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The relationship between living in impoverished neighborhoods and poor health is well established, but impacts of neighborhood stigma on health are not well understood. Drawing on long-term research with Latino immigrants, we examine how neighborhood stigma and social bonding affect health in Phoenix, Arizona. During preliminary ethnographic analysis, we developed a novel neighborhood stigma scale. In survey research, we examined effects of neighborhood stigma and social bonding on self-reported physical and mental health. Regression models show that perceived neighborhood stigma and low social bonding are associated with poorer physical and mental health, controlling for other factors.

The United States faces shortages of professionals in science, technology, engineering, and math enterprises, which are complicated by underrepresented minorities facing systemic barriers to their educational and career success. Addressing this, we used social cognitive career theory and critical consciousness to create a program named Poder (Spanish for “to be able to” and “power”). We analyzed interviews from 36 diverse community college students who experienced this 5-week program, which included mentoring and seed funding opportunities as they designed ventures addressing societal problems. Initial findings highlighted themes on how students developed and integrated critical consciousness, entrepreneurship self-efficacy, and technological understanding during Poder. Students displayed high expectations for entrepreneurship careers that leveraged technology to promote social change, as well as high expectations to persist through graduation and/or transfer to a 4-year university.

Study abroad and research experiences are proven high-impact pedagogical tools, but are rarely combined at scale. We integrated highly structured research experiences into short-term study abroad programs across multiple countries, then tested for longer term student perceived impacts. Based on qualitative and quantitative analysis of postgraduation data provided by 118 former participants, we identified positive self-reported impacts across a range of domains relevant to longer term academic and career success (e.g., professional connections, specific skills, worldview, and personal growth). Themes and subthemes were consistently similar by minority status, gender, and program locations. Inclusion of highly structured research experiences in short-term study abroad can provide additional value to students. The benefits would accrue most especially to women and minority students who have less on-campus access to traditional science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)-field research mentoring and are accordingly underrepresented in the research-career pipeline.