Projects
Current Projects
Thriving Neighbors
The research team has developed community relationships within Thriving Neighbors, working to develop a project that will address community concerns related to involuntary smoke exposure in the home and neighborhood. Thriving Neighbors focuses on 5 primarily Latina/o neighborhoods that make up the Greater Washington community in San Jose, CA. The partnership links the community and university together in high-impact community-engaged projects that yield mutually beneficial outcomes. The team has begun examining existing needs assessment data and conducting focus groups.
Intragroup Marginalization
Intragroup marginalization refers or within-group marginalization captures the cultural distance or alienation that can occur when an individual deviates from cultural norms and expectations. Our team has been committed to exploring the impacts of intragroup marginalization on Latina/o educational and health outcomes. Publications and presentations related to this research can be found here.
LEAD
The LEAD Scholars Program is a program for first-generation college students, which focuses on academic success and community engagement. The program was recently awarded $1 million from the Koret Foundation to expand the program. Our research team has worked with the LEAD program to examine alumni experience to inform program development and expansion.
Student Debt
Recently, national attention and policy efforts have focused on the effects of student loan debt pre and post graduation. As student loan debt amasses during college, it can exacerbate financial stress and erode the perceived benefits of a college degree (i.e., return on investment), ultimately disrupting academic performance and degree completion. This project is in the early stages of investigating, beginning with baseline data collection of college freshmen.