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The college success of Black women has often been narrowly defined by outcome data and does not consider some of the challenges they experience that are often racialized and gendered. Despite the increase in the number of Black women attending and graduating from college, few authors have highlighted the unique strategies that help facilitate their success. What remains unclear is how Black women define college success for themselves and what is necessary for them to thrive and survive in higher education. The purpose of this article is to garner insight from Black women alumnae about what facilitates college success. We present a letter-writing conceptual framework rooted in Black feminist theorizing as a way to elevate Black women’s knowledge. These letters offer a 60-year historical examination of advice by Black women for Black women. The data for this analysis came from a larger critical oral history project of 105 Black women that focused on reflections of their college experiences. The analysis combines Black feminist thought with Maya Angelou’s Letter to My Daughter as a conceptual framework. Findings emphasized that there is not one monolithic set of advice for Black women to be successful in college. The advice stands in contrast to the essentializing, monolithic ways in which Black women are represented in the literature. Implications may offer knowledge and support to future generations of Black college-going women and transform higher education regarding how institutions may support Black women on their campuses.

Background:Graduate education provides students with specialized skills needed to advance science and discovery and prepares future educators and role models for future generations of learners. Given the importance of graduate education, the estimate that more than half of the students who begin it do not complete their degrees is troubling. Existing scholarship suggests that this substantial attrition from graduate school is in part due to inadequate advising. To address this concern, it is important to examine students’ experiences with graduate advising.Purpose:This article presents a new model—the Model of Wholeness in Graduate Advising (MWGA)—that characterizes a range of students’ advising experiences. In so doing, it encourages faculty to move toward a more caring and wholeness-promoting framework in graduate advising.Research Design:To better understand the complexities of graduate advising and the various types of experiences—and relationships—that students have, desire, expect, and need to thrive both professionally and personally, this study included interviews with 42 Black male graduate students attending historically and predominantly White institutions (HPWIs). Thematic analysis revealed that students’ advising experiences included aspects of “ethics of care” (or degrees of care: whole, partial, empty). Iterative analysis of data led to the creation of the practice-informing model: the Model of Wholeness in Graduate Advising (MWGA).Findings:Although some students described experiencing positive interactions and teachable moments with their advisors, others painted pictures of demoralizing encounters and public shaming practices. Still others described advising experiences they did not have but would want. Accounting for this range, the MWGA denotes an upwardly moving relationship between degrees of care (i.e., empty, partial, whole) and students’ perceptions of their advising experiences and relationships (i.e., weak, basic, strong) in part shaped by students’ expectations for their advising experiences and relationships, and their lived experiences.Conclusions and Recommendations:The findings from this study, represented in the MWGA, illustrate theoretical linkages between students’ expectations of advising, the levels of their advising experiences and relationships, and degrees of care demonstrated by their advisors. Most notably, more elements of care tend to result in better lived advising experiences and relationships. For current and future faculty, moving toward a more caring and wholeness-promoting framework might start with recognizing the needs of students as whole people. Creating more caring advising experiences and developing more caring relationships may better assist students in progressing through degree completion, and doing so more fully whole.

The faculty-student relationship is one of the most influential relationships in a college student’s life. This is especially true for African American students. However, African American students ...

This critical qualitative study explores how Black women experienced friendships throughout college. Findings revealed that long-term friendships, primarily with other Students of Color, were both ...

This qualitative study examines the experiences of seven students who were selected to attend a summer bridge program (SBP) located in the U.S. Midwest. Utilizing semi-structured interviews and organizational socialization theory, the study illuminates students’ preconceived notions about what it means to be in an SBP, experiences while in the program, and how those experiences help facilitate a successful transition into the first year of college and beyond. Findings revealed that participating in the SBP positively influenced students’ college experiences and ultimately their persistence to graduation. Recommendations drawn from the study are offered to higher education staff and administrators interested in starting or improving summer bridge or similar programs.

In this commentary, we argue that social capital theory, the idea that membership in a group creates opportunities to acquire valuable information and resources from other group members, is a usefu...

Carmen M. McCallum shares her story of how deeply an arbitrary boundary line affected her life in order to challenge us to recognize, change, and cross the lines that disrupt our students’ success.