Doctor of Philosophy, University of Toledo, 2021, History

The present study traces the influences of women students, and the “woman question,” on Western Reserve College during its most critical period of transformation during the Gilded Age. In addition, I also aim to build a second, parallel story: the creation of one of the pioneer coordinate colleges for women in the United States: the Western Reserve University's College for Women. I argue that women students and the question of their presence at Western Reserve College were a significant and integral force behind institutional and campus environment changes in the last quarter of the 19th century, and propelled the transformation of the college into an urban university. Women's presence left traces on at least four critical areas: the campus environments, the college's relationship with the surrounding educational network, institutional change and college reform, and town-gown dynamics. The attempts to accommodate the “woman question” led to the major shifts in co-educational and coordinate approaches as Western Reserve College transformed itself from a small liberal arts college into an urban university. With this study, I join revisionist interpretations of the history of women's presence in colleges and universities in the Gilded Age, employing a lens that looks at women as an axis of institutional change.

Committee: Kim Nielsen Ph.D. (Committee Chair) Subjects: Education; Gender; Higher Education; History; Urban Planning; Womens Studies

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2015, Leadership and Change

This study is a leadership biography which provides, through the lens of Black feminist thought, an alternative view and understanding of the leadership of Black women. Specifically, this analysis highlights ways in which Black women, frequently not identified by the dominant society as leaders, have and can become leaders. Lessons are drawn from the life of Anna Julia Cooper that provides new insights in leadership that heretofore were not evident. Additionally, this research offers provocative recommendations that provide a different perspective of what leadership is among Black women and how that kind of leadership can inform the canon of leadership. Cooper's voice in advocacy, education, community service, and involvement in the Black Women's Club Movement are the major themes in which evidence of her leadership is defined. This leadership biography moves beyond the western hegemonic point of view and the more traditional ways of thinking about leadership, which narrowly identify effective leaders and ways of thinking about leadership development. The findings of this study propose an alternative view of leadership that calls attention to the following critical elements: 1. Black women carry the co-identifers, gender and race, which continue to be nearly nonexistent in leadership theories, discourse, and mainstream leadership literature. 2. The positivist view, as being the only legitimate knowledge claim, must continue to be challenged. 3. There is a need to correct and update our history, making it more inclusive of all human beings. This leadership biography centers on the notion that Cooper, as a quintessential leader, remains paradoxical. For the most part, she continues to be an unknown figure to most Americans, both Black and White. Yet, remnants of Cooper's ideology and leadership are prolific. It is precisely this dissonance between Cooper the undervalued figure and Cooper the scholar/activist leader that is being analyzed in this study. Under (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Jon Wergin Ph.D (Committee Chair); Laurien Alexandre Ph.D (Committee Member); Barbara Nevergold Ph.D (Committee Member) Subjects: Adult Education; African American Studies; African Americans; American History; Biographies; Black History; Black Studies; Continuing Education; Education; Education Philosophy; Educational Leadership; Gender; Gender Studies; Higher Education; History; Womens Studies

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2013, EDU Policy and Leadership

The purpose of this research is to provide an understanding of the financial strategy and shortcomings of The Ohio State University (OSU) in the early 1900s. It focuses on key moments in educational philanthropy, particularly endowment building, at OSU, with comparisons to the University of Michigan (U-M), and occasionally Harvard University. Located in the center of the midwestern state of Ohio, OSU might be considered a quintessential public university, facing challenges comparable to other colleges and universities. This dissertation draws on extensive original source material from OSU's archives to show the dynamic interplay of university leaders in making key financial decisions. A variety of other primary and secondary sources from both OSU and U-M are also used. The chronological narrative presents the slow and halting journey of OSU toward private fundraising, endowment building, and the creation of the OSU Development Fund. To provide background, discussions on the land grant movement and the founding of OSU are included, as well as a description of the Ohio economy in the early 1900s. Key findings in this research are as follows. In the 1920s, Ohio State University was in a prime position to make great strides in fundraising and in building its endowment. Ohio was a relatively wealthy state, and several other universities had previously and prominently demonstrated how to begin and conduct fundraising campaigns, including annual alumni campaigns at Harvard and Yale. OSU had merely to keep pace with its contemporaries, such as the University of Michigan, to reach prosperity. But despite the factors working in its favor, OSU actually fell rapidly behind in fundraising and endowment building during the period from 1920 to 1940. Notwithstanding the difficult economic climate of the Great Depression, other universities forged ahead in fundraising through this period. OSU's alumni leaders pushed heavily for progress in fundraising for over a decade before signif (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Bruce Kimball Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Bryan Warnick Ph.D. (Committee Member); Ann Allen Ph.D. (Committee Member); Robert Lawson Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Adult Education; Comparative; Economic History; Economics; Education; Education Finance; Education History; Education Philosophy; Education Policy; Educational Leadership; Higher Education; Higher Education Administration; History

