Pushing and Pulling Emerging Adults through College: College Generational Status and the Influence of Parents and Others in the First Year

Interview, survey, and academic transcript data with a diverse sample of first-generation college (FGC) and continuing generation college (CGC) premedical intended emerging adults are analyzed to study academic outcomes and any differences in the availability and use of social capital the first year of college. CGC students know many people with college degrees including those in careers they aspire to obtain, while FGC students do not. All students identify parents as very important forms of social capital who contribute to their success in college, but the types of support differs by educational background. Students whose parents have at least a bachelor’s degree (CGC) are “pulled” through their first year with specific advice from their parents about how to succeed in college, while FGC students are “pushed” by their parents with support. In addition, CGC students display evidence of enacting Lareau’s concept of concerted cultivation, being much more likely than FGC students to approach and gain assistance from professors, openly critiquing those professors and classes in which they are not doing well and showing a sense of entitlement to and confidence in their ability to stay on the premedical track, even when receiving low test scores

Homelessness and the Mobile Shelter System: Public Transportation as Shelter

Those without housing often use public space differently than those who are housed. This can cause dilemmas for and conflicts among public officials as guardians of public space and goods. In this paper, we look at one such utilisation of space from the perspective of those who board 24-hour public transportation routes and ride the bus all night for shelter. We describe the results of a preliminary survey, observations and informal conversations with unhoused riders on the bus over three nights in one county in the United States. We found that a substantial number of the unhoused riders we surveyed used the bus as their main form of night-time shelter throughout the year, and that some have ridden the bus for shelter for many years. Men were more likely to say that they used the bus to sleep, while women rode the bus for safety. While some unhoused riders also utilised shelters or did not know about other shelter options, many actively choose the bus over emergency shelters. The potential implications of the study for service providers, researchers and policy-makers are addressed

Self-Efficacy of First-Generation College Students and the Relationship to Academic Performance and College Adjustment

The authors examined whether self-efficacy mediated the relationship between generational status and 2 academic outcome indicators of 192 college students. A mediation effect was not found with either academic performance or college adjustment. However, high self-efficacy at the beginning of the year predicted better college adjustment at the end of the 1st year. For college students in general, high self-efficacy was related to better college adjustment. Recommendations for counselors are discussed

Undocumented: The Stress of Status

From 2010 to 2012 researchers from Fairfield University, Loyola University Chicago, and Santa Clara University talked to students who were undocumented and attending Jesuit colleges. The project culminated in a book, Undocumented and in College: Students and Institutions in a Climate of National Hostility (Fordham University Press, 2017)

Moving Beyond the Client Role: Helping Human Service Organizations Identify Program Participant’s Assets

Human service agencies have traditionally provided services to a population considered in need of those services. Program participants are often seen solely as passive recipients of food, housing, health care, case management, etc. However, community developers, program evaluators, human service/development staff and administrators, as well as researchers are finding that involving program participants in the planning and administration of programs and research results in better programs, program utilization, and empowerment of program participants (Nichols 2002; Papineau and Kiely 1996)

Public Sociology

Public sociology refers to the application and uses of sociology beyond the academy. The term has been used very broadly to describe any sociological theory, methods, research findings, or commentary by sociologists that are consumed (and, ideally, used) by non-sociologists. Its central aim is to correct - that is, to make better, social conditions for the betterment of humanity (Hanemaayer and Schneider 2014: 5). Public sociology has also been referred to more specifically as an approach sociologists use to participate in public discussions about social issues as public intellectuals (Burawoy 2005). This chapter focuses on public sociology in its broadest definition, as the sharing of sociological lessons with publics beyond sociologists, and includes a range of activities from publishing opinion pieces to daily work .in government, organizations, court rooms, classrooms, and communities around the world. Because many of the published works about public sociology are in response to the US-based Burawoy and the ASA, this chapter privileges the North American context