Understanding How First-Generation, African American, Women, Undergraduate Students Navigate Their Collegiate Experience Through Cocurricular Programs At One Ivy Institution

Understanding How First-Generation, African American, Women, Undergraduate Students Navigate Their Collegiate Experience Through Cocurricular Programs At One Ivy Institution

This dissertation is a phenomenological study of how eight first-generation African American undergraduate women at an Ivy League institution used cocurricular programs as support networks to navigate their collegiate experience. First-generation African American women attending predominantly White institutions experience unique adjustment, compared to other college students and work harder to create their own social and cultural networks in the larger college community (Constantine & Watt, 2002). Examined in the research are the lived experiences of eight first-generation African American women to understand how they used cocurricular programs to successfully navigate their matriculation at an Ivy institution. This study was designed to discuss the skills and strategies they learned and used from their cocurricular involvement, and their recommendations to enhance and strengthen their collegiate experience. Using the frameworks of critical race theory, sense of belonging, and Black feminist theory, the researcher analyzed and coded participant interview responses and explored how these women negotiated and managed their multiple identities at an Ivy institution. Three themes emerged from the research questions: (a) cocurricular involvement, (b) development of skills and strategies, and (c) creating belongingness and inclusiveness. Subthemes from each question were a lens into participants’ unique perspectives on how they managed, negotiated, and thrived in communities they created for themselves at an elite Ivy institution setting. Understanding these students’ lived experiences during their matriculation at an Ivy League institution will provide meaning to African American women’s individual and group role in higher education. The findings provide recommendations for Ivy institutions to be intentional about creating inclusive spaces to address issues and challenges African American women manage for their successful navigation. Results of this study contribute to the literature on understanding how first-generation African American undergraduate women navigate and make meaning of their collegiate experience through cocurricular programs at an Ivy League institution.

Wallace, Paryn A. M.

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English

Dissertation