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2009, History

This study explores the evolution of policies on access to university education in Kenya between 1949 and 2002. The process of democratizing access during the period under study proceeded unevenly due to the changing economic and political dynamics that conversely affected the university policies. The first twenty years of university experience in East Africa, between 1949 and 1969, witnessed very modest gains in access to university. During this period, the colonial inter-territorial policy severely limited access to university. The inter-territorial university policy was initiated by the British as part of the colonial reform efforts aimed at creating a new kind of imperial partnership with the subject people in the post Second World War world. The implementation of the inter-territorial policy in East Africa led to the establishment of the University of East Africa with three university colleges of Makerere in Uganda, Dar-es-Salaam in Tanganyika and Nairobi in Kenya. Britain insisted on the inter-territorial policy in the late 1950s and early 1960s even when it was apparent that it planned to grant independence to its East African colonies territorially. This study shows that the inter-territorial policy was a mechanism to ensure the continuation of British influence in East Africa in the post independence period. The realities of independence, however, conflicted with the principles that underlay the inter-territorial policy. The increasing demand for more university opportunities by East Africans put pressure on their governments towards expansion of institutional facilities. Consequently, the East African governments responded by discontinuing the inter-territorial policy in 1969, allowing for the creation of national universities. The Kenyan government established the University of Nairobi and its constituent, Kenyatta University College in 1970. For the next two years, Kenya witnessed tremendous expansion of university enrollment. But beginning in 1973, th (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Apollos Nwauwa (Committee Chair); Lillian Ashcraft-Eason (Committee Member); Douglas Forsyth (Committee Member); Kefa Otiso (Other) Subjects: African History; Black History; Education; Education History; Higher Education; History

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2024, Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services: Educational Studies

In the context of United States (U.S.) education policy, Black erasure refers to a policy tool the racial majority has historically leveraged to preserve the social benefit of education for white people. In this three-article dissertation, I probe the lineage of Black erasure in education policy from the 1600s to the present day to build an understanding of its modern-day implications for the aims of higher education and underrepresented minority (URM) students' perceptions of their success. In the opening chapter, I lay the blueprint for my dissertation, describing the foundation of my research agenda and, as such, my three articles. In the first article, I theorize how Executive Order 13950 and educational gag orders, the modern era of Black erasure in education policy, interferes with the aims of higher education. I argue these aims include providing learning opportunities, preparing individuals to contribute to the workforce, and assisting people in contributing to our democracy. I conclude by discussing how the modern era of Black erasure most weakens the democratic purpose of higher education, endangering academic freedom for faculty, staff, and students. Notably, this article is now published in the Journal of Academic Freedom. In the second article, I theorize and conceptualize how whiteness has historically functioned as a property in U.S. state education policy and weaponized Black erasure as a policy tool. Using critical race theory (CRT) and critical policy analysis, I trace slave codes, anti-literacy laws, Jim Crow Laws, bans on multicultural education, and educational gag orders. Upon examining the origins and rhetoric of the policies, I bring forth a framework for understanding Black erasure in U.S. state education policy and consider implications for policy and advocacy. In the final co-authored article, written by myself, Courtney Gilday, Amy Farley, Ph.D., and Chris Swoboda, Ph.D., we analyze how Black erasure policies in leg (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Amy Farley Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Mark Sulzer Ph.D. (Committee Member); Miriam Raider-Roth Ed.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Education Policy

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2019, EDU Policy and Leadership

