University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

First-generation Armenian American community college students' perception of events affecting their identity development

(USC Thesis Other)

First-generation Armenian American community college students' perception of events affecting their identity development

PDF

Download a page range

Download transcript

Copy asset link

Request this asset

Transcript (if available)

Content

FIRST-GENERATION ARMENIAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY COLLEGE
STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION OF EVENTS AFFECTING THEIR IDENTITY
DEVELOPMENT

by

Roza Ekimyan

A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE ROSSIER SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the degree
DOCTOR OF EDUCATION

May 2008

Copyright 2008 Roza Ekimyan

ii

Dedication
I dedicate this work to my family. To my father, Aykaz Ekimyan, and my
mother, Anaid Ekimyan, whose unconditional love, patience and encouragement
surrounded me in all aspects of my life. Thank you for instilling the importance of an
education from a young age.
To my brother, Sedrak Ekimyan, for his love, humor, support for always believing
in me, even when I couldn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel.
To my best friend, Sharis Khachatourian, who has always believed that I can
accomplish anything I set my mind to do. I want to thank her for her endless bound of
support in my personal and spiritual life. Thank you for helping me balance it all
throughout the doctoral program.
To my aunts and uncles Rosa, Shinorick, Olga, Silva, Hamparsum, Avak, Gevork
and families, who have loved me and supported me through my childhood and as an
adult. I am lucky to have all of you guide me everyday.

iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am grateful to the many people who supported and assisted me throughout the
doctoral program. I am thankful that I had been given the opportunity to work with
members in my thematic dissertation group. Each and every one of these members has
significantly contributed to my professional development.
My appreciation is extended to Dr. Rod Goodyear, my committee chairperson, for
his wealth of knowledge, wisdom, boundless energy, and patience. Constant challenges,
constructive criticism which was needed to finish this project.
To Dr. Charles Espalin, for his encouragement, guidance, enthusiasm and interest
in the study and for always are assisting me when needed. I am forever indebted to you
for opening up many doors because you believed that I could accomplish all of my goals.
To Dr. David Balok, for his support and guidance, his interest in the study and for
always assists me when needed. Thank you for everything!
In addition, I would love to thank the amazing members of my dissertation
thematic group: Virginia Sarkissian, Jane Robb, Surrendra Verma, Michelle Stiles,
Christopher Eaton, Merrill Irving, Tony Arguelles, Kimberlee Woods, Vincent Vigil, and
Paul Harrington for their endless encouragement and guidance.
Finally, many thanks are given to all the students who participated in my study.
Their willingness to contribute has made this dissertation happen.

iv

Table of Contents
Dedication ii
Acknowledgements iii
Table of Contents iv

List of Tables vi

List of Figures vii

Abstract viii

Chapter I. Conceptual and Empirical Foundations 1

Chapter II. Methods 39

Chapter III. Results 49

Chapter IV. Discussion 78

References 101

Appendices

A. Research Project Information Sheet 109

B. College Years Experience Questionnaire (CYEQ) 112

C. College Years Experience Concept Similarity 114
Rating Scaling (CSRS)

D. Incidents Arranged by Over-Arching Theme 129

E. Combined Group Similarity Matrix (GSM) 152

v

List of Tables
Table 1. Number of Incidents in Category and Average Ratings of 63
Positivity and Long Term Impact

Table 2. Stimulus Coordinates in Two Dimensional MDS Analysis 68

Table 3. Cluster Analysis Using Ward Linkage: Agglomeration Schedule 72

Table 4. Themes by Cluster Name 74

vi

List of Figures
Figure 1. Euclidean Distance Model 70

Figure 2. Dendrogram Using Ward Method 73

Figure 3. Concept Map with Named Clusters 76

vii

Abstract
This study had two purposes: (1) to identify types of college-related impact on
identity that first-generation Armenian American community college student reported
and (2) to determine how those students conceptually organized those factors of impact.
Utilizing Flanagan’s (1954) Critical Incident Technique, first-generation Armenian
American community college students (69 females; 31 males) were asked to report one
situation that had affected their sense of self. They also were asked to rate on a 1 to 7-
point scale each experience’s (1) level of positivity and (2) eventual impact by
completing the College Years Experience Questionnaire (CYEQ). Three doctoral
students grouped the incidents into 12 categories.
Next, 15 students from the original sample rated the degree of similarity between
each possible pair of the 12 categories. Data from those similarity ratings were analyzed
using both multidimensional scaling (MDS) (constrained to a two-dimensional solution)
and hierarchical cluster analysis. The graphical results were superimposed on each other
to develop a concept map. The two dimensions that seemed to characterize the results
were those of: (1) intimate contact vs. group contact; and, (2) classroom environment vs.
non-classroom environment. The cluster analysis reduced the categories into five
supraordinate categories that were labeled: persistence, personal growth, accountability,
heritage and socialization. The 12 categories during the analysis of Phase One data were
associated with key factors that prior research identified as influencing personal identity
development and demonstrated the profound effect of college on the study participant’s
viii

identity development. The clusters explained the support or lack of support for first-
generation Armenian American community college students receive from their
institutions. Limitations of the study, directions for future research, and implications for
higher education practitioners are discussed.
1

CHAPTER 1
Conceptual and Empirical Foundations of the Study
Colleges provide an environment that not only fosters learning, but also
influences students’ identity development. According to Erikson, an integrated and
functional sense of identity helps unify the various aspects of an individual’s life and
provides a sense of personal meaning and direction (1950, 1968). A college’s particular
impact on identity will differ according to students’ personal characteristics (especially
socio-economic status and ethnicity) and the type of college in which she or he is
enrolled. These and other factors will affect not only the experiences students have
during college, but also the manner in which they are affected by them. One group that
would be expected to have unique experiences based on these factors is first-generation
Armenian American students who attend community colleges. No such research has
been conducted.
Research that has investigated the effects of colleges on students’ development
have focused on such areas as intellectual and cognitive growth (Baxter Magolda, 1999),
attitudes, values and moral development (Graham & Cockriel, 1996, 1997; Leppel, 2005;
Terenzini, 1994); and educational attainment and persistence (Cabrera, Nora &
Castaneda, 1993; Leppel, 2005; Rendon, 1994; Somers, Woodhouse, & Cofer, 2004;
Tinto, 1997). It is interesting to note, however, that few studies looked into the specific
sources of college’s effects on identity development. In the 1970s and 1980s, there were
2

large numbers of studies on student development, but focused primarily on institutional
and programmatic factors that facilitate student growth and student development across a
wide range of outcomes (Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005, p. 1).
Research to explore the effects of college on student’s development has included:
courses taken and class load (Somers et al., 2004; Terenzini, 1994), grades and
assessment/test scores (Cabrera et al., 1993; Leppel, 2005; Moss, 2003; Pascarella,
Edison, Nora, Hagedorn & Terenzini, 1998; Roth & Clark, 1998; Somers et al., 2004;
Thompson, 2001), study time (Thompson, 2001), hours worked (Leppel, 2005; Pascarella
et al., 1998; Somers et al., 2004), salaries (Roth & Clark, 1998), or social and political
involvement (Graham & Cockriel, 1996, 1997; Terenzini, 1994).
The college experience offers many opportunities for students to develop personal
and professional identity (Hamrick, Evans, & Schuh, 2002). Researchers have stated that
the first year or two are perhaps being the most tolerant, facilitative, societal context for
youths seeking self-definition and identity information (Kroger, 1997). Moreover, there
are a variety of sources of impact college student’s developments which includes
academic performance; curricular and extracurricular activity; relationships with peers,
staff and faculty; and non-college-based that encompasses parents, friends, and
employers (Cabrera et al., 1993; Clark, 2005; Kuh, 1995; Leppel, 2005; Pascarella et al.,
1998; Roth & Clark, 1998; Tinto, 1997).

3

The type of institution a student attends will affect his or her experience.
Community colleges, for example, are unique institution in the American system of
higher education. Many authors have noted that a mission of two-year colleges is to
provide a “second chance” to students (Townsend, 2003, p.273). One aspect of their
uniqueness is the curricular range for they offer such diverse areas of study as general
education, vocational education, and remedial or developmental education (Schuyler,
1994).
Moreover, community colleges serve primarily commuter students.
Consequently, students may face a greater challenge than students in four-year colleges
to find a sense of community or continuity. This may have important implications based
on Astin’s (1984) postulate that, the level of involvement in the college environment is
positively related to developmental outcomes (Astin, 1984, 1993).
Yet another attribute of community colleges is that their students range more
widely in age than in most four-year colleges. The racial and or ethnic mix of students
tends to differ as well. Finally, because there is an open door admissions policy at
community colleges, students are likely to be more diverse with respect to cognitive
ability than is true for a four-year school.
Pascarella and Terenzini (2005) noted that there has been a dramatic community
college growth. For example, between 1978 and 1991, enrollments of community
colleges increased by 31 percent (versus 23 percent for four-year institutions), and two-
year college enrollments were expected to have increased another 11 percent by 2003
4

(Chronicle of Higher Education: Almanac Issue, 1995). In 1996, community colleges
constituted about 18 percent of all U.S. colleges and universities; 39 percent of all public
institutions. These colleges enrolled about 37 percent of all U.S. undergraduates; 50
percent of all undergraduates in public institutions (Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005).
In addition, an important feature of this study is that it will focus on the first-
generation college students. First-generation students are the first in their families to
attend college. According to McConnell (2000), “the two-year institutions have been
challenged to serve a culture of first-generation students as well as they have increasingly
been held accountable for the success of these students” (p. 75).
These first-generation students, who do not tend to experience the academic
success of their peers, made up 45% of all undergraduates in 1995-96 are of particular
interest to community college leaders. In 1994, 55% of all first-generation students
attended public two-year colleges. (McConnell, 2000, p. 75)
Researchers have described that students today are different from their
counterparts of three and four decades ago (Pike & Kuh, 2005). As colleges have become
increasingly more accessible to women, students from various race and ethnic
backgrounds have made impressive gains. The term “first generation” is described as a
college or university student from a family where neither parent nor guardian has earned
a baccalaureate degree. Pike and Kuh (2005) noted that, “many of these ‘new’ students
are the first in their family to attend college” (p. 276). It is important that these students
succeed in college and their bachelor’s degree. Indeed, the baccalaureate degree is an
5

avenue of upward social mobility (Terenzini & Pascarella, 1994) and has often been
considered a passport to the American middle class (Terenzini, Springer, Yaeger,
Pascarella, & Nora, 1995, p. 5).
Although first-generation students are less likely to persist and graduate,
surprisingly little is known about their college experiences (Pike & Kuh, 2005), the
relation between parents’ education and a student’s college choice, or their persistence
and performance (Terenzini et al. 1995). Research indicates that first-generation students
differ from their peers in many ways prior to college enrollment, including their
demographic characteristics, the importance they place on college, their aspirations, their
perceived level of family support for attending college, their institutional choice and
commitment, their pre-college knowledge and behaviors, and their entering academic
skills and confidence levels (McConnell, 2000). Terenzini et al. (1995) believe that “the
limited available literature on first-generation falls into three, broad categories that
resemble the temporal order of the college-going process itself.
Colleges are understood to be institutions that serve the “traditional” student
whom Pascarella and Terenzini (2005) describe as White undergraduate, age 18-22, who
attends four-year institution full time, lives on campus and has few family
responsibilities. Despite the increased student diversity, much of the existing literature
still looks at the “traditional” college student (Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005, p.2).
Therefore, this research will be written to focus on a particular sub-group, which is first-
generation Armenian Americans community college student.
6

Armenian Americans
Armenian Americans view themselves as descendents of a very ancient people
who emerged in the mountainous region of northwestern Asia Minor some 25 hundred
years ago and have survived, against all odds, a long and turbulent history (Bakalian,
1993, p.2). In the beginning of the 21
st
century, Armenians were perceived to be in
jeopardy of an autonomous homeland, their disposition in a Diaspora, and their small size
of population (approximately 6 million worldwide) was threatened by massacres,
earthquakes, and political turmoil around the world. Nevertheless, a substantial and
vibrant Armenian community exists in Southern California.
The Family
Many Armenians follow a traditional cultural beliefs and practices. “The
traditional culture is patriarchal and places an importance on the network of the family
and friends” (Hayrapetian, 2002, p.1). Armenian culture was characterized by a
traditional family structure that included clear parenting authority, strong family ties
among extended family members, and a sense of obligation to the family (Hayrapetian,
2002, p.19). “Traditional Armenian parents tend to raise their children with a strong sense
of family duty” (Bakalian, 1993, p. 371). The family name and reputation are very
important values in Armenian families. The parents are viewed responsible for their
children’s name. There is concern with “What will people say?” in the family (Bakalian,
1993, p. 371).
7

Children are taught, from an early age, not to bring shame to their family name by
misbehaving inappropriately. The families that are view as “good” families with
untarnished reputations were honored by other families and therefore were sought after
for marriage partnerships. Moreover, children are expected to live at home until they
marry, and there is pressure to marry within the ethnic group. When seeking a marriage
partner, parents made sure that their children were not marrying into a family with a
history of unsavory traits such as, disease, crime, laziness, divorce, et cetera
(Hayrapetian, 2002, p.19). Minassian (2001) states that “…the ‘sense of honor’ involved,
and continues to involve in Armenia, a certain image of one’s self at the eyes of ‘others’
in a common sense of reciprocity. As in all ‘Mediterranean’ societies, the honor of the
family was largely founded on the women’s virtue” (p.22).
Demographic Perspective
Although the exact number of Armenians living in the United States is unclear,
estimates range from 600,000 to 800,000 (Yacoubian, 2003). The numbers have doubled
in the last 30 years, with the majority now living in California. Whereas, in the mid
1970s, approximately 75% lived on the east coast and mid-west, with only 25% in
California (Avakian, 1977; Mirak, 1980, 1983), today, there are established Armenian
communities throughout California as well as in cities such as: Seattle, Atlanta, Tucson,
Baton Rouge, Minneapolis, and Las Vegas (Yacoubian, 2003).

