This research examined the use of culturally responsive teaching for underrepresented and/or first-generation, low-income students who are in the ISU McNair Program and graduate school bound. The implementation of culturally responsive learning allowed the integration and mastering of the scientific research process and development of a sociopolitical consciousness, in order to prepare the students for graduate school success. Through a hands-on and team-based pedagogical approach, the scholars created academic research projects focused on Impostor Syndrome, stereotype threat, and barriers to first-generation doctoral students in an effort to critically examine their existence in higher education, as well as increase their knowledge of the research process