Many believe that farmers were originally supportive of the land-grant colleges because of the focus on agricultural science as part of the land-grant curriculum. Although land-grant colleges and farmers are generally aligned in their interests and efforts today, the farmers of the 1850s-early 1900s actually challenged the land-grant colleges for control of governance and funding. Often these challenges occurred between farmers and colleges in Congress and state legislatures. Meanwhile, the alumni were a disorganized group prior to the 1910s that often challenged the university administration's authority and control of the college. Yet, in order to compete with the farmers, the land-grant colleges needed to identify a group of advocates who would lobby legislatures on the land-grant colleges behalf. My research focuses on how one institution, the Ohio State University, used its alumni to parry the attacks of farmers in the early 1910s. Research has been limited on the relationship between the land-grant universities' administration, farmers, and the alumni. Even more limited is the literature that exists about alumni relations during the formative years of the profession (1890-1920). My research identifies how the Ohio State University established authority over the disparate alumni groups in order to use the alumni as advocates in Congress and the state legislature to combat the farmers.

Committee: Bruce Kimball (Advisor); David Staley (Committee Member); Tatiana Suspitsyna (Committee Member); Bryan Warnick (Committee Member) Subjects: Higher Education; Higher Education Administration; History

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2018, Educational Studies

What is the role of higher knowledge and education in molding the individual and in creating certain attributes of the individual? The attributes of the individual in question are derived from Marx and they signify an individual who is autonomous, free and capable to determine her own future and discover and actualize her own kinds of needs in the process of human development. I have labeled these attributes as the Marxian attributes of the individual. This study explores various components of the philosophy of education from Classical Marxism to Early Soviet Marxism and to Enver Hoxha. By analyzing the role of the revolution, praxis, and social structures that foster education such as the state, the party, the school, and the family in Hoxha's Veprat, this research provides a rich understanding of the philosophy of education, and the Marxian attributes of the individual within it. An analysis of Hoxha's writings has demonstrated that Hoxha undertook a revolution and constructed an idea of education to thwart the Marxian attributes of the individual which he found threatening. However, his idealistic idea/goal of revolution and education which had a planned outcome was incapable to eliminate these attributes. I have argued this to be justifiable because higher education and higher knowledge foster and develop the Marxian attributes of the individual which stand in contrast to a form of education and revolution that has an end in mind, and hence it undermined Hoxha's revolution. Hoxha's experience warns that higher learning cannot co-exist with a form/idea of education that has a determined end in mind, because, by definition, it will undermine it.

Committee: Bryan Warnick (Advisor) Subjects: East European Studies; Education; Education History; Education Philosophy; Education Policy; Educational Psychology; Educational Theory; Ethics; European History; Higher Education; Pedagogy; Philosophy; Political Science; Science Education

PHD, Kent State University, 2014, College of Education, Health and Human Services / School of Foundations, Leadership and Administration

This dissertation study grew out of several interrelated issues in U.S. higher education: (1) the corporatization of higher education; (2) the steady growth in the numbers of part-time and full-time non-tenure track faculty, known collectively as contingent faculty, which has resulted in a two-tiered workforce in academe; (3) the disturbingly large numbers of women who often occupy these low-paying positions, especially in what have now become feminized disciplines; and (4) the rise in a hearty activist movement among contingent faculty, including union organizing and coalition building, that seeks to transform academic labor practices. The confluence of these factors has led some contingent women faculty members into activism, often at the national level, in hopes of reforming higher education teaching conditions and altering the narrative on contingent faculty. My study, a feminist oral history, seeks to understand their experiences. The epistemological and methodological stance for this study was qualitative and feminist; the study was shaped by emancipatory paradigms to raise awareness of the hierarchies that exist to marginalize contingent faculty, especially women in the humanities. Two research questions were explored: First, how do contingent women faculty members describe their process of becoming activists, especially the personal and contextual factors that impacted this process? Second, how do the situations described by contingent women faculty activists align with feminist conceptualizations of power? To address question #1, I turned to bricolage, using qualitative coding methods in conjunction with narrative analysis and feminist methodologies. Nine themes were identified in the findings which simultaneously point to the development of the interviewees as activists and to their marginalization in academia. To answer question #2, I examined how situations described by the contingent women faculty activists line up with feminist modaliti (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Susan Iverson Ed.D. (Advisor) Subjects: Higher Education; Higher Education Administration; Womens Studies

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2002, International Studies - Latin America

This paper will describe the opportunities for higher education in Brazil since the colonial period (1500-2000). It will show the creation of the first institutions of higher education in Brazil and their proliferation in time. In addition, this paper will also provide information about access to elementary and secondary education in order to analyze its impact on access to higher education. It will focus on the long-lasting reduced access to higher education depicting its restriction to segments of the Brazilian society in the basis of race and social class.

