Turning Theory into Practice: "Bellarmine Pathways: Knights Lighting the Path for College Success"

In 2020, I completed an instrumental, multi-site case study examining the non-cognitive skills needed to persist in and graduate from college, using Lin’s (1999) social capital theory as a guiding framework. The bounds of the case study included one public school district and one public state university in a large, metropolitan area of the southeastern United States. The guiding research question was as follows: What non-cognitive skills do secondary teachers and post-secondary student success practitioners believe low-income, underrepresented minority students need for success in college? Based on the findings of the study, I created a program in the Center for Community Engagement at Bellarmine University which connects current Bellarmine students with middle and high school students in the local community to help share their lived experiences of navigating student success skills in college. The topics that guide these dialogues include health and wellness, financial literacy, identity, student involvement, communications, study skills, time management, and major/career exploration. This academic year alone, the Pathways program reached 150 Kentuckiana students. This presentation will begin with the theory and data and then shift to demonstrate how it can be intentionally applied with a focus on access and authenticity.