for students in low-income middle and high schools within the

Seattle area. Once the mentorship relationship is established, University of Washington students

worked with their mentees to discuss financial aid, application, and career processes, all of which

can serve as barriers to college for students who may not know how to navigate through them

effectively. Similarly, Vanderbilt University’s Next Steps program utilizes mentorship as a

mechanism to help students with intellectual and developmental disabilities gain the academic,

career, and life skills necessary for success in a college setting. Other programs like the

University of Central Florida’s Leadership for Educational Attainment Developed through

Service program revisioned mentorship as an opportunity for middle and high school students to

gain leadership skills through social justice work.

Regardless of the specific focus of the mentorship program, many established college

access programs have found that mentorship serves an important role in helping students access
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higher education and succeed. Astin’s (1999) Theory of Student Involvement discusses how the

student’s time and effort is an important resource. The more time a student is engaged in

activities related to higher education, the more likely they will persist through challenges and

graduate (Astin, 1999). Mentorship focused on college access at the middle and high school level

aims to provide students with the ability to get involved in higher education, understand college

resources, learn ways to get involved on campus, and more. Additionally, mentorship allows the

mentees the ability to develop a sense of belonging at a higher education institution prior to

being able to apply, another factor that could determine whether students persist through to

graduation (Strayhorn, 2016). If the mentor and mentee are good matches for each other and

share common experiences and goals, students may feel inherently more comfortable going to

college because someone like them has found belonging and succeeded in that environment.

Focus on developing self-efficacy

Student’s self-efficacy is a skill that many college access programs focus on building.

The system of higher education is complex and is not built for students that are not self-sufficient

according to the standards determined by dominant culture. Many first-generation students who

come into higher education struggle with navigating the system because they have not been told

how to overcome issues and challenges that they experience, or where to seek the support.

Through reading about college access programs that other universities have implemented,

developing self-efficacy was a large component of the program.

The first program that seeks to build the self-efficacy of students is The College

Assistance Migrant Program at Washington State University. The program is dedicated to

assisting students from seasonal farmworker and migratory backgrounds succeed once at

Washington State University. The scholars join a cohort of students from similar backgrounds
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and are supplied with program specific tutors, advisors, and some financial assistance. Having

the peer and staff support immediately available for these students builds the self-efficacy of

students allowing them to reach out for support when needed. Self-efficacy also serves as a key

component for Columbia Basin College’s High School Academy program. The High School

Academy is geared towards students who have dropped-out of high school or are at-risk.

Students who elect to participate in the program gain their high school credits while attending

class on campus at Columbia Basin College. This program allows students to engage in the

college community, and feel like they are in an age-appropriate environment while finishing up

high school requirements. As opposed to students feeling like they are a failure attending class at

a high school campus at a much later age, attending class within a college environment while

finishing up high school requirements builds self-efficacy.

Developing self-efficacy begins with recognizing the skills that students come into the

program already possessing. Yosso’s (2005) Community Cultural Wealth theory states that

Communities of Color do possess key skills and knowledges that allow them to navigate,

overcome, and resist oppression. Recognizing the skills and experiences that students bring in

addition to continuing to build self-efficacy will help further prepare students for navigating

higher education effectively and successfully.

Focus on Marginalized Students

Due to limited resources and time, many college access programs were geared towards

specific groups of marginalized students. Programs that have a specialized focus are better

equipped to handle unique issues that could arise for students that participate in the program. The

Early Academic Outreach Program at the University of California, San Diego is dedicated to

helping underserved middle and high school students (typically first-generation) through
FINAL REPORT 14

admission workshops, college tours, college mentoring, and academic counselling to prepare to

enter the University of California school system. Vanderbilt University’s Next Steps program

focuses on supplying the specific resources needed for students with intellectual and

developmental challenges to attain higher education. The College Assistance Migrant Program

addresses the needs of students from migratory and seasonal farmworker backgrounds by

providing specialized support and resources.