Committee: Thomas Walker (Advisor) Subjects: Education, Higher

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2004, Higher Education Administration

As women entered higher education, positions were created to address their specific needs. In the 1890s, the position of dean of women proliferated, and in 1903 groups began to meet regularly in professional associations they called conferences of deans of women. This study examines how and why early deans of women formed these professional groups, how those groups can be characterized, and who comprised the conferences. It also explores the degree of continuity between the conferences and a later organization, the National Association of Deans of Women (NADW). Using evidence from archival sources, the known meetings are listed and described chronologically. Seven different conferences are identified: those intended for deans of women (a) Of the Middle West, (b) In State Universities, (c) With the Religious Education Association, (d) In Private Institutions, (e) With the Association of Collegiate Alumnae, (f) With the Southern Association of College Women, and (g) With the National Education Association (also known as the NADW). Each of the conferences is analyzed using seven organizational variables: membership, organizational structure, public relations, fiscal policies, services and publications, ethical standards, and affiliations. Individual profiles of each of 130 attendees are provided, and as a group they can be described as professional women who were both administrators and scholars, highly-educated in a variety of disciplines, predominantly unmarried, and active in social and political causes of the era. The primary conclusions are: There was little continuity between the conferences and the NADW; the nature of the professional groups and the profiles of the deans of women suggest that the profession underwent a change around 1920; and the careers and lives of the early deans of women were filled with important accomplishments, and are worthy of study. A deeper understanding of the early deans of women and their professional activities can inform research (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Michael Coomes (Advisor) Subjects:

Master of Education (MEd), Bowling Green State University, 1965, Curriculum and Teaching

Committee: Charles Young (Advisor) Subjects: Higher Education; History; Secondary Education

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 1941, Higher Education Administration

Committee: H. C. Witherington (Advisor) Subjects: Higher Education; Industrial Arts Education

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Toledo, 2021, Foundations of Education - Educational History

This study explores the changing mission statements of the University of Toledo and how those changes impacted the social contract between the University and city of Toledo. Specially, the study engages in historical and documental analysis and investigates three major moments in the history of the University of Toledo when Toledoans engaged significantly with the formation of the academic mission. The three events include: the transition from a manual training school to a full-fledged municipal university, the conversion from a municipal to state institution, and the merger with the Medical University of Ohio. This study is grounded in the theory of social contracts which issued as a framework for examining the reciprocal relationship of the public good found between higher education and society. This study shows the mission of the University and its direction influenced the social contract, which changed over time. Toledoans reacted to changes the Board of Trustees and University President communicated to the public. However, Toledoans used their voices and their vote to attempt to influence the direction of the institution, academic program offerings, university expansion, and how the university handled issues regarding diversity and inclusion. Toledoans and the University also both worked to promote the social contract. The University promoted the economic, industrial, social, and cultural connection points often touting the best the city of Toledo had to offer in the University bulletin or catalog. Toledoans also supported the university regarding academic, student, and community programming. Finally, the evidence suggests social contracts have to be actively maintained by the university because the university is the dominate partner, but when the University of Toledo engages Toledoans reciprocate.