8

Los Angeles is purported to have attracted the first Armenian of the United States
from the East Coast in 1900 (Yeretzian, 1923). During the century that followed, the
Greater Armenian community has grown substantially. The 22 churches, 12 Armenian
all-day schools, and five high schools indicate its vibrancy. Also, Armenians have
established numerous organizations such as: Armenian Student Associations in
Universities, Armenian Bar Association, Armenian Professional Society, The Armenian
General Athletic Union and Scouts (known as “Homenetmen”), Hamazkayin Armenian
Cultural Association, and the AGBU Cultural Association (Bakalian, 1993).
In recent years, community colleges offered Armenian language and history
classes. The community also has newspapers, magazines, 24-hour cable television
programs, radio programs, and a dozens of restaurants and stores. Armenians have
clustered in various sections of Los Angeles such as: Hollywood, Glendale, Pasadena,
and throughout the San Fernando Valley (Yaralian, 1999, p. 7). In fact, the city of Los
Angeles named a portion of Hollywood, “Little Armenia” to honor the people who
surround that area. In short, Armenian community in the Los Angeles area has become
one of size and influence. Yet, there have been relatively few studies of its members.
First-generation Armenian American community college students comprise a
significant subset of the Los Angeles area college population, and inquiry at the personal
level into the sources of impact on this sub-group of college students’ identity is long

9

overdue. There are multiple perspectives that might be used to examine college impacts
on students. In this study, I focused on the students themselves, exploring the students’
perceptions of factors that have influenced their own identity of development.
Armenians in the United States have been called the “hidden minority” (Bakalian,
1993). Because there are no studies on first-generation Armenian American students, the
knowledge gained from this study can be useful for Student Affair Professionals,
Professors and all Higher Education Professionals that work with Armenian American
students to better understand the culture, and therefore can assist individually to each
student needs to succeed in college.
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this descriptive study is to address this deficiency in the literature
by utilizing a two phase, mixed-method process that will ask first-generation community
college students to identify and conceptually organize the sources of impact (both
positive and negative) they perceive to have affected their personal development. In the
first phase, students were asked to identify incidents or experiences that influenced their
sense of who they are. The second phase, students’ rated paired themes that emerged
from the incidents for similarity and concept-maps of the student experiences were
created. The methodology used to create the concept maps is fully described in the later
section of this paper.

10

By performing these processes, this study adds to the literature by providing a
more detailed, personal view of the impacts that college has on identity development of
first-generation Armenian American community colleges students and an understanding
of how first-generation Armenian American participants conceptually organize those
experiences. This study provides information that higher education professional, student
affairs, faculty, and administrators can use to further enrich learning and increase positive
outcomes for first-generation Armenian Americans community college students.

Review of the Literature
The literature that contributes to the understanding of the effects of colleges on
students’ development and particularly the impact on their development is relevant to this
study. The literature reviewed to support this deeper understanding is grouped into three
sections: types of impacts of college on students, sources of impacts on development and
means of assessing the impacts first section will identify the types of impacts that are
important to this research study and discusses the developmental theories that provide
foundational information to help understand these types of impacts. The next section,
will explore the factors in which the theories have been recognized as influences to
personal development. The final section will examine the means that have been used to
assess the effect of colleges on students.

11

Types of Impacts
The significance of a college education is to help students develop intellectually,
cognitively, and emotionally and to form a foundation to help them prepared for success
in their future. Researchers have explored the effects colleges have on student which are
intellectual and cognitive growth (Baxter Magolda, 1999), attitudes, values and moral
development (Graham & Cockriel, 1996, 1997; Leppel, 2005; Terenzini, 1994). As well,
they have examined educational attainment and persistence (Cabrera, Nora & Castaneda,
1993; Leppel, 2005; Rendon, 1994; Somers, Woodhouse, & Cofer, 2004; Tinto, 1997).
For this study, it is important to review a few identity development models
because they will serve as a basis of reference as this study explores the participants’
experiences. A few identity development models are provided and will offer additional
information about the theories including particular steps within the models.
Identity Theories
The term “identity” is intricately connected to an individual’s perception of the
unique characteristics that distinguish him or her from others. Within this larger context
of self-definition, the individual also develops a sense of group belonging that arises from
a clear awareness of the existence of boundaries between various groups and his or her
strong identification with a particular group (Arroyo& Zigler, 1995). Alessandria and
Nelson (2005) noted that identity development begins in the early stages of an
12

individual’s life, and it is uncertain when, it ends, if ever. It is generally understood that
developing an identity is a life-long process; identity is solidified during adolescence and
young adulthood, but that it is continually refined as life progresses.
“Identity is the ability to experience one’s self as something that has continuity
and sameness and to act accordingly” (Erikson, 1963, p. 42). The finest sense of identity
is experienced as psychosocial well-being; its connected to the feeling of “being at home
in one’s body, a sense of knowing where one is going, and an inner assuredness of
anticipated recognition from those who count.” (Erikson, 1968, p. 165)
Erikson’s stage model has been used as a point of orientation for other
developmental theorists. Theorists such as Chickering, Marcia and Phinney have
incorporated from Erikson’s original formulation of construct. Erikson had classified a
positive resolution of the challenge between identity and refusal versus identity diffusion
as “a sense of psychosocial well being.” (Alessandria & Nelson, 2005, p. 4)
For this study, there are two theoretical perspectives and areas of research on
identity development, psychosocial-identity development and cognitive-structural, are
especially relevant to these important outcomes.
Psychosocial Theory
Pascaraella and Terenzini (2005) note “developmental tasks are partially derived
from growing older and partly from sociocultural or environmental influences;
individuals over their life span face several developmental challenges” (p. 20). This
perspective examines the individual’s personal and interpersonal lives. There are two
13

types of psychosocial theories; those focusing on overall development, and those
focusing on identity formation. Identity formation encounters specific aspects of identity,
such as those relating to gender, race, ethnicity, or sexual identity (Pascarella and
Terenzini, 2005).
Other identity models, many of which are built on Erikson’s footsteps are
Marcia’s models of ego identity status (1966), Arthur Chickering’s theory of the seven
vectors (1969), which is the most widely used student development theories, and Jean
Phinney’s Ethnic Identity Development (1990). According to Evans, Forney, and Guido-
DiBrito (1998) state that these “identity models all focus on the psychosocial process of
self-definition, many of the models are also cognitive-structural in that individuals move
through stages of increasing cognitive- complexity with regard to their self-
identification.” (p. 11)
Evans et al. (1998) asserts that “psychosocial theorists examine the content of
development, the important issues people face as their lives progress, such as how to
define themselves, their relationships with others and what to do with their lives.” (p. 32)
Erikson disavowed that all issues are important in one’s life, but that development aspects
take place in a series of events. “In each stage, particular issues, called developmental
tasks, arise and present compelling questions that must be resolved” (Erikson, 1959,
1980).

14

Erik Erikson
Chickering and Reisser (1993) refer to Erik Erikson as “the progenitor of the
psychosocial models.” Evans et al. (1998) observed that “Erikson was the first
psychologist to address the identity development from adolescences through adulthood.”
(p. 10) Erikson’s work is grounded in what he called the epigenetic principle, which
states, “anything that grows has a ground plan, and out of this ground plan the parts arise,
each part having its time of special ascendancy, until all parts have arisen to form a
functioning whole” (Erikson, 1968, p. 92).
Pascarella and Terenzini (2005) noted that “the principle implies not only
sequential, age-related, biological and psychological development but also the view that
the individual’s environment shapes the particular character and extent of development in
important ways” (p. 20).
Erikson asserted “that development occurs through a series of crisis that is when
biological and psychological changes interact with socio-cultural demands to present a
distinctive challenge or threat characteristic of a given stage” (Pascarella & Terenzini,
2005, p. 20). For Erikson, a crisis is meant to be a time of decision requiring significant
choices among alternative courses of action. The most important of these for traditional
aged college students is that of which Erikson termed identity versus identity confusion;
which, is the transition between childhood and adulthood.

15

James Marcia
Building on Erikson’s (1959, 1963, 1968) proposition that defining one’s identity
constitutes the central “crisis” of adolescences, Marcia (1966, 1980) reasoned that
identity status formation involves resolution of two psychosocial tasks. The first task is
exploration, which involves the search and choice among meaningful competing
alternatives. The second task is commitment, which refers to the level of an individual’s
personal investment in each of the three areas—occupational, religious, and political.
Shortly afterward, Marcia added a fourth area—sexual values.
Marcia (1966, 1980) proposed that young adults experience four statuses for
identity. The first, Identity-diffused, is one in which individuals have neither experienced
the crisis of the search for identity nor made commitments to an identity in any of the
occupational or value areas. They tend either to be uninterested in occupational or
ideological matters or to accept all positions as more or less equal. The next status is
foreclosed when individuals have not undergone any crisis, but they have made
commitments without question or examination, usually to identities encouraged by
others, mainly their parents.
Individuals in the third, moratorium status are actively searching for a defining
identity and evaluating alternatives. These individuals differ from those who are identity-
diffused by the fact of their conscious search, although their commitments remain
unformed, or at best, emergent. The last group is those who are identity-achieved,
individuals who have successfully weathered a crisis and made personal occupational,
16

religious, political, and sex-role commitments. These commitments, independently
arrived at, provide a basis for independent action may be at variance with those
encouraged by parents or others.
Marcia assumed that adolescents would tend to move from one of the low-identity
statuses (diffusion and foreclosure) to one of the high-identity statuses (moratorium and
achievement) because of the growing external and internal pressures on them to enter the
adulthood. Marcia notes that identity achievement probably is not a permanent state and
that individuals shift through various statuses as they accommodate changes associated
with the life cycle (Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005, p. 24).
Arthur Chickering
Chickering (1969) built on Erikson’s work to develop the first major theory to
examine the development of college students. Chickering has had more influence than
any other theorist on the subject of college student development (Evans et al., 1998,
Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005). Recognizing the absence of any systematic framework for
integrating the empirical evidence on college students and based on his review of the
literature, Chickering (1969) identified seven vectors of development.
For Chickering, development involves differentiation and integration as students
encounter increasing complexity in ideas, values, and other people and struggle to
reconcile these new positions with their own ideas, values, and beliefs (Pascarella &
Terenzini, 2005). Chickering further noted that students move through these vectors at
different rates, that vectors can interact with each other, and that students often find
17

themselves reexamining issues associated with vectors they had previously worked
through. Although not rigidly sequential, vectors do build on each other, leading to
greater complexity, stability, and integration as the issues related to each vector are
addressed (Evans et al., 1998, p. 38).
The seven vectors are as follows:
1. Achieving Competence. In this vector, the college years lead to increased
competence in intellectual areas, physical and manual skills, and interpersonal
relations with both individuals and groups (Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005, p.
21). Intellectual competence involves acquisition of knowledge and skills
related to particular subject matter, development of “intellectual, cultural, and
aesthetic sophistication” (Ressier, 1995, p. 506), and increase skills in areas
such as critical thinking and reasoning ability. Physical competence comes
through athletic and recreational activities. Interpersonal competence includes
skills in communication, leadership, and working effectively with others
(Evans et al., 1998, p.38).
2. Managing Emotions. Students must develop the ability to recognize and
accept emotions, as well as to appropriately express and control them. They
must be able to learn to act on their feelings in a responsible manner (Evans
et. Al, 1998, p. 38).