Programs with a specific focus on students from a particular background will help aid in

reducing the cultural mismatch that students can feel without having a program in place that

supports them. Students that feel a cultural mismatch are more likely to not perform as well as

students that do not feel a cultural mismatch (Stephens, 2012). Programs that are geared towards

a particular student demographic not only can help reduce feelings of cultural mismatch, but also

help students recognize the capital they already possess. Programs like the College Assistance

Migrant Program where a cohort of students from similar backgrounds provides students the

opportunity to share experiences, aspirations, culture, languages, and more, all of which Yosso’s

(2005) Community Cultural Wealth describes as an important part of removing the deficit view

of Communities of Color.

Recommendations for Development and Implementation

Drawing upon the campus collaboration profile, literature review synthesis, and

promising practices, we have three recommendations that SUYI could further develop and

implement: multicultural competence curriculum and social justice training, comprehensive

mentorship program, and financial consideration.

Multicultural Competence Curriculum and Social Justice Training

Within college readiness programs such as AVID, multicultural competence is not

FINAL REPORT 15

always incorporated in the curriculum where educators are unprepared when working with

underrepresented students (Delgado, 2001). Teachers unintentionally enforce socialization of

dominate norms teaching students to assimilate in order to become successful in institutionalized

higher education (Brooks, 2018; Stanton-Salazar, 2004). For educators with the white savior

complex mindset, incorporation of the cultural capital that students bring into their curriculum is

nonexistent (Brooks, 2018; Stanton-Salazar, 2004; Yosso, 2005). To better equip educators to

work with diverse students, this recommendation requires teachers and administrators to

participate in regular social justice training to gain skills and knowledge that can be used to

create a multicultural competence curriculum.

By collaborating with Washington College Access Network, readily available resources

can be incorporated into social justice workshops. With Seattle University’s mission focusing on

social justice, faculty members will conduct these trainings through the lens of educating the

whole person for a just and humane world. However, we recognize that just being a faculty

member at Seattle University does not ensure multicultural competency. Therefore, we plan to

recruit faculty who have taken an initiative to educate themselves as demonstrated by attendance

at events such as Moral Mondays or Educating for Justice Gatherings. Additionally, we would

seek out faculty that serve on social justice committees or teach social justice classes. Through

the Interdisciplinary Liberal Studies program on campus, students can use skills from classes to

approach this real world problem of social justice education by helping to organize and develop

these trainings. By incorporating these partnerships, we can best provide trainings with the

resources that are already available within Seattle University.

To start, this training will begin after the school year ends consisting of four-hour

sessions per day for a total of three days. After the initial training, quarterly in-services will be
FINAL REPORT 16

held at the beginning of each quarter to ensure that mentors and facilitators are continuing to

learn and uphold appropriate standards with students. Both Pope, Reynolds, & Mueller’s (2004)

Multicultural Competence and Yosso’s (2005) theory of Community Cultural Wealth will be at

the core of these trainings guiding each session with a common purpose of utilizing these lens in

educational settings. In order for students to develop self-efficacy, an environment where all feel

welcomed, having access to different resources, as well as understanding the cultural capital that

each student brings is needed to ensure student success.

Comprehensive Mentorship Program

From discovering the positive benefits of mentorship within the literature review and

promising practices, we propose to implement a comprehensive mentorship program for middle

and high school students (Born, 2006; Hughes et al., 2010). Using inspiration from Minority

Serving Institutions such as Norfolk University and programs including Rainier Scholars, we

have developed a program that assigns a long-term mentor that aligns with student’s aspirations.

Bialka & Havlik (2016) emphasize how valuable it is for students to be connected with a mentor

with similar backgrounds, identities, and aspirations. This mentorship program aims to create

intentional relationships with individuals who have similar lived experiences. As key

stakeholders in promoting long-term student success, mentors use their own personal experiences

to provide support, assistance, and advice on the college process and how to best navigate higher

education while fostering a meaningful relationship (Born, 2006; Hughes, Boyd, & Dykstra,

2010).