Committee: Edward Janak Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Snejana Slantcheva-Durst Ph.D. (Committee Member); Christopher Broadhurst Ph.D. (Committee Member); Dale Snauwaert Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Education History

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2020, History

This dissertation examines Black Power era student activism in Virginia and North Carolina from 1965 to 1975. Critical masses of Black students ushered in Black Power politics on historically white college campuses across the Upper South as the 1960s drew to a close. The Black students who desegregated the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Virginia in the late 1960s arrived at their respective campuses with an ideological militancy rooted in southern Black communities. This project examines how Black Power student activists sought to challenge white supremacy at each state's flagship university and ultimately altered higher education. This change is evident in the creation of Black Studies programs and other institutions geared toward African American experiences. Moreover, their presence, protests, and political platforms stirred massive shifts in higher education, including more inclusive policies as well as the intense expansion of university administrations. Identifying the symbiotic connection between community ties and individual political consciousness highlights the many ways in which Black power politics, though often presented as an ideological break, firmly reflects the tenants and practices of the larger Black freedom struggle. Those students and their activism model the importance and potential of people power.

Committee: Hasan Jeffries (Advisor); Leslie Alexander (Committee Member); Clay Howard (Committee Member) Subjects: African American Studies; African Americans; Black History; Black Studies; History

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), University of Dayton, 2016, Educational Leadership

The purpose of this study was to explore students' experience of the Catholic and Marianist culture at the University of Dayton. Higher education institutions hold a unique niche in United States culture and colleges transmit culture. Student development theories suggest that students progress through stages of development and there is a hierarchy of environmental influence of students' development. Both bodies of knowledge were backdrops for this study of the meanings one group of 23 seniors at a Catholic and Marianist University made of their four-year experiences. Transcripts of individual, face to face interviews and written follow up questions were analyzed in this qualitative study grounded in frameworks of life history and ethnographic interviewing. Findings include students' trajectory of experience, their perceptions of the culture at UD, and the values and ideals their experience reflected. Dominant were the dynamics of diversity, strong cultural mores based on the values of respect, and the perception of UD's culture as a bubble. Implications for the University of Dayton's role in a competitive higher education market are drawn. Students' voices revealed UD's Catholic and Marianist mission is distinct, it shapes the culture and students' learning, and it remains an ideal which has not yet been fully realized.

Committee: Carolyn Ridenour Ed.D (Committee Chair) Subjects: Higher Education; Higher Education Administration

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2009, Higher Education (Education)

African American female college presidents represent a unique population within the leadership of higher education; however, their leadership, management styles and their contributions to higher education are understudied. A study of this population is particularly important for several reasons. First, it provides a framework for understanding the leadership potential and management style of African Americans in higher education. Second, it contributes to the limited knowledge base of African American women leaders in higher education from the early 19th and 20th centuries. Third, this research provides insight into an understudied aspect of Mary McLeod Bethune's life: her presidency of Bethune Cookman University.This study is a historical analysis of Mary McLeod Bethune's leadership as a college president. It tests Jones' (1991) finding that African American female presidents exhibit the characteristics of transformational leadership. Jones' findings related to African American women presidents in early twentieth century society. The study explored Bethune's leadership in three major areas of her presidency: academic/curriculum, financial, and personnel management. The researcher sought to determine whether Bethune's leadership style reflected transformational or transactional leadership as defined by James MacGregor Burns, Bernard Bass, and Bruce Avolio. Avolio and Yammarino's four “I's,” and three factors of transactional leadership were used as the primary analytical framework for the interpretations of transformational or transactional leadership.

Committee: Robert B. Young (Committee Chair); Peter Mather (Committee Member); Dafina Stewart (Committee Member); Tom Duncan (Committee Member) Subjects: Higher Education

BA, Oberlin College, 1988, History

In searching for the first Jewish student at Oberlin College, I discovered and subsequently researched the life of, 1920 graduate Marion Benjamin Roth who started the Oberlin branch of the Menorah Society, a Jewish literary and cultural group. Mrs. Roth, whom I interviewed, started the group because she was concerned about the environment for Jewish students. In letters to Rabbi Wolsey in Cleveland she discussed her perceptions of life for Jewish students at Oberlin soon after her arrival. Marion Benjamin later reflected that Jewish students needed to have "some place that they could get together if they wanted; to discuss problems, if they had any, and to be together for a holiday. Eventually Rabbi Wolsey spoke at Oberlin. More importantly, Marion Benjamin proposed starting an Oberlin branch of the Menorah Society. In April 1918 the college faculty voted its approval for the formation of the "Menorah Association." Unfortunately, the Oberlin branch didn't last much beyond 1920 when Marion Benjamin graduated. Throughout my research on Mrs. Roth, the question of the history of Jewish students at Oberlin kept surfacing. The concerns she raised about the situation for Jewish students at Oberlin piqued my interest and I submitted a proposal to do an independent research project on the topic. My proposal was approved and in the beginning of 1988 I began researching the history of Jews at Oberlin. The paper is divided into eleven section. To put the experiences of Jewish students at Oberlin in some perspective I will first highlight American Jewish history since the turn of the century, focusing particularly on Jews and education. The rest of the paper will focus on Oberlin. In section two I will examine Oberlin's religious foundation, particularly the general aims of the college since its inception, and in section three I will look at the institutional material on application and admission trends. This material is fascinating as it shows the transformation of a small li (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Carol Lasser (Advisor); Geoff Blodgett (Advisor) Subjects: Education; Educational Sociology; History; Judaic Studies; Sociology

