Bryn Mawr College
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Political Science and Education Policy: A Florida Student\u27s Perspective on Pedagogical Partnership
No full textReflections on Student-Faculty Partnership in the Redesign of an Upper Level STEM Course
Full text linkDrivers of Job Loss Among Chinese Breast Cancer Survivors: A Qualitative Analysis
Full text linkPurpose: This study aimed to understand the reasons for the high risk of job loss previously identified among foreign-born Chinese breast cancer survivors in the US. Qualitative interviews were conducted to explore challenges leading to job loss during/after treatment and to help identify potential interventions to promote job retention and re-employment.
Patients and Methods: The research team conducted semi-structured interviews with foreign-born Chinese breast cancer survivors in New York City. A total of twelve participants, previously enrolled in the Breast Cancer and the Workforce study, were interviewed between February and November 2018. Purposive sampling was used to identify participants diverse across job type and work history. Thematic content analysis was conducted on translated interview transcripts.
Results: Since diagnosis, 8/12 participants had experienced job loss (6/6 in service/production, 1/5 retail/administrative, and 1/1 professional/managerial). Many described being unable to work due to treatment side-effects, inflexible schedules, and a perception that work accommodations were unavailable. Only one participant who had lost her job went on to secure stable re-employment.
Conclusions: Job type, language barriers, and cultural attitudes towards work accommodations contributed to a high job-loss rate in this population. Those who remained employed had received work accommodations. Lack of awareness or belief in obtaining accommodations was a critical factor in job loss.
Implications for Cancer Survivors: These findings highlight the necessity of advocacy for work accommodations for cancer patients and culturally competent care. Addressing these issues could improve job retention and financial stability for breast cancer survivors, particularly among immigrant and minority groups
Feeling Trapped: Exploring the Lived Psychosocial Experiences of First-Generation College Students
Full text linkLimited research exists that examines the lived experiences of psychosocial stress among first-generation college students. I utilize a trauma informed conceptual framework using the acculturative stress model and concepts from collective trauma to describe how colleges can function as a microcosm of the real world and place first-generation college students at increased vulnerability on top of the normative developmental challenges of young adulthood. I conducted a qualitative research study using an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) research design to gain insights from first-generation college students about their lived experiences related to psychosocial distress. This study included purposive sampling at one four-year college institution in the Northeast. A total of 13 undergraduate college students who identify as first-generation college students were interviewed using 60-90 minute semi-structured interviews that were audio recorded. The data was transcribed and coded using thematic analysis. One finding revealed a theme of first-generation college students renegotiating their intersecting identities that impacted feelings of connection and disconnection in college. Some identities were more salient than others in their home community and this saliency changed in college. The identities that stood out as most salient in college included identity as low-income, identity as a first-generation college student, and racial/ethnic identity. A second finding revealed a theme of sense of loss experienced by students that was nuanced, took time to identify, and took time to articulate. This sense of grief and loss and melancholia connected with fragmentation, splitting of the self, and intrapsychic conflict. These experiences resulted in students in this study feeling trapped in their circumstances. The third main finding revealed a theme of challenges with coping due to the intersectionality of identities, pattern of self-sufficiency and parentification, and dissociation of the self that made it difficult to recognize a need for help. University campuses, especially those with a history of exclusivity, may not hold diverse communities of students, may create a culture that devalues the identity of first-generation or of an ethnic and racial background, and may contribute to students’ sense of not belonging and psychosocial stress, particularly if they hold one or more intersecting marginalized identities
Students’ Perspectives on Advancing Inclusive Teaching Through Observational Feedback and Partnership
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Measurements of Thermal Resistance Across Buried Interfaces with Frequency-Domain Thermoreflectance and Microscale Confinement
No full textConfined geometries are used to increase measurement sensitivity to thermal boundary resistance at buried SiO2 interfaces with frequency-domain thermoreflectance (FDTR). We show that radial confinement of the transducer film and additional underlying material layers prevents heat from spreading and increases the thermal penetration depth of the thermal wave. Parametric analyses are performed with finite element methods and used to examine the extent to which the thermal penetration depth increases as a function of a material’s effective thermal resistance and the degree of material confinement relative to the pump beam diameter. To our surprise, results suggest that the measurement technique is not always the most sensitive to the largest thermal resistor in a multilayer material. We also find that increasing the degree to which a material is confined improves measurement sensitivity to the thermal resistance across material interfaces that are buried 10s of μm to mm below the surface. These results are used to design experimental measurements of etched, 200 nm thick SiO2 films deposited on Al2O3 substrates, and offer an opportunity for thermal scientists and engineers to characterize the thermal resistance across a broader range of material interfaces within electronic device architectures that have historically been difficult to access via experiment