Student-Initiated Research, Consequences, Peer Mentors, and Finding the Hope Inside for MilleniGenZ Students during the COVID-19 Years

Abstract

The Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR) at Cal Poly Pomona explored factors contributing to student enrollment and engagement, especially for MilleniGenZ students. The research was built on the latest evidence that college students who engaged in research along with faculty mentoring and team collaboration were more able to persist in their studies than their peers who did not participate in similar activities. Most important for OUR was testing if participation was equitable by race, gender, and income categories in COVID-19 years (2020-2022) as compared with non-COVID-19 years (2016-2019). The study used quantitative analysis of the public record, qualitative review of student reflections, and open-ended interviews with peer mentors during the COVID-19 years of 2020 through 2022. As a result of our process, this is a convergent mixed methods design, which enabled the researchers to triangulate the findings and develop a deeper understanding of the research question: How well did diverse students navigate their college studies in uncertain circumstances?