BA, Oberlin College, 2008, Sociology

The aim of this honors thesis was to compare the first-year and transfer student experience during orientation at Oberlin College in the Fall of 2007. The research aimed to examine a population that is not typically included in conceptualizing college orientation, to understand how transfer students and first-years differently experience the freshman-centric atmosphere on-campus during orientation and to provide a complete outline of how orientation can best support all new students. The transfer student during orientation represents a blending of first-year and upperclassman characteristics because they must experience the first-year-centric environment but they have previous college experience. How can the transfer student population be best served during orientation at Oberlin College?

Committee: Daphne John (Advisor); Pawan Dhingra (Committee Member); Clovis White (Committee Member) Subjects: Higher Education; Sociology

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2010, Higher Education Administration

This study examined the gendered nature of the student affairs profession by investigating how three student affairs professional associations, the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA), ACPA: College Student Educators International, and the Association of College and University Housing Officers International (ACUHO-I) handled issues of gender equity. The founding of each association was reviewed using archival information from the National Student Affairs Archives. After a review of the archival data, a profile was created for each of the three associations. Interviews were conducted with 13 participants who were members of one or more of the associations and had served in an elected or appointed leadership position. The participants provided insight into the current issues of gender equity faced in the associations. The study employed a constructivist epistemology featuring the co-construction of knowledge. Thus, the archival data for each of the associations and the participants' interview data were considered in the process of data analysis and interpretation. The following categories emerged from the analysis of the interview data: gender equity, the messages received about gender, delegation of roles and responsibilities, policies and procedures used within the organizations, and perceptions of the symbols, images and artifacts used within each association. Implications for practice related to the development of organizational culture, maintaining the history of student affairs associations, and role modeling for undergraduate students are presented

Committee: Dafina Lazarus Stewart PhD (Committee Chair); Ruben Viramontez Anguiano PhD (Committee Member); Michael D. Coomes EdD (Committee Member); Robert DeBard EdD (Committee Member) Subjects: Gender; Higher Education; Womens Studies

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2009, Leadership Studies

Research shows that there is a low number of Asian American women administrators in higher education institutions across the United States. The purpose of this life history study was to explore the lives of Asian Pacific American (APA) women in administration in predominately White public and private institutions of higher education in the Midwest. More specifically the study focused on the roles of mentoring and family support, and how they may have enhanced the professional lives of APA women.Five APA female middle level higher education administrators in the Midwest took part in the study. Data was collected from individual interviews with follow up questions and clarification via email. Data was then analyzed cross participants. Findings revealed that mentoring was a beneficial tool. The participants believed that their advancement in their careers was assisted by their mentors. Moreover, gender of the mentor did not make a difference in mentoring. Given the option to be mentored, these APA women were willing to take it. Findings also revealed that family was a support system for APAs. Family was found to be encouraging and supportive. Family (parents) not only emphasized education and hard work, but had high expectations. Themes which emerged from the data include political or civil rights involvement, enjoyment of living in the Midwest, the Asian American generation and mentoring. Recommendations for further research and leadership are also discussed.

Committee: Patrick Pauken (Advisor); Mark A. Earley (Committee Member); Patricia A. Groves (Committee Member); Judy Jackson May (Committee Member); Ruben Viramontez Anguiano (Committee Member) Subjects: Education; Gender; Higher Education