Following Norfolk University’s cohort model, students will go through the entire year

gaining support from their assigned mentors (Conrad & Gasman, 2015). The mentors are

currently in college as undergraduate or graduate students and have been through this mentorship
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program themselves as mentees. As this program starts, we will open this opportunity to Seattle

University students who are interested in being mentors. This cohort model allows for mentors to

give back to the next generation while also understanding the experiences of these middle and

high school students. To ensure that mentors are prepared to work with students from a variety of

backgrounds, they will participate in social justice training as proposed in the previous

recommendation. By attending initial training and quarterly in-services, mentors will be provided

with the toolkit to facilitate relationships and best support students recognizing the cultural

capital each student brings (Yosso, 2005). Through this program, we plan to implement a

distance mentorship program for those who are not within the local region but still desire to have

a mentoring relationship with a student. Providing this option will not only increase participation

with mentors but also allow students to gain skills in maintaining an online professional and

personal relationship through skype, email, and other entities.

Within this comprehensive mentorship program, a holistic approach is used to not only

focus on building academic skills for college but also social components that impact a student’s

experience. Student success is measured by more than academics, but rather, as Strayhorn (2016)

emphasizes, that students who feel as “if they belong, fit in, matter, and are accepted as members

of the campus community excel in higher education.” Mentors are able to provide positive social

modeling where students can develop self-efficacy while gaining a sense of belonging in higher

education (Pugh & Tschannen-Moran, 2016; Strayhorn, 2016). This relationship with mentors

allows students to engage in activities related to higher education and learn about the

opportunities they have for involvement on campus reflecting their different identities to find a

place within the college community (Astin, 1999; Strayhorn, 2016).

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Financial Consideration

When implementing programs, financial barriers of college access should be considered

in providing opportunities for students of different backgrounds. For low-income, students of

color applying for college itself can be a barrier due to the cost (Gladieux, 2004; Luna De La

Rosa, 2006). Within our proposed program, we aim to address these barriers by providing

opportunities for fee waivers, financial aid workshops, and other opportunities in college access.

Through government support, fee waivers can be available for students in our program as well as

providing them with access to the knowledge to utilize those waivers and other financial aid

opportunities. Often times, students are unaware of the financial aid opportunities that are

available, which is a gap our program will address. Within college preparation programs, “little

mention is made of the critical goal of increasing awareness of college affordability and access to

financial aid, even though research shows that financial aid is critical for low-income students

and underrepresented students of color” (Luna De La Rosa, 2006). To prevent misperceptions

about college opportunity and financial aid, we will create workshops that present this

information in a way that allows students to take advantage of resources while partnering with

Washington College Access Network’s financial aid workshops.

By modeling after Rainier Scholars and reaching out to the resources they incorporate in

their program, we can work to create topical workshops, field trips, and retreats that would

diversify student experiences in and outside of the classroom. By collaborating with local

partnerships through SUYI with Bailey Gatzert Elementary School, Washington Middle School,

and Garfield High School, we will build off of the resources already available by coordinating

field trips with the ones that are already planned within the schools. Taking into consideration
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these financial components relates to our promising practice theme of focusing on marginalized

students and building self-efficacy.

Within our proposed multicultural competence curriculum, social justice training, and

mentorship program, we strive to address the enduring socioeconomic inequality in higher

education. The system of higher education is responsible for legitimizing, creating, and

maintaining hierarchies that continue the cycle of inequality by supporting the social

reproduction of typically affluent students (Armstrong & Hamilton, 2013; Bourdieu, 1987). This

is evident throughout socioeconomic status and within the cost of higher education which is why

we emphasize this financial consideration component. Using Bourdieu’s (1987) theory of Social

Reproduction as the framing, we can utilize the three types of capital: economic, cultural, and

social to shape our program and environment for students. In this way, this financial

consideration aspect allows educators to recognize the societal hierarchies and how education

contributes to inequality while providing college access opportunities for those who would not

be able to do so otherwise.

With AVID as our foundation, we recognize that although AVID is an effective program

for building academic skills, it is lacking in holistic resources and support. Implementing our

proposed recommendations of a multicultural competence curriculum and social justice training,

comprehensive mentorship program, and financial consideration in conjunction with AVID’s

foundation will allow students to better navigate higher education.

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Astin, A.W. (1999). Student involvement: A developmental theory for higher education. Journal

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Bernhardt, P. E. (2013). The advancement via individual determination (AVID) program:

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