Making hidden resources visible in a minority serving college context

Navigating pathways of higher education means uncovering hidden "rules" about how to be successful in university systems that privilege dominant ways of knowing. To unpack these rules, universities have attempted a range of approaches from enrolling students in semester-long courses focused on the transition to college to more cost-effective psychological interventions that use stories to highlight pathways for navigating the transition. These cost-effective approaches are of increased interest to universities and effective in promoting student outcomes. Yet, their effects have mostly been examined in predominantly White institutions leaving open the question of how to tailor these interventions in less-resourced institutions serving a more diverse student body. We examined the effect of making these hidden resources known in concrete ways and of contextualizing these resources with student stories through a scalable online video-based assignment.

Across 2 large-scale experiments at a minority serving institution, participants watched either resource videos only or resource videos coupled with students' stories.

Compared to a no-treatment control group, we found that first-generation-to-college students benefited from receiving both types of resource information. Continuing-generation-to-college students benefited the most when resources were coupled with student stories.

We speculate that first-generation students at minority serving institutions have concrete concerns that need to be addressed alongside identity and social belonging needs. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).