18

3. Moving Through Autonomy Toward Interdependence. This aspect of
development focuses on increased emotional independence, which is defined
as “freedom from continual and pressing needs for reassurance, affection, or
approval from others.” (Chickering & Reisser, 1993, p. 117) Students also
develop instrumental independence, which includes self-direction, problem-
solving ability, and mobility (Evans et al., 1998). Movement on this vector
may take different gender-related forms but is generally toward interpersonal
relations that rest on equality and reciprocity and that involve community and
society (Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005).
4. Developing Mature Interpersonal Relationships. “Students’ interactions with
peers provide powerful learning experiences and help shape the emerging
sense of self” (Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005, p. 22). Mature interpersonal
relationship offers an increasing tolerance and appreciation of differences in
ideas, people, backgrounds, and values. Ressier (1995) noted that both tasks
“involve the ability to accept individuals for who they are, to respect
differences, and to appreciate commonalities.” (p. 509)
5. Establishing Identity. Evans et al. (1998) notes that to establish identity builds
on each of Chickering’s seven vectors, but perhaps this vector “has taken on
added complexity to acknowledge differences in identity development based
on gender, ethnic background, and sexual orientation” (p. 39). Identity
formation also involves a “developing sense of self in a context shaped by
19

historical events and social and cultural conditions and by issues emanating
from family and heritage” (Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005, p.22). Chickering
and Reisser (1993) further explain, “a solid sense of self emerges, and it
becomes more apparent that there is an I who coordinates the facets of
personality, who ‘owns’ the house of self and is comfortable in all of its
rooms” (p.49).
6. Developing Purpose. Chickering and Reisser (1993) noted that development
occurs as the individual answers not only the question “Who am I?” but also
“Who am I going to be?” and not just “Where am I?” but “Where am I
going?” Growth requires increasing intentionality—developing plans that
integrate priorities in vocational goals and aspirations, interpersonal interests,
and family (Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005, p. 22).
7. Developing Integrity. The seventh vector involves clarity and balancing of
values and beliefs. Chickering and Reisser (1993) state that this vector
includes “three sequential but overlapping stages: humanizing values,
personalizing values, and developing congruence” (p. 51). The first step is
that “students progress from rigid, moralistic thinking to the development of a
more humanized value system in which the interests of others are balanced
with one’s own interest” (Evans et al., 1998, p. 40). The next is a person
begins a value system that is established in which the core values are
consciously affirmed and the beliefs of others are acknowledged and respected
20

(Evans et al., 1998, p.40). Pascarella and Terenzini (2005) also add that in
this vector, “the emerging values and identity find expression in ways that are
internally consistent and manifest themselves in socially responsible
behavior.” (p.23)
Jean Phinney
Phinney (1990, 1992) developed a model of ethnic identity development
grounded conceptually in both Erikson’s theory (1968) of identity formation and
Marcia’s identity development model (1980). Pascarella and Terenzini (2005) note that
for Phinney, “self identification as a member of and a sense of belonging to a particular
ethnic group are necessary conditions for an ethnic identity.” (p. 28)
Phinney (1992) noted that “a sense of identification with, or belonging to, one’s
own group, is common to all human beings” (p. 158), despite group differences in
history, traditions, language, religion, and values that are shared within groups that bind
them together. She maintained that an “ethnic identity is one dimension of a person’s
social identity and that individuals may have both negative and positive views of their
groups” (Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005, p.28).
“Ethnic identity develops from the shared culture, religion, geography, and
language of individuals who are often connected by strong loyalty and kinship” (Evans et
al., 1998, p.80). Theories of ethnic identity formation examine how “individuals come to
understand the implications of their ethnicity and make decisions about its role in their
lives, regardless of the extent of their ethnic involvement” (Phinney, 1990, p.64).
21

Following Erikson and Marcia, Phinney has asserted that a member of an ethnic
group faces two conflicts. The first involves the individual’s sense of self and self-esteem
when confronted with the presence of prejudice and discrimination. The second one
involves the need to find a balance between minority and majority values in order to live
in a bi-or multicultural society (Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005, p. 29). Phinney (1992)
concluded “ethnic identity formation appears to involve an exploration of the meaning of
one’s ethnicity that leads to a secure sense of oneself as a member of a minority group”
(p. 160).
Phinney proposed that identity development proceeds in three stages. The first is
diffusion-foreclosure. Individuals at this stage show very little interest in ethnic beliefs,
values, or feelings. The next stage is moratorium in which individuals become
increasingly aware of ethnic identity issues. The final stage is identity-achievement in
which the individual achieves a healthy bicultural identity (Phinney, 1992, p. 162).
Cognitive-Structural Theory
Pascarella and Terenzini (2005) asserted that all cognitive-structural theories of
student development have their origins in the work of Jean Piaget. Cognitive-structural
theorist seeks to describe the nature and processes of change, concentrating on the
epistemological structures individuals construct meaning to their worlds. Cognitive-
structural theories examine the process of intellectual development during the college
years. These theories focus on how people think, reason, and make meaning of their
experiences (Evans et al., 1998, p.124).
22

Cognitive-structural theories and psychosocial theories are complementary. “One
describes what students will be concerned about and what decisions will be primary; the
other suggests how students will think about those issues and what shifts in reasoning
will occur” (Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005, p. 33). While Evans (1996) notes “cognitive-
structural theories illuminate changes in the way people think but not what they think” (p.
173). Moreover, cognitive structural theory “stresses the importance of heredity and
environment in intellectual development and reveals the various ways an individual
develops cognitively” (Evans et al., 1998, p. 11).
Cognitive-structural theorists assume that changes takes place as a result of
assimilation and accommodation. Assimilation is the process of integrating new
information into existing structures, rounding them out and contributing to their
expansion, whereas accommodation is the process of modifying existing structures or
creating new structures to incorporate stimuli that will not fir into existence (Wadsworth,
1979).
Psychosocial and cognitive-structural theories present a useful lens for viewing
student development. Psychological theories explain how changes will occur throughout
an individual’s development over their life span. Cognitive-structural theories help us to
understand how people structure meaning as they advance through life and illustrate the
uniqueness of the individual. The theories note that internal change plays an important
role in development and the meaning an individual attaches to a transition.
23

Theoretical perspectives provide insights into understanding how first generation
Armenian American community college students develop on college campus. Both
psychosocial and cognitive theories illustrate that first generation Armenian American
students in community colleges develop differently than any other type of student and
research has determined that their environments are extremely important to their personal
development.
Sources of Impact
All models of identity assume that the person is affected by his or her
environment. That is, particular people, interactions, events, and so on will affect
identity. The particular sources of impacts are a crucial to investigate in order to
understand fully the effects of college development. The groundwork of this inquiry is to
describe the Chickering and Reisser’s (1993) seven key influences on student
development and then Astin’s (1999) theory of student involvement.
Chickering and Reisser (1993) proposed primary areas where colleges and
universities can encourage student development. The basic proposal of their work was
that human development must be the entire focus of higher education. To this end, they
identified seven primary areas in which colleges and universities can encourage student
development along each of seven vectors. These areas of influences are: clarity of
institutional objectives and the internal consistency of policies, practices, and activities;
institutional size that does not restrict opportunities for participation; frequent student-
faculty relationships in diverse settings; curricula oriented to integration in both content
24

and processes; teaching that is flexible, varied in instructional styles and modes, and
aimed at encouraging active student involvement in learning; friendships and student
communities that become meaningful subcultures marked by diversity in attitudes and
backgrounds and by significant interpersonal exchanges; and student development
programs and services characterized by their educational content and purpose and offered
collaboratively with faculty (Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005).
Chickering argued that “educational environments exert powerful influences on
student development” (Evans et al., 1998, p. 40). Chickering and Reisser (1993) have
organized the key factors of college-related sources of impact into the following:
Institutional Objectives
Personnel need to implement clear and specific objectives in order to pay
attention to and use to guide the development of programs and services. These program
and services will have a powerful impact on student identity. Having clear and specific
objectives will lead consistency in policies, programs, and practices while making
evident values of the institution (Evans et al., 1998, p.41).
Institutional Size
Chickering and Reisser (1993) hypothesized that the size of an institution affects
its impact. As the number of students exceeds the opportunities that the institution can
provide for significant participation and satisfaction, the developmental potential of

25

available settings is reduced for all and “development of competence, mature
interpersonal relationships, identity, and integrity decreases” (p. 268). Development will
occur if student participation in campus life is satisfied with the college experience.
Student-Faculty Relationships
Extensive and diverse interaction among faculty and students facilitates
development. These kinds of interactions will allow students to perceive faculty as real
people who are available to assist, are accessible and interested in them beyond the
classroom (Evans et al., 1998, p.41). Faculty members have an effect on students’ sense
of competence, and also on the clarification of their purpose (Chickering & Reisser,
1993).
Curriculum
College curricula provide a source of impact on development of such vectors of
identity as: intellectual and interpersonal competence, sense of competence, identity, and
purpose and integrity. A curriculum has content which serves several vital purposes. It is
relevant to students’ backgrounds and prior experiences; recognizes individual
differences among students; includes diverse perspectives that challenge preexisting
information, assumptions and values; and provides opportunities to integrate diverse
perspectives, assumptions and values. It also includes; how the students learn, and how
the professors call for critical examination of diverse ideas, for creating one’s own
analyses and synthesis, for originality and development of self (Chickering & Reisser,
1993).
26

Teaching Quality
Teaching quality can be an important source of identity development and can
foster intellectual and interpersonal competence. This can happen when it there is
evidence of teachers engaging in active learning, encourages student-teacher contact,
cooperation among student, gives prompt feedback, emphasizes high expectations, and
respects diverse talents and ways of knowing (Chickering & Reisser, 1993). These
strategies affect cognitive development in the form of active learning and integration of
ideas. It also encourages interdependence, cooperation, and interpersonal sensitively
(Evans et al., 1998, p.41).
Friendships and Student Communities
Development is fostered when students create friendships and participate in
communities with a diversity of backgrounds, and when there are between student
interchanges and shared interests among them. Personal connections formed during
college provide lifelong results. There are multiple ways in which students may relate to
one another, all of which provide for developmental enrichment. These avenues of
relations include; casual acquaintances, classmates in small group discussions,
teammates, roommates, club members, best friends, and committed partners. Once they
identify with their peer group(s), they associate themselves with that peer and that
becomes their secure point. This influences their behavior and thinking powerfully, only
if their older ties to family and friends have loosened and if the group supports the
individual goals (Chickering & Reisser, 1993).
27

Student Development Program and Services
Student affairs administrators or services staff directly and indirectly help the
move students along all vectors of identity development. These staff members play a
major role in establishing the cultures and climates of the college. The services they
provide, convey the impression of whether the system is going to support the students or
frustrate them; or if it is a place of chaos or it is a lively, inviting, user-friendly place,
inspiring pride in the campus, conveying orderly efficiency, stimulating, and friendly to
foster student success (Chickering & Reisser, 1993).
Integration of work and learning
Most students, especially first-generation students, work and go to school. For
development to occur there needs to be “collaborative relationships between business, the
community, and institutions of higher education that will maximize the developmental
potential of work and volunteer experiences” (Evans et al., 1998, p. 41).
Recognition and Respect for Individual Differences
Chickering and Reisser (1993) stated, “that there will be an increase of diversity
over the years and in order to deal with it, we are likely to face increasingly conflict, a
two tier society, and economic stagnation “(p. 473). It is important for educators to be
aware of different backgrounds and needs of their students and adjust their interactions
and interventions to address these differences (Evans et al., 1998, p. 42).

28

Acknowledgment of the cyclical of nature learning and development
Learning entails periods of differentiation and integration, equilibrium and
disequilibrium. For development to occur there needs to be new experiences and
challenges to provide opportunities for new perspectives and more complex
understanding to occur (Evans et al., 1998, p.42).
In addition to these key influences, Chickering and Reisser (1993) also suggest
that educationally powerful environment also reflects the basic principles or
characteristics such as: a view of education as systemic, compromising interrelated parts;
a willingness to re-evaluate existing assumptions; the integration of work and learning;
recognition and respect for individual differences; and the understanding and
development (p. 280).
Alexander Astin’s Theory of Involvement
Astin (1984) model speaks to college impacts. In particular, he stressed “the role
of student involvement in development” (Evans et al., 1998, p.26). Astin defined
involvement as “the amount of physical and psychosocial energy that the student devotes
to the academic experience” (p.297). Furthermore, he clarified that “involvement refers
to behavior, what the student actually does, rather than the student’s feelings or thoughts”
(Evans et al., 1998, p. 27).

29

Astin (1999) asserted that involvement is critical to students’ persistence in
college and their continued development. He suggested that:
1. Involvement refers to the investment of physical and psychosocial energy in
various objects.
2. Regardless of its objects, involvement occurs along a continuum.
3. Involvement has both a quantity and qualitative feature.
4. The amount of student learning and personal development associated with any
educational program is directly proportional to the quality and quantity of student
involvement in that program.
5. The effectiveness of any educational policy or practice is directly related to the
capacity of that policy or practice to increase student involvement.
Astin’s theory indicates that institutional resource may be students’ time and
students’ achievement of developmental goals are a direct function of the time and effort
they devote to activities designed to construct these gains. Astin argued that “for student
learning and growth to take place, students need to actively engage in their environment”
(Evans et al., 1998, p. 27).
Proposed Means of Assessing Impact
There are many ways to study factors that have impact on student development.
This particular research design is implemented in a two-step, mixed method approach.
The first stage of this study will use a qualitative research strategy. Results that work
then will be treated in a quantitative manner.
30

Qualitative research method will be used to understand what happens to first-
generation Armenian-Americans community colleges and how these individuals perceive
themselves to have been affected by college (Patton, 2002). Those qualitative data will
be used to create categories of college impacts.
The quantitative part of the methodology uses concept mapping which includes
statistical techniques of multidimensional scaling (MDS) and cluster analysis to
objectively place the themes in maps, which show the interrelatedness of the various
theme elements (Goodyear, Tracey, Claiborn, Lichtenberg, & Wampold, 2005). The
study was conducted in two phases
Phase One
The first phase of this study determined factors which first-generation Armenian
American community college students’ perceive to have had impact on their identity
development. This phase is student-centered— employing the students’ viewpoint,
understandings and beliefs (Rich & Ginsburg, 1999). The students look at their college
experience with hindsight and what they identified as the positive or negative influences
on their identity development. This inquiry is narrative, which deals with descriptions of
events, happenings and actions (Polkinghorne, 1995). I will search for specific critical
experiences of students. This methodology is based on Flanagan’s (1954) Critical
Incident Technique (CIT). With help from two other raters, I will analyze the critical
incidents, to obtain categories of perceived impacts.
31

Critical Incident Methodology. Flanagan (1954) developed Critical Incident
Technique (CIT), which has been used extensively for the past 50 years. CIT is a method
that relies on a set of procedures to collect, content analyze, and classify observations of
human behavior. CIT provides a rich source of descriptive data in the form of critical
incidents from the participants’ perspective and in their own words (Gremler, 2004).
CIT is particularly suitable for this study as it allows students to determine which
incidents are the most relevant to them based on their perceptions of their ethnic identity
development. There is no preconception of what will be important to them. It will allow
them as free a range of responses as possible within an overall research framework. The
context will be developed entirely from their perspective. The data collected also will be
from their perspective and in their own words. Students will simply be asked to recall
certain critical events. They will give their information in their own terms and language,
and not forced into any given framework, and will provide concrete information based on
their own experiences (Gremler, 2004).
Flanagan (1954) has defined an incident as any observable human activity that is
sufficiently complete that inferences and predictions can be made about the person
performing the act. To be significant, the incident must be factual and not a vague
opinion, “must occur in a situation where the purpose or intent of the act seems fairly
clear to the observer and where its consequences are sufficiently definite to leave little

32

doubt concerning its effects” (Flanagan, 1954, p. 327), and must make a significant
contribution, either positively or negatively, to an activity or phenomenon (Gremler,
2004). These incidents can be recognized only retrospectively.
CIT is an inductive method. It does not need any hypotheses. The participants’
verbatim responses are the data to be used. First-generation Armenian American students
will share their own perceptions rather than indicate their perceptions to researcher-
initiated questions (Gremler, 2004).
There has been some criticism of the method on such issues as: validity and
reliability of respondent stories, misinterpretation or misrepresentation of incidents, or
that the category labels drawn from the incidents may be ambiguous. Several concerns
arise out of its being a retrospective research method. As such, there may be recall bias
and other undesirable biases such as consistency factors or memory lapses. Other
concerns include: the method depends on respondents remembering the events and
reporting them truthfully and accurately; an incident may have taken place some time
before the data is collected and the respondent may subsequently have reinterpreted the
incident; or the respondents may not be accustomed to or willing to take time to tell the
complete story when describing a critical incident (Gremler, 2004). However, as Gremler
(2004, p. 67), has stated: “CIT has been demonstrated to be a sound method since
Flanagan (1954) presented it” (Gremler, 2004, p. 67), and in the last 50 years relatively
few modifications and “minimal changes have been made to Flanagan’s approach”. In a
recent study on the accuracy of adult (between the ages of 17 and mid-20s) narrative
33

reports of developmental trajectories in post-high school years, Cohen, Kasen, Bifulco,
Andrews, and Gordon (2005), have suggested that retrospective narratives can produce
reliable and valid scaled measures covering a substantial period of time.
Operationalization of CIT. Critical incidents can be gathered in various ways.
The general approach is to ask respondents to tell about a critical experience they have
had. To obtain this information, the students selected for the study will be asked to report
college related critical incidents and experiences, or as Flanagan (1954, p. 338) terms it,
“extremes of behavior, either outstandingly effective or ineffective” in affecting the
participants’ identity development in the community college. Once the critical incidents
have been collected, their contents will be analyzed to identify themes or categories that
summarize and describe the incidents (Gremler, 2004). The main categories will be
deduced either from theoretical models or formed on the basis of inductive interpretation
(Stauss, 1993, as cited by Gremler, 2004).
Phase Two
The second phase this analysis will be to go back to the particular group of
student participants and to discover from them how they would rate the similarity
between each of the themes extracted from Step One and every other of the themes.
These ratings will become the data for two analyses, one each for multidimensional
scaling analysis. The objective will be to produce a visual representation of the pattern of

34

proximities between the themes or categories in a two dimensional space. Then, these
two-dimensional maps will show how the students mentally represent these impact
themes.
The next step will be to partition the data set of the themes into subsets or
clusters, so that each subset or cluster of themes shares some common trait. This will
done by performing hierarchical cluster analysis on the impact categories obtained from
step one. In this technique, the categories or themes are tested for similarities between
them and by a measure of the distances between them. This will permit rapid inspection
of relationships between concepts, both from the perspective of the context and the ideas
linking adjacent concepts; allow for clustering or contextual organizing according to
themes; permit estimation of similarity between concepts and clusters of concept
categories; and allow multiple ways of constructing meaning; combine respondent
experience and statistical analysis (Jackson & Trochim, 2002; Yentsen, undated).
Concept Mapping Methodology
A concept map is a visual representation of the relationship between one or more
concepts. This approach has been described as being particularly appropriate when
researchers seek to clarify a domain, its concept elements, and the underlying structure of
a phenomenon as experienced within a population of interest (Daughtry & Kuunkel,
1993). It can be used to identify knowledge structures of individuals (ideographic
approach) or small homogeneous groups of individuals (nomothetic approach) by using
spatial and discrete models (Goodyear et al., 2005).
35

Concept mapping has been used in many fields to understand people’s
knowledge structures, such as: in cognitive psychology ( Nosofsky, 1992); counseling
psychology including psychopathology ( Treat, McFaoo, Viken, Nosofsky, Mackay, &
Krusche, 2002); perception of common factors in therapy ( Tracy, Lichtenberg,
Goodyear, Claiborn, & Wampold, 2003); coping strategies (Gol & Cook, 2004);
emotions ( Morgan & Heise, 1988) ; self-concept (DeSteno& Salovey, 1997);
and clients’ perceptions of the therapy process ( Paulson, Truscott, & Stuart, 1999).
There are many forms of concept mapping. One very widely used form is an
informal process in which an individual draws a picture of all the ideas, which are related
to some general theme or question, and shows how they are related. Each idea is shown
in a separate box or oval and lines connect related ideas (Jackson & Trochim, 2002).
The particular technique of concept mapping used in this study has been well
described in literature such as: Bedi (2006); Bedi and Alexander (undated); Daughtry and
Kunkel (1993); Goodyear et al. (2005); Jackson and Trochim (2002); Tracy et al. (2003).
However, this study will employ a more formal, statistical group-oriented
approach to concept mapping. Instead of representing mental models of individuals, it
depicts an aggregate representation of the ideas across the whole group in the form of
thematic clusters. It is a structured conceptualization of the group’s ideas (Jackson &
Trochim, 2002).

36

The process involves first having participants rate between category similarities.
The categories will be those developed during the first qualitative stage of the study.
These data are assembled in the form of a matrix and is analyzed through a non-metric,
two-dimensional MDS as well as hierarchical cluster analyses.
MDS arranges the themes spatially in two dimensions by the differences of the
amount between the themes. As Kruskal (1964) has stated, MDS is the problem of
representing n objects geometrically by n points, so that the interpoint distances
correspond in some sense to the experimental dissimilarities between objects. MDS thus
allows each theme to be represented by a point in a two-dimensional space, with the
whole structure approximating the distances between the pairs of themes. The points will
be arranged in this space so that points that are close together will represent similar
themes, and points that are far apart will represent dissimilar themes.
Cluster analysis, on the other hand, focuses on the differences of type between the
types of impact (Goodyear et al., 2005). Instead of using human similarity judgment to
cluster the themes, clustering occurs objectively through statistical means (Jackson &
Trochim, 2002). The final steps will involve labeling the clusters and interpreting them.
Operationalization of Concept Mapping Methodology. The steps involved in
operationalizing the methodology are described in Daughtry and Kunkel (1993), Jackson
and Trochim (2002), and Goodyear et al. (2005) and are as follows:
37

Generating themes: A team of raters will reduce participants’ written responses
from CIT to a set of representative themes, which will become items for further analysis.
The themes or items will be compiled into a rating form.
Inter-relationship of themes: A sample group of student-participants will then be
asked to pair every theme with every other theme on a Likert type scale, with items “not
at all alike” at one end, and items “very much alike” at the other end. This will indicate
the ways in which students construe these themes to be interrelated in their individual
experience.
Matrix of similarity ratings: From the inter-relationship of themes, a matrix of
similarity ratings will be generated (Goodyear et al., 2005). Each rating in this matrix can
be looked at as a distance between the two pairs of themes.
Multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis: To produce concept maps, the
similarity ratings will then be subjected to two-dimensional MDS and a hierarchical
cluster analysis of the MDS coordinates.

38

Research Questions
This study uses the information gained from the literature review as foundational
knowledge to describe and map the sources of impact of college on first-generation
Armenian American community college students. The two research questions that guided
this study were:
1. What categories of college related impacts will first-generation Armenian
American community college students report as having been particularly
important to the development of their sense of self?
2. What conceptual map do first-generation Armenian American community college
students use to organize their experience of these categories of experiences?

39

CHAPTER II.
Methods
This chapter describes the methods of the study. In particular, it describes the
students who were the participants, the measures used and the study’s procedures. It
concludes with a description of the data analyses that were used.
Participants and Raters

Phase One Participants
Participants were 100 (69 female; 31 male) first-generation Armenian American
community college students. All were the first in their families to have attended college.
Their mean age was 20.4 (SD = 1.8), range from 18-24.
The participants’ class standing ranged from second semester freshmen to seniors.
Nineteen were Freshmen; 39 were Sophomores; 23 were Juniors; and 18 were Seniors.
Phase Two Participants

Participants were 15 (11 female; 4 male); mean age, 20.2 (SD = 1.40) students.
These participants were a sub-group of phase one participants.
Raters
Three doctoral students in Education, including the author, from a large, private
West Coast university were the raters for this study. All were White females. Two were
in their early thirties and the third was over the age of 45.
40

Measures
Two measures were used in this study. During the first phase, a variant of
Flanagan’s (1950) Critical Incident Technique (CIT) was used to identify incidents or
experiences that had occurred during college that had influence on participants’ personal
identity development. For the second, quantitative phase, the measure was a Paired
Comparison Questionnaire.
The College Years Experience Questionnaire (CYEQ)

The point of this study was to attain, “a relatively unconstrained description”
(Daughtry & Kunkel, 1993, p. 317) of the ways college students construe and experience
impacts of the community college on their identity development, and to understand the
organization and salience of the various elements of their experience.
The CIT was particularly suitable to achieve this objective as it allowed students
to determine which incidents were most relevant to them based on their perceptions of
their identity development, without any preconception or predetermination of what would
be important to them. It allowed them as free a range of responses as possible within an
overall research framework; they developed the context entirely from their perspective;
and provided the data in their own terms and language and based on their own
experiences without being forced into any given framework (Gremler, 2004).
41

The College Years Experience Questionnaire (CYEQ; Appendix B) was
developed for this study. Based on CIT, it was an open-ended questionnaire in which
students were asked to describe a critical event which had happened to them in the
community college. Open ended questionnaires enable researchers to understand and
capture the points of view of the participants without predetermining those views through
prior selection of questionnaire categories (Patton, 2002). Also open-ended survey
questions, in comparisons to interviews, can offer greater anonymity to respondents and
often elicit more honest responses (Erickson & Kaplan, 2000).
The CYEQ was developed and then refined through pilot testing by members of
the research team. Additionally to the open-ended question, it had two questions. One
asked participants to rate (on a seven point scale, 1=very negative, and 7=very positive)
the degree to which they experienced this incident as positive. The second question,
asked them to rate the eventual effect of this incident on their sense of self, using the
same seven-point scale.
Paired Comparisons Questionnaire
The paired –comparison questionnaire was based on the categories developed by
the raters. Each category was paired with every other category and the pairs were listed in
a questionnaire form. Participants were asked to rate the similarity of each concept pair
on a five point scale (1=very dissimilar, 2= dissimilar, 3= somewhat similar, 4=similar,
and 5=very similar). The number of items on such a questionnaire depends on the number
of themes or categories developed according to the formula N (N-1)/2, where N is the
42

number of categories. Because 12 categories were developed during Phase One, the
Paired Comparison Questionnaire Form included 66 items. The item pairs were
presented in the questionnaire in a random order, the sequence of which was determined
according to the random numbers table. The measure is presented in the CSRS
(Appendix C).
Procedures
Phase One- Critical Incident Data Collection
The goals were to recruit at least 100 students who met four criteria. They were to
be (1) first-generation college students; (2) Armenian Americans; (3) enrolled at a
community college for at least one semester of course work; and, (4) were between the
ages of 18 and 24.
Participants were drawn from a large comprehensive public community college in
the Southern California area. The President of the Armenian Student Association (ASA)
organization (with a membership of about 3500) was contacted as key liaison and helped
to recruit Phase One study participants. A flyer was provided to the president who
distributed it to all ASA members, asking students who meet the criteria to participate in
the study. The flyer contained basic information about the study and listed the time and
dates of the sessions for participants to complete the CYEQ.

43

Students were recruited during the ASA meetings that took place on Thursday
afternoons. The participants were given a research project information sheet (Appendix
A) with the College Years Experience Questionnaire (Appendix B) that was to be
completed and handed back.
Eighty three completed forms were received from students at the Armenian
Student Association meeting. The other 17 responses were received from an on-line
survey.
The final question on the CYEQ asked Phase One participants if they were
interested in participating in the second phase of this study. If the participant answered
yes to this question, they were given the opportunity to enter an email address to be used
to notify them when the CSRS was available for completion. Forty-seven (75.8%) of the
62 Phase One participants indicated they would like to participate in the second phase of
the study and entered an email address. When the CSRS was available, the author sent an
email to the 47 individuals.
The CYEQ (Appendix B) was adapted to enable respondents to access it online
and it then was posted on an online survey service. The author provided the contacts at
the primary sites a solicitation email to send to potential participants. The email included
the web address where the CYEQ could be accessed. When potential participants logged
into the survey, they were given the opportunity to either read the Research Project
Information Sheet (Appendix A) or proceed directly to the questionnaire to complete the
demographic information and the set of critical incidents.
44

The CYEQ remained open on the survey service until 100 useable incidents
(recorded in either the first and/or second section) were obtained. An incident was
determined as useable if the respondent’s answers to the demographic items met the three
criteria of the study and at least one incident was provided. When 100 useable incidents
were obtained; the survey was closed on the service.
Phase Two. The CSRS (Appendix C) was adapted to enable participants to
access the survey online and was posted on an online survey service. The Phase One
participants who had provided an email address for Phase Two notification were sent a
notification email by the author. The CSRS remained open until 18 useable responses
were received. As with Phase One, a response was determined to be useable if the
respondent’s answers to the demographic items met the study criteria and they completed
the 66 rating items on the questionnaire. When 18 useable responses were received; the
CSRS was closed on the service.
Data Analyses
Phase One-Developing Themes
The 100 critical incidents were typed into a Word file exactly as the students had
described their experiences. These were provided to the raters who independently
reviewed the incidents and identified a single overarching theme that would characterize
each incident. These results were shared with other members of the team who worked
together to create categories through at least two rounds of discussion, and consensus.
These categories constituted the results of the first stage of the study (What categories of
45

college related impacts will first-generation Armenian American community college
students report as having been particularly important to the development of their sense of
self?) and also then became the basis for the College Years Experience Similarity Rating
Scale (Appendix c) used in Phase Two of the study.
Phase Two: Quantitative Data Analyses
Paired-Comparisons Data Collection
For phase two, the same classroom used for the ASA general meeting that had
been the source of Phase One participant was visited. This phase of the study was
described and volunteers were requested. All 15 students participated. As with the first
phase, these data were collected anonymously, voluntarily, and without compensation to
participants.
Similarity Matrix
Data from the Paired Comparisons Questionnaire were entered into a 12 X 12
matrix in an Excel spreadsheet. Similarity scores from the 15 participants were summed
for each of the 66 possible paired-comparisons. These were entered into a matrix which
has as many rows and columns as there are statements (Trochim, 1989a). In such a
matrix, a high value in any particular cell indicates that participants considered that pair
of categories to be similar, whereas a low value indicates that the respondents considered
that pair of items to be less similar (Trochim, 1989a). These data then were imported into
an SPSS file for the MDS and cluster analysis that served as the basis for the concept
mapping (Goodyear et al., 2005).
46

Concept Mapping
The similarity ratings of themes were then subjected to both non-metric multidimensional
scaling (MDS) and cluster analyses, with the overall aim of depicting the structures the
student participants used in thinking of the impacts the community college had on them.
Multidimensional Scaling (MDS)
Choosing the optimal number of dimensions is not always easy (Goodyear et. al.,
2005). The relative fit of the MDS solution to the data should serve as the primary
selection criterion. The common indicator of fit is stress1, which is the square root of the
normalized residual sum of squares. Values of zero indicate perfect fit of the model to the
data whereas, larger values indicate less fit; a value of one indicates perfect instability. A
one-dimension solution with a stress1<.15 suggests that this solution is the best
representation (Kruskal & Wish, 1978).
However, according to Trochim (as cited in Bedi, 2006), a value of less than .30
represents a stable MDS solution for multivariate concept mapping, whereas a value over
.40 indicates that the data were not consistently sorted. During data analysis, the stress1
value for a three dimensional solution and a two dimensional solution were calculated.
However, because only two dimensions could be used for this graphical representation,
that two-dimensional solution was used.

47

Hierarchical Cluster Analysis
Clustering focuses on the discrete categories that represent the person or group’s
implicit grouping of concepts (Goodyear et al., 2005). Hierarchical cluster analysis was
used to explore whether the data are better depicted with discrete rather than dimensional
representation. Clustering focuses on differences of type, rather than the differences of
amount (the focus of MDS), and allows for the examination of how the themes generated
are qualitatively different. The similarity matrix was examined using both hierarchical
clustering and add-tree clustering methods. These methods rely on different assumptions
and presentation of these different assumptions is beyond the scope of this study.
However, by using both methods and looking for commonalities, there can be more
confidence in any structures produced More focus was placed on hierarchical clustering,
using Euclidean distance and Ward’s method of linkage. Borgen and Barnett (1987)
wrote that the selection of the number of clusters is rarely clear and selection procedures
range from informal to statistical. As was stated above, the focus of this study is on
interpretability and ease of use, so informal procedures were used. The logic used is
similar to the screen test in factor analysis (Goodyear et al., 2005).
The data are presented in the form of a dendrogram in hierarchical clustering. A
dendrogram is a representation of the distance of each theme from each other
commonalities, there can be more confidence in any structures produced More focus was
placed on hierarchical clustering, using Euclidean distance and Ward’s method of
linkage, with the added check of complete linking.
48

After the cluster representation was selected the clusters were named. To
accomplish this task; the raters individually reviewed the themes that formed each
cluster and the incidents that were assigned those over-arching themes. Short
phrases were composed that described the themes that made up each cluster. The
raters discussed the short phrases (in-person and via email) and a word was selected that
adequately described the themes in each cluster.

49

Chapter III
Results
This chapter represents the results of the data analysis for the two phases of this
study. Each section included the research question that was used to guide that phase of
the study. Phase One incorporated a qualitative approach to identify categories of
impacts that first-generation Armenian American Community College Students had
experienced. Phase Two employed on quantitative data to depict a concept map of these
students’ experience.
Research Question 1
The first research question was: What categories of college related impacts will
first-generation Armenian American community college students report as having
been particularly important to the development of their sense of self?
Participants generated 100 critical incidents, in which are reported in Appendix C.
Then, the raters clustered them into 12 emerging categories that were used in the analyses
and presented later in the graphical representations of the results.
Categories Definitions and Incident Excerpts
Defining the categories and presenting excerpts from the CYEQ incidents
demonstrate the components that contributed to the development and wording of each
theme. These components build on the examples used to describe each of the derived

50

themes in the Phase Two CSRS (Appendix C) and provide a more in-depth understanding
of what categories of college-related sources of impacts this study’s participants—first-
generation Armenian American community college students— reported as having been
particularly important to the development of their sense of self.
Joining the Armenian Student Association. Eight of the 100 incidents fit into this
category, making it one of the four most frequently cited categories of experience that
affected the identity of study participants. Students join a cultural club at school because
they want to learn more about their cultural heritage and participate in the cultural
activities. An example was:
“Armenian Culture Day was an important experience. The ASA was
involved and it showed everything about my culture from its music, dances,
food, heritage costumes, and etc. It showed where I come from, history of my
ancestors in which is the music, dance, interpretations etc.”
A 19 year-old stated female student:
“There have been many experiences that had negative and positive
influences on me. One of which was when I joined the Armenian Club. For
me, it was not only interacting with friends, and finding new ones, but it also
gave me the chance to see life differently. Since we do concentrate mostly on
issues of Armenians, it was an opportunity for me to see what is really going
on around me. We had several guest speakers that we came happily to give us
more information about issues that I personally did not know about. This club
51

is a great way for students, to come together and come up with solutions for
the long run. This experience also let me take life more seriously.”
Another 22 year-old junior remarked:

“Joining the Armenian student association resulted in making 2 true life-
long friends and giving back to the community as well as getting in touch with
my heritage, which I may not have done otherwise.”
Encountering Professors or Counselors who gave me bad advice or treated me
rudely. Ten out of the 100 participants responded were classified in this category. This
category focuses on students’ perceptions of how their professors or counselors did not
help them succeed on in their classes and are being given the wrong information.
Students feel that they are being treated rude by their professors and counselors. A
freshmen female student said:
“My listening and speaking teacher was very mean and after his wrong
attitude I couldn’t learn the subject. Before I liked to study that subject
and I was considered the best student in the class.”
Another student said:

“One of my junior counselors tricked me into taking some computer
classes that were not credited. She also encouraged me to take courses that
would not count towards my major.”

52

Another student mentioned:

“I had a music class. Back then I really liked music, so I decided to take
music120. My teacher was so rude and didn’t grade me properly. I dropped
the class with a “W”, which later affected my educational goal, since I wanted
to get into USC.”
Disassociating from old friends because of new goals, interests, or aspirations.
Four of the 100 responses were classified into this category. The type of experiences
included in this category concerned not considering old friends to be in the same
wavelength as before entering college, because they want to pursue other goals, interests
and have other aspirations. A 24-year old female student said:
“About a year into college, I realized that the people I was friends with
weren’t headed down the same path that I wanted to head down. I made the
decision to slowly separate myself from them and associate with people that
had the same goals as I did. It was a good decision because I went after my
goals and they soon followed as well. It was a win-win situation.”
Another sophomore male student at the age of 19 stated:
“In my first year at college, I would occasionally converse with my friends
from high school. We would regularly talk about non-educational, useless
things, focusing on short-term goals rather than our futures; as if we were still
in high school. Although I had easily joined in those conversations and had
no problem with them, I felt a sense of disgust that people would remain so
53

callous and never even consider what was going to happen to them in a couple
of years. This particular experience stood out in that I was only one in that
group who cared of what was going to happen after college. This really
shaped my outlook on realizing not to end up callous on such important like
that.”
Forming a community of friends and support. Responses of seven participants
were classified into this category. Incidents in this category involve forming a social
relationship with new people on campus such as: classmates, peers, lab partners, study
groups. Classmates become student’s support network. Developing camaraderie among
peers. One such example was by freshmen female at the age of 18 said:
“I have been in college for one semester only and I have not had any
overly dramatic incidents happen. However, one occurrence that comes to my
mind as I am writing this was when we spent the whole day studying for our
chemistry final and at night we went to Borders to study a couple more hours.
The persons involved were simply my classmates. We helped each other with
ideas we did not understand and explaining concepts to each other helped me
grasp the information better and have a better understanding of it. A long term
effect could be that the information we studied and went over is bound to stay
in my mind longer because it was a memorable experience even though we
were just studying.”

