Career & Major Inquiry Group Phase 3

The Problem

From August 2019 to May 2020, inquiry participants analyzed institutional data and interviewed close to 200 students at PCC. They learned that students of color face unique challenges to gain access to the necessary support systems in and outside of their institution. They face unnecessary policies and institutional bureaucracies that eat their time instead of creating smooth pathways to academic and occupational resources and successes.

Our Big Idea

PCC must radically change the way faculty and staff engage with students to be able to nurture students and their families and to support them to thrive in college and in the labor market. We aim to help PCC think of capabilities and agency rather than serving and managing the needs of students. Our idea is to help PCC develop a new prototype of working for students based on their current skills at work, assets, desires, and dreams.

Testing the Idea

Identification of various sub-groups of vulnerable students is key to the success of our project. We must make every effort to understand students’ experiences holistically and improve their educational and economic success. We plan to use institutional data (course-level, financial aid, etc.), surveys (to learn more about students’ work histories), and qualitative data (including observations and interviews) to map students’ academic and occupational trajectories. We will rely on mixed-methods social network analytic (SNA) techniques to examine the extensity of students’ networks as well as the content and meaning of the ties that they are forming over time. In sum, we will create an institutional dataset that allows researchers, leaders, and practitioners to holistically understand students’ experiences at PCC.

From “Using Combinations of Love, Tech, and Empathy to Improve the Economic Opportunity of PCC Students,” Rios Aguilar, January 2020

Career and Major

In August 2019, Dr. Rios Aguilar introduced the book, Radical Help, by Hillary Cottam, which she referenced throughout phase 3.

In September 20119, 30 full and adjunct faculty serving as career community faculty leads joined the inquiry. 

In October 2019, Ms. Natacha Cesar-Davis, began to share qualitative data she had collected from 38 African American and Latinx students that described their experiences at PCC and their process for choosing a career and major.

Financial Aid

DIG participants discussed financial barriers to academic success and the disproportionate impact they have on students of color.

Manuel Cerda, Director of the Office of Financial Aid, presented to the group and discussed his office’s efforts to increase students’ completion of the financial aid application process.

Dr. Rios Aguilar, two graduate students (Fernando Garcia and Austin Lyke), and Brock Klein met regularly with Mr. Cerda and Financial Aid staff in September and October, 2019 to discuss PCC’s financial aid processes.

Dr. Rios Aguilar also met with Athletes, Puente, and Ujima coordinators to develop a communication plan to increase their students’ completion of the financial aid application process.

Planning was underway to conduct a data mining project to identify financial aid need and status, with Peter Dwight (OIE) and Austin Lyke (UCLA) as leads.

Full-time/Part-time Enrollment

In fall 2019, inquiry participants began to discuss the challenges faced by part-time students and resources and services that may increase their completion of important milestones.

UCLA participants worked with Brock Klein and Shelagh Rose (DIG participant and Career Community Faculty Lead) to develop a phone survey intended to be implemented in the first week of March 2020.

Dan Huynh (OIE) provided data on full-time/part-time status and stop-outs over 16 terms (four years, four terms/year).