54

Another 21 year-old female student also mentioned:

“The most influential experience I experienced at GCC was last summer
during microbiology course. Interacting and meeting new people has always
been important for me, but none had been like the incident to follow. I
befriended a girl that was three years older than me. I can now say she has
been a key factor in my decision in becoming a doctor. I had always dreamed,
however, her influence, love and encouragement were what I needed to make
my decision and pursue my goal and make my dream come true.”
Another freshman 19 year-old commented:

“Making friends, being social and being involved with other students were a
positive experience due to a teacher who made me feel comfortable and
confident.”
Encountering gender discrimination. Two responses were assigned this category,
one of the two with the fewest number of responses. This category concentrated on
participants perception that gender peers will not accept them in their majors, or feeling
stereotyped because of ethnicity and or sexual harassed by others on campus. An 18
year-old female freshmen wrote:
“I am an architecture major student. Every time I would go to my architecture
class, and the guys would say that I am a female and that architecture is for
guys. I would always feel bad. But after the final grades were posted, I proved
them that the girls can be architects, even thought the girls don't like it.”
55

Another student remarked:

“I had always wanted to become a cardiologist and one day there was a
conversation with my family members that made me realize why I really
wanted to be a doctor. Being Armenian and a girl, we have certain
responsibilities when we get married. However, I was frustrated that
everyone thought I shouldn’t have such a demanding career. This experience
was important because it helped me be more assured of what I wanted to do
with my life. I learned that other people’s discouragement gives me more
determination to not give up on my goals. My mom was my support system
in my decision.”
Participating in student government, volunteer or intern experience. Six
responses detailed the experiences of pursuing student government on campus, or
volunteering at the learning center or having an internship opportunity that leads to
picking out their goals for their future. A 19 year-old freshmen student stated:
“Participating in the STARS volunteering program at GAR services,
which is a Glendale Association for the Mentally Retarded, made me realize
that I am caring, but yet a boring person. The people were very generous and
nice. At first, I felt uncomfortable working with the mentally ill, but as time
passed by I felt much more comfortable.”

56

Another 19 year-old female pointed out:
“…I was given the opportunity to be involved in an internship position
with a local political figure. I worked on his reelection campaign and was
exposed to how the political system works. (b) Yes, with my professor and the
political figure. (c) Prior to this experience I was not clear as to the in's/out's
of the political system. My parents were immigrants and were not aware of the
political system so we limited our involvement in it. However, after being the
first person in my family to be involved in this type of activity I was able to
provide this information to my family and have they involved in the political
system. (d) Providing confidence and knowledge in the working of a valued
American system (our political process) which I will someday pursue as a
career.”
Finding career direction through an academic/classroom experience. Four
responses fit this category. This category implies that students take various courses
and realize that they want to either pursue a different career field or realize that they
belong in their field. A 21 year-old Sophomore revealed:

57

“Talking to a lawyer at my school, who was a guest speaker, made me
realize that I want to become a lawyer. He told me about his work
thoroughly, I even got to go to a courtroom with him and experienced the
whole event that took place at the courtroom. This experience made me
realize that I want to become a lawyer.”
Another 20 year-old female student observed:

“Participating in Gear Up tutoring program at Glendale Community
College made me realize that I like working with high school students. I also
realized that I want to become a teacher. The concept of teaching rose, I had
never thought of becoming one.”
Another 21 year-old stated:

“When I transferred to GCC, I wanted to become a social worker. I’d like
to help people with any questions they have. I found a job in a program called
GEAR UP, tutoring middle school students, and liked it very much. This
made me realize that my major is the right choice for me.”
Being encouraged or advised by an instructor or counselor.
Eighteen incidents were appointed to this category. The professors and/or
counselors take a personal interest in the success of the student. The professors and/or
counselors recognize the individual student’s abilities and achievements. The professors
and/or counselors encouraged the student to keep trying and not give up.
58

“I was sitting in lab with one of my friends finishing our lab and our
teacher, Ron Harlen, came to talk to us. We were worried about not
succeeding at UCLA because it was going to be too hard for us and he told us
that we were going to do just fine. He gave us advice and motivated us.
This experience was important because he gave us hope and made us realize
that we can do it. The long term effect has been that I’m more confident
about what I can do now.”
Another student declared:
“My student development class teacher who was also a counselor in our
college helped me to choose the right classes. He showed me the right way to
move on in my life.”
Another 21 year-old Junior student said:
“One of the counselors at GCC was so nice that she pushed me into
graduating as soon as possible. She believed in me when no one else did. She
was there for me when I had questions and believed me. She always found
the answers for me. Spring 2007 will be the last semester at GCC, with this, I
could say I achieved with one of my educational goals.”

59

A 19 year-old Sophomore male student indicated:

“I was undecided as to my major and failing my psychology class, due to
the lack of interest in school. My professor sat with me and offered to tutor
me. Within time my grades were back up, my test scores improved and I had
a sense of direction. I enjoy school now and know what the future holds for
me.”
Being confronted with a low grade or the need to drop a class. Five incidents
comprised this category. It concerned negative experiences that affected the students’
sense of self. Receiving low grades in class assignments and/ or feeling overwhelmed
by classes; which leads to students to drop the class? Students feel like a failure when
they make mistakes in their courses and so they decide to drop their classes. An 18
year-old Freshmen female affirmed:
“Last fall semester I received my first failing grade in a class. Even though
I tried my hardest and did whatever I could to keep up in the class, it just
didn't work. This was like a wake-up call for me, because I realized I have to
take college much more seriously. I realized I needed to put more effort into
my classes, and that good grades will not be just handed out to me, I’m going
to have to earn them.”

60

As one more 19 year-old Freshmen testified:
“When I decided to drop one of my classes. I got really depressed because
I thought I was failing during my first semester. However, I realized that it has
nothing to do with success. I’m still confident that I’ll make a great academic
progress.”
Another 19 year-old Freshmen female uttered:

“During the spring semester of 06’ I was really struggling with one of my
major courses. I ended up dropping the class, which was really devastating
because I’ve always done well in school. It impacted me a lot because it
actually made me think about changing my major and doing something
different with my life. But I’ve took the class and realized that sometimes
certain things deserve a second chance even though you fail the first time. So,
I took it again and I got a “B” in the class. I realized that I can do it even if it
requires a second try.”
Experiencing increased self-awakening through a course or real-life experience.
Thirty responses were assigned to this category, making it the largest. This
category centered on events, incidents and/or experiences learned in a class or outside
of class that opened the student’s mind to new possibilities. Curriculum taught in
class challenged and changed student’s personal views or opinions. Information
presented in class prompted the student to search deeply within themselves to better
understand issues that affected them and their family. Class allowed students to view
61

their past and provided a vision for the future. A Junior 21 year-old female student
said:
“The experience that I had as a sophomore was when I was taking a speech
class and had to do several presentations in front of the class. It was my first
time getting up in front of college students and I was really embarrassed. I
was really frightened and I remember my hands shaking and my head
spinning. I was really nervous. I think just getting up in front of the class
taught me to be strong and positive.”
Another Junior female student commented:
“I think while I took the Armenian Diaspora class it influenced me so
much to be more involved with my community and the Armenian society.
Just the fact to try to become familiar with different types of Armenians
without analyzing them, has helped me to have a better attitude especially at
school!”
Encountering discrimination based on ethnicity or immigrant status.
Two incidents fit this category. This category also had a negative affect on
students’ sense of self. The category is centered on students’ feel that they are feeling
belittled by professor comments. Professors and or counselors are not taking the time
to getting to know them or care about their culture. Counselors are misinforming them.

62

A 21 year-old male student stated:
“My English 101 Instructor asked a question, “Where do you see yourself
in 5 years from now?” I replied, “I will be in law school.” He laughed at me
and said, “With your immigrant accent, do you really think you will be
accepted to law school.” Now that I am accepted to a four year school in the
spring semester, then afterwards, I will be attending law school. Then I will
head back to Glendale to see if he is still teaching there, so I can laugh at him.
I can’t wait until that day.”
In addition, another 19 year-old male student uttered:
“My grade was between a “C” and a “B” and I asked my teacher if I can do
extra-credit assignment to get a higher grade. He refused, adding that I am
one of those people that end up playing cards instead, and the grade will not
make a difference.”
Balancing school responsibilities with work and family.
Three responses comprised this category. Participants in this category are
accountable for their duties as a college student, as a working adult and holding
family obligations. A male student mentioned:
“Working full time and going to school to support my family, finally gave
realization that I want to go to medical school. My Professor of Biology
helped me out a lot with recommendations for the schools. This experience
gave me an understanding of how difficult it would be to be in school and
63

follow my goals with having to work full time. My teacher gave me advice on
what to do. Helped me out a lot. Reinforced in me that I really want to be a
doctor.”
Another freshmen female student said:
“I had taken 20 units and near finals I had become extremely stressed and
on the verge of a nervous breakdown. My sister stood out and calmed me
down, brought my hopes up, made me feel confident and hopeful about my
future. This has made me take with me the feeling of self-strength and
motivation to guide me through school and life.”
Descriptive Analysis
Table 1 lists 12 categories of impacts of student’s identity development,
frequency of responses of each category, the mean (M) and the standard deviation
(SD) of the scores from the respondents’ gave those incidents as a positive
experience and eventual effect on sense of self.
Table 1
Number of Incidents in Category and Average Ratings of Positivity and Long
Term Impact

Category Abbreviations No. of Positive Exp. Sense of Self
Incidents M SD M SD
Experienced self-awakening Self Awak 30 6.20 1.40 6.43 1.00

Being encouraged by Encourage 18 6.67 0.60 6.50 1.78
Professor/Counselor

Getting Bad/Rude Advice Bad Advice 10 2.00 1.56 2.80 2.10

Joining Armenian Cultural 8 6.56 1.01 7.00 1.01
Student Association
64

Table 1: Continued

Forming a community of Friendship 7 6.42 0.82 6.43 0.80
friends and support

Participating in Student Extra Curr 6 6.33 0.82 6.50 0.55
government, volunteer or
intern experience

Confronted with a low grade Low Drop 5 4.80 2.22 4.30 3.00
or the need to drop a class

Dissociating from old Dissociation 4 6.00 2.00 6.25 1.00
friends because of new goals

Finding career direction Career 4 5.25 1.00 5.75 1.26
through an academic/
classroom experience

Balancing school and work BalResp 3 6.33 0.60 6.33 0.60
Responsibilities with family

Encountering gender Gender Di 2 4.00 4.24 3.00 2.12
discrimmination

Being discriminated based on Ethnicity 2 4.00 1.01 6.00 1.41
ethnicity or immigrant status

The majority of the 100 incidents were reported to have occurred when
participants were in their sophomore year in college (n = 38). The other incidents were
reported to have occurred as follows: 23 incidents occurred when the participants were
junior; 19 incidents occurred when the participants were freshman; and 18 incidents
occurred when the participants were seniors. The length of time (in years) that had
elapsed since the incidents occurred ranged from .08 (one month) to 30, with the mean
length of time being 3.93 years (SD = 5.57).
65

Although, community college is a two-year institution, many students are staying
longer than projected. When these students transfer to a four-year institution, they are
still required to take upper division courses in their majors and will most likely be
considered at a junior status.
Positive Value Rating
Participants were asked two questions about the incident they reported. The first
question was to rate “the degree to which you experienced this incident or experience as
positive” on a 7-point continuum scale, ranging from very negative (1) to very positive
(7). The second was to rate “the eventual effect this incident or experience had on your
sense of self, “and it utilized the same 7-point continuum scale.
As shown in Table 1, eight categories of experiences were perceived as positive,
with mean values ranging from 5 to 7-point scale. The categories for mean values for
positive experience included: 5.25 (Career), 6 (Dissociation), 6.20 (Self Awake), 6.33
(Balance Responsibilities) and (Extra Curriculum), 6.42 (Friendship), 6.56 (Cultural),
and 6.67 (Encourage). Four categories were perceived as negative, with a mean values
ranging from 2.00 (Bad Advice), 4.00 (Gender Discrimination) and (Ethnicity), and 4.80
(Low/Drop).
As a sidebar, Encourage received the most positive rating. Closely second was
Cultural received the second most positive rating and lastly SelfAwake had the most
experience collected with a total of 30 was a positive experience in Phase One. In
addition, received Bad Advice received the most negative rating.
66

Eventual Effect of Experience on Sense of Self
The second question asked the students to assess “the eventual effect this incident
or experience had on your sense of self” using the 7-point scale. As Table 1 indicates,
many students rated incidents differently on the Eventual Effect on Sense of Self than on
the Positive Value scale. The only mean values that was similar with a 6.33 rating was
(Balance Responsibility) for both Positive Experience and Eventual Effect on Sense of
Self. The mean value for the most positive eventual effect is seven (Cultural), whereas
the lowest value is 2.80 (Bad Advice). Cultural had the highest positive mean value for
the initial question as Bad Advice had the most negative mean value for the initial
question.
Five of the categories (Cultural, Friendship, Extra Curriculum, Career and Self
Awake) mean values were rated more positively as compared with the value for the initial
experience. Three of the categories (Bad Advice, Dissociation and Ethnicity) mean
values were rated more negatively than the previous value. Three categories (Gender
Discrimination, Encourage and Low/Drop) mean values were rated more negatively than
the previous value, although the above-mentioned mean values vary, it is important to
consider that the differences between the initial incident and eventual effect questions are
not extremely significant.

67

Research Question 2
The research question that guided Phase Two of this study was: What
conceptual map do first-generation Armenian American community college
students use to organize their experience of these categories of experiences?
Data from ratings of between categories similarities generated from Phase One
studies were analyzed to determine how student participants conceptually organized their
experiences. Non-metric multi-dimensional scaling and cluster analyses were presented
to data to represent structures the participants used in thinking of the sources of impact
that the community college had on their development.
Multidimensional Scaling Analysis (MDS)
This study employed Trochim’s (1989a) recommendation to confine the MDS
results to two dimensions. The two dimensional solution yielded a stress of .20 and an
RSQ of .80. The RSQ values signify the proportion of variance of the scales data within
the entire data, which is accounted for each dimension solutions were different.
The iteration history in the two dimensional analysis is shown below. It shows
four iterations. Further iteration was stopped because S-stress improvement was less than
.001.

68

Iteration S-Stress Improvement
1 .28290
2 .24233 .04057
3 .23870 .00363
4 .23841 .00028

The two dimensional analysis yielded stimulus coordinates as presented in Table
2.
Table 2
Stimulus Coordinates in Two Dimensional MDS Analysis

Stimulus Dimension Dimension
Name 1 (x) 2 (y)
Cultural 2.46 .50

Bad Advice .03 .64

Dissociation .90 -.24

Friendship -2.40 .58

Gender Discrimination 1.14 -.47

Extra Curriculum .23 1.41

Career -.10 -1.01

69

Table 2: Continued

Encourage .07 -1.36

Low/Drop -.16 -.80

Self Awake -1.01 .27

Ethnicity -1.05 -.38

Bal Responsibility -.08 .87

Using the coordinates in Table 3, Figure 1 graphically depicts the Two
Dimensional MDS configuration. On this map, each category is represented by a point
and the distance between the points represents how similar the categories were judged to
be by the participants; the further apart less similar. The position of each point on the
map is not important; only the distance or spatial relationship between the points
(Jackson & Trochim, 2002).

70

Figure 1. Two-dimensional MDS configuration of stimulus categories of Table 3.
(Dimension 1 is the X-axis and Dimension 2 id the Y-axis.)

TWO DIMENSIONAL MDS CONFIGURATION
Concepts in two-dimensional space
Dimension 1

Encourage
Career
LowDrop
BalResp
Self Awak
Friendship
Bad Advice
Ethnicity
Gender Dif
Cultural CL
Extra Curr
2 3 1
Dissociate
0 -1 -2 -3
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
-0.5
-1
-1.5

71

Interpretation of Dimensions
Goodyear et al. (2005) indicated that the interpretation of dimensions is a
constructive task. For this purpose, it attributes meaning to the two dimensions by
analyzing what particular categories students had placed at the extremes of the two
dimensions.
Dimension 1. This, the vertical dimension or the Y-axis, is anchored by
Encourage (weight -1.36), Career (weight -1.01) on one end and Extra Curriculum (
weight 1.41) and Gender Discrimination (weight -.47), and Disassociation (weight -.24).
The raters’ consensus was that the main theme here was Growth. Students had to adjust
to their new environments such as: learning and focusing on their career, dealing with
gender discrimination from peers, feeling encouraged by their teachers, and
disassociating from old friends that are negative. This dimension is labeled Growth
through Intimate Contact vs. through Growth through Group Contact.
Dimension 2. This is the horizontal or the X-axis. This dimension had
Friendship (weight -2.40), Self Awake (weight -1.01) and Ethnicity (weight -1.05) and on
the other end, it was a Cultural Club (weight 2.46). The most important point here
seemed to be Motivation. Students were motivated in college such as: enthusiastic in
building friendships with peers, one’s own self development in adulthood, beginning to
balance responsibilities from work, family and school, and joins cultural group on
campus to feel connected. This dimension, hence, was labeled Motivation through
Classroom Environment vs. Through Non-classroom Environment.
72

Hierarchical Cluster Analysis
The similarity data were analyzed using hierarchical cluster analysis. The
agglomeration schedule using Ward’s linkage method is presented in Table 3.

Table 3
Cluster Analysis using Word Linkage: Agglomeration Schedule

Stage Cluster Combined Stage Cluster Next
No. Cluster Coefficients First Appears Stage
Cluster:
______________ _____________
1 2 1 2

1 3 5 974 0 0 6
2 9 11 1989 0 0 7
3 7 8 3072 0 0 6
4 2 12 4264 0 0 9
5 4 10 5616 0 0 0
6 3 7 7915 1 3 8
7 6 9 10525 0 2 8
8 3 6 13665 6 7 9
9 2 3 17071 4 8 10
10 1 2 21582 0 9 11
11 1 4 27188 10 5 0

The resulting dendrogram depicts the hierarchical clustering and represents the
distance of each category from other categories shown in Figure 2.

73

Figure 2. Dendrogram Using Ward Method
Rescaled Distance Cluster Combine
C A S E 0 5 10 15 20 25
Label Num +------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+
Dissocia 3
GenderDi 5
Career 7
Encourag 8
LowDrop 9
Ethnicit 11
ExtraCur 6
BadAdvic 2
BalResp 12
Cultural 1
Friendsh 4
SelfAwak 10

The dendrogram begins with each category as its own cluster and then
progressively the categories begin to merge into clusters and finally all the categories
merge into one cluster. At point 10 on the dendrogram a five-cluster solution that meets
the study criteria of ease of use and interpretability is apparent and this solution was
selected for the concept map. Moreover, the five clusters are commonality among the
categories of cluster that is the defining attribute of that particular cluster. Raters
allocated labels to the five clusters based on the meaning of the themes that comprised
each cluster. Those labels and the categories that form each cluster are displayed in
Table 4.

74

Table 4
Themes by Cluster Name
Personal Growth
Disassociate from old friends because of new goals/interests or aspirations
Encountering Gender Discrimination
Finding career direction through an academic/classroom experience
Being encouraged or advised by an Professors and Counselors
Persistence
Being confronted with a low grade or the need to drop a class
Encountering discrimination based on ethnicity or immigrant status
Participating in student government, volunteer, or intern experience
Accountability
Encountering Professors or Counselors who gave bad advice or rude
Balancing school responsibilities with work and family
Heritage
Joining the Armenian Student Association
Socialization
Forming a community of friends and support
Experiencing increased self-awakening through a course or real-life experience

The three raters named the five clusters based on the categories represented within
each cluster. In cluster one, each of the four categories of experience is a mechanism
whereby decisions being made are based on students’ personal growth, potentially
reframing his or her sense of self of growth. It expresses how individuals can change in
their beliefs, attitudes and behavior. The categories do provide the personal perspective of
the participants to make their own decisions on dealing with their environments. The
cluster was named Personal Growth.

75

Cluster two categories show that participants are determined to continue to work
hard in their classes whether it is in the classroom or out-of-the-classroom, even despite
problems or obstacles. This category shows students willpower in accomplishing their
goals, regardless of feeling like a failure or feeling that someone is putting them down.
This cluster was named Persistence.
This cluster’s essence is responsibility in balancing school, job, family and school
agents. Students acknowledge that they are in control of their own life. In spite of
receiving a negative guidance from a trustworthy source such as a professor and or
counselor and having a challenging time in balancing the many obligations that comes
with becoming independent. This cluster is titled Accountability.
Cluster four has a single category, Joining the Armenian Student Association, and
is titled Heritage, for the categories all speak in some way to how students show
appreciation of their roots. These students voluntarily made the decision to join a cultural
club on campus to understand and to be aware of issues pertaining to their culture.
Finally, cluster five titled Socialization and is comprised of two categories:
Forming a community of friends and support and Experiencing increased self-awakening
through a course or real-life experience. The core of this cluster displays how students
are social adept in his or her surroundings. The connection in this cluster shows how they
play a key role in his or her partake of their surroundings.

76

The combination of the MDS and the cluster analysis resulted in the concept map
shown in Figure 3, graphically represents how first-generation Armenian-Americans
community college students conceptually organize their understanding of the impact of
college on their sense of self.
Figure 3. Concept Map with Named Clusters

TWO DIMENSIONAL MDS CONFIGURATION

Concepts in two-dimensional space
-1.5
-1
-0.5
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
-3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3
Extra Curr
Cultural CL
Gender Dif
Dissociate
Ethnicity
Bad Advice Friendship
Self Awak
BalResp
LowDrop
Career
Encourage
Heritage
Socialization
Accountability
Personal Growth
Persistence
Intimate Contact vs. Group Contact
77

Dimension 1 was labeled Growth through Intimate Contact vs. through Group
Contact and Dimension 2 was Motivation through Classroom Environment vs. through
Non-classroom Environment. The points are plotted and the five clusters (Personal
Growth, Persistence, Accountability, Heritage and Socialization) are circled and named.

78

CHAPTER IV
Discussion
The study provided valuable insights of how first-generation Armenian American
community college students perceive college-related events and experiences that have
affected their identity development and how first-generation Armenian American
students conceptually organized those factors of impact.
This chapter discusses the findings related to each of the research question that
guided the study. The limitations of the study, directions for future research and
implications for higher education practitioners (Student Affairs Professionals, Faculty,
Administrators) are also presented.
Findings in Relation to Research Questions
College Experiences First-Generation Armenian American Students Perceive as
Impacting their Sense of Self
The 100 events, experiences, and relationships that first-generation Armenian-
American community college students identified as influential on their sense of self or
identity formation were clustered by raters into 12 general categories of experience (see
Table 1).
The category experiencing increased self-awakening through a course or real-life
experience was the category with the most reported incidents. These incidents were
perceived as very positive experience and with a highly beneficial eventual effect on their
sense of self. This category states that these participants were occupied in increase
79

educationally learning, including: taking responsibility, learning from their mistakes,
doing something with their own lives, independent thinking, discovering their own
interest in a subject, and forming their own beliefs whether they can succeed. Chickering
and Ressier (1993) considered education that has an influential curriculum encourages
development and that method of teaching foster autonomy, identity, and purpose among
other things. Additionally, through taking courses, students become more critical,
reflective and sophisticated thinkers and increase their intellectual curiosity (Graham &
Cockriel, 1996, 1997; Pascarella & Terenzini, 1991, 2005).
This can be framed as a shift in locus of control. “Locus of control is referred to
which an individual is self-directed, believing in themselves to be in control of their fate”
(Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005, p. 223). Students who believe in themselves and realize
that they can be successful in their academic life will be more motivated in working hard
on their studies instead of leaving it for chance and therefore will succeed in colleges.
“Locus of control is related to learning and cognitive growth in all educational levels”
(Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005, p. 223).
Another category that addressed the most frequently mentioned incident of
support for first-generation Armenian-American community college students was being
encouraged or advised by an instructor or counselor. These participants rated this
impact of these incidents as a very positive experience and had a very strong eventual
effect on their sense of self.
80

Research confirms “those positive student-faculty interactions have impact on
student self-reported gains as the measure of learning” Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005,
p.123). Student-faculty relationships have been found to be critical in influencing
development of intellectual competence, autonomy, and interdependence, purpose,
integrity, creativity, sense of belonging, confidence and self-worth (Astin, 1999; Cheng,
2004; Chickering & Ressier, 1993; Johnson, 1995; Kuh, 1995; Pascarella, 1980).
First-generation Armenian American community college students who
participated in this study confirmed the importance of student-faculty relationships to
their personal identity development. Participants were affected by the particular qualities
that their professors and counselors displayed: take a personal interest in their success
and recognize the individual student’s abilities and achievements. The important
concerns for students were: can this professor/counselor help me to succeed in my
future?, and will the teacher/counselor encourage me to keep trying and not give up?
The students’ descriptions of these categories indicate that they want to have a
relationship with their professors and counselors. Students’ want to build this bond
because they want their professors and counselors to encourage them in their studies,
build confidence in them, they want to give their trust to an authority, give them words of
wisdom to succeed in their future. As mentioned by Evans et. al. (1998) it is important
for students to see faculty in a variety of situation involving difference roles and
responsibilities (p.41). These will lead students in viewing faculty as approachable and
81

will feel free in speaking with them. Students reported that with the encouragement of
their professors and counselors they are confident in themselves.
Students also want their professors and counselors to motivate them when they
feel that they can’t accomplish their tasks, treat them with kindness, help them when they
feel overwhelmed and always be supportive towards their decisions. Students report that
the continual support of professors and counselors will continue to affect them in a more
positive way as they state in comments such as: “She showed me the meaning of
strength, positiveness, and accomplishment. “A counselor who believed in me and
answered all of my questions, she was so nice that she pushed me to graduate as soon as
possible.”; “my counselor helped me fit school into my schedule”; and “she was very
nice.”
As a 19 year-old student said, “I recall a time I was in my English 104 class. The
teacher encouraged me to do better in my education. He is the reason why I want to be a
teacher. He left a very positive impression on me and everyone else in the class.”
On the other hand, respondents rated incidents with the over-arching themes of
encountering Professors or counselors who gave bad advice or rude as being a negative
experience. Unfortunately, rated low in the long-term effect category were encountering
professors and counselors who gave bad advice and treated students rudely. This
category was rated the lowest out of the 12 categories because students felt that their
professors and counselors did not help them succeed in their classes and were given the
wrong information.
82

Another source of impact was joining the Armenian Student Association (ASA)
indicated that joining the ASA was a positive experience for students sense of self. These
incidents reported by the participants indicated that they wanted to join a cultural club at
school to learn more about their heritage and to participate in the cultural activities at
school.
According to Evans et al. (1998) students who are involved in extracurricular
activities have more confidence, and can lead to developing purpose, developing mature
interpersonal relationships, and intimacy. As Astin stated that for students learning and
growth to take place, students need to actively engage in their environment.
First-generation Armenian American students rated high in the long-term effect
was joining the Armenian Student Association (ASA). Students joined the ASA because
they wanted to feel connected to their cultural heritage. They wanted to meet other
students with the same background to share a common bond with their peers. They feel
proud with pride in their heritage. They wanted to be part of the campus activity.
The very nature of the category of Forming a Community of friends and support
is founded by the participants’ involvement in general social relationships. Forming new
friends on campus, peers, lab partners, classmates, study group members, had with other
individuals from their classes or campus that they felt understood them. This category
was relevant for first-generation Armenian Americans students because it allows these

83

group of students to share mutual view points with others, share personal perspectives,
comments, and mutual support, however this category is not domain specific to first-
generation Armenian community college students.
These participants rated this impact of these incidents as a very positive
experience and had a very important eventual effect on their sense of self. The mean
values for this category reports that experiences were perceived as positive and the
participants perceived the experiences as influential on their sense of self and identity
formation. The literature review supports the founded outcomes.
A growing number of researchers suggest that having peer interactions influence
on learning both in a classroom environment and non-classroom situations. Researchers
also suggest that “if much learning is socially based, then students’ social and
extracurricular involvements have important implications for what is learned in college”
(Aleman, 1994, 1997; Baxter Magolda, 1992a; Kuh, 1995; Lamport, 1994; Love &
Goodsell Love, 1995; Moffatt, 1991; Rendon, 1994; Rendon & Jaloma, 1993; Terenzini,
Pascarella, & Blimling, 1996). In addition, Terenzini and Pascarella (2005) also suggest
that their previous research study of the 1990s was based on how student interactions
with peers influence learning. They go on to state that the most influential peer
interactions appear to be those that reinforce the ethos of the formal academic program
and extend it into classroom settings (p. 121).

84

Participating in student government, volunteer, or intern experience was pertinent
for first-generation Armenian American community college students because these
experiments allowed these participants’s to be involvement with non-classroom activities,
although this category could pertain to any other college students as well.
These participants rated this impact of these incidents as a very positive
experience and had a very important eventual effect on their sense of self. The mean
values for this category reports that experiences were perceived as positive and the
participants perceived the experiences as influential on their sense of self and identity
formation. The literature review supports the founded outcomes.
Kuh (1995) wrote out-of-class activities encouraged students to develop more
complicated views on personal, academic and other matters. Astin (1999) and
Chickering and Reisser (1993) also refer to the benefits of activities that fall under the
umbrella of campus communities. Furthermore, current experiences, situational factors,
critical incidents, instructive classes and involvement in the environment provide a
context to shape identity (Jones, 1997).
Incidents concerning being confronted with a low grade or the need to drop a
class had a negative impact of the experience on first-generation Armenian American
community college students and had a mean value for the eventual effect on the
participant’s sense of self. The participants perceived the experiences as a negative
impact on their sense of self or identity formation. This category was not anticipated
through the research provided in the literature review however it does relate to
85

Chickering and Reisser (1993) vector Second managing emotions, in which individuals
develop the ability to recognize and accept emotions and express them and they learn to
act on feelings in a responsible manner. This vector explains the development
individuals undergo when they first acknowledge that they are failing one of their courses
or having low grades on exams.
The category dissociating from old friends because of new goals, interest or
aspirations appeared four percent of the CYEQ responses. The category is founded by
incidents related to the participants’ separating from old friends because they do not share
the same interest.
This was interesting because the mean values for this category reports that
experiences were perceived as positive to participants experiences as influential on their
sense of self and identity formation. This category, like the previous one, was not
anticipated through the research provided in the literature review however it does
correlate to Chickering and Reisser (1993) vector One, Achieving Competence. This
vector explains that individuals have an increase competence in intellectual areas and
interpersonal relationships. Participants did not feel guilty from disassociating
themselves from their old friends and are capable to make an intelligent decision on the
relationships that they have with other individuals.

86

The category of finding a career direction through an academic classroom
experience is founded by incidents identifying experiences that were affecting
participant’s career direction through an academic classroom experience. Experiences in
this category were specific to first-generation Armenian American community college
students. They could pertain to any college student.
The mean values for this category reports that experiences were perceived as
positive to participants experiences as influential on their sense of self and identity
formation. This category was not anticipated through the research provided in the
literature review however it does correlate to Chickering and Reisser (1993) 6
th
vector
developing purpose of students asking themselves “Where I am going to be?”
Students also rated the impact of the incidents they provided. The feedbacks
were rated on average as exercising the most constructive definitive impact on them.
Those concerning impacts have been skills or experiences that they learned in a class or
outside that opened up their eyes and mind to new possibilities. These new possibilities
can exist in formal learned atmosphere in a classroom or informal setting outside of class.
These new found opportunities have given them confidence in deciding, organizing their
opinions and lives, “I realized I have so much potential in everything, that I am in charge
of my destiny”, “I figured myself out and found out what I want to do with the rest of my
life”, and as another student expressed, “Attending college was an interesting experience
because it made me “see the light”.
87

Another category, balancing school responsibilities with work and family was
founded by the incidents identifying experiences that were affecting participants learning
to balance their school responsibilities with working and family life. This category was
not just specific to first-generation Armenian American community college students and
could be pertain to any college student.
These participants rated balancing school responsibilities with work and family as
having had a very high on eventual effect on their sense of self. The mean values for this
category reports that experiences were perceived as positive and the participants
perceived the experiences as influential on their sense of self and identity formation. The
literature review supports Chickering and Reisser’s (1993) Vector of Moving Through
Autonomy Toward Interdependence. This particular vector focuses on individuals
having increased emotional dependence on their self-direction, problem-solving ability
and mobility.
Events in the category of encountering gender discrimination are not unique to
first-generation Armenian American college students. This category is founded by
incidents, which report the participant being discriminated because of gender by peers or
adults.
These participants rated these experiences of very negatively and as of having
destructive eventual effect on their sense of self and identity formation. The mean values
for this category demonstrate that experiences were perceived as negative and that the
participants perceived the experiences as harmful on their sense of self. The literature
88

review supports Chickering and Reisser’s (1993) Vector of Managing Emotions. This
particular vector focuses on individuals developing the ability to recognize and accept
emotions and express it in a responsible manner.
Lastly, participants rated encountering discrimination based on ethnicity or
immigrant status as negative, but not necessarily as having a detrimental eventual effect
on their sense of self. The literature review supports Chickering and Reisser’s (1993)
Vector of Managing Emotions as well as the previous one. This particular vector focuses
on individuals developing the ability to recognize and accept emotions and express it in a
responsible manner.
Perceived Effects of Experiences
Eight of the categories obtained a mean value of 5.00 or above in positivity which
indicated a very positive experience. The categories included: joining a cultural club,
dissociating from old friends because of new goals/interest or aspirations, forming a
community of friends and support, participating in extra curricular activities, finding a
career direction through an academic experience, being encouraged or advised by
professors and counselors, experiencing increased self-awakening through a course or
real-life experience, and balancing school responsibilities with work and family.

89

However, the remaining four categories possessed a mean value of 5.00 and
below, which revealed a very negative experience. These categories included:
encountering professors and or counselors who gave bad advice or rude, encountering
gender discrimination, being confronted with a low grade or the need to drop a class,
and encountering discrimination based on ethnicity or immigrant status.
Conceptual Categories of Experiences
The second research question that guided this study asked, what conceptual
maps do first-generation Armenian American community college students use to
organize their experience of these categories of experiences? In this study, concept
mapping was used to determine how participant in this study organize the themes that
emerged from Phase One incidents and is an incorporated approach to analyzing
qualitative data. Moreover, multidimensional scaling and hierarchical cluster analysis
were used to obtain information from the Paired Comparison Questionnaire from Phase
Two of the study.
Multidimensional Scaling Analysis:
The two-dimensional explanation of the CSRS data demonstrated how Phase Two
participants organized the 12 themes on the two dimensions. Multidimensional scaling
analysis combined with the Euclidean Distance model resulted in the creation of a plan
configuration that plotted 12 categories of experienced are located. Figure 1 in the

90

previous chapter demonstrates this configuration. An important factor in research is
multidimensional scaling analysis created coordinate estimates for each theme and by
placing each coordinate on a multi-dimensional map the distance between the statements
(Jackson & Trochim, 2002).
Figure 1 in chapter three demonstrates the Euclidean Distance Model and
configuration of the 12 themes. The framework is used to organize the 12 categories so
that the distance between the points located on the plane represents the degree of
similarity of one category to another category. Using the distance between statements as
a guide, the extremes on each dimension indicate the first-generation Armenian American
community college students who participated in Phase Two saw forming new friendship
as different than joining a cultural club on the first dimension and joining an extra
curriculum activities as very different than getting encouragement from professors and
counselors on the second dimension.
The division of the themes on the first dimension is clarified by the meaning
given to the dimension in chapter three. These show that there is a continuum between
intimate contacts versus group contact. Similarly, the meaning given to the second
dimension shows that there is a continuum between classroom experiences versus non-
classroom experience.
Dimension 1, the horizontal axis, had friendship at one end and Cultural Club at
the other end. The raters’ interpretation for this dimension characterized as growth. The
students’ perceive that at one end of dimension 1 represents forming new friendships
91

because of recent interests or new goals that comes with college environment. The other
spectrum of Dimension 1 is joining a cultural club on campus. In this study, students
joined a cultural club to meet other students that they felt shared the same interest as
them. Also, they wanted to learn more about their own traditions.
Dimension 2, the vertical axis, had extra curriculum at one end and encourage at
the other end. The rater’s interpreted this as motivational aspect. Students were
motivated in joining extra curriculum activities on campus to learn new concept outside
of their classes. The other spectrum of dimension 2 represents feeling encouraged by
their professors and counselors. In addition, building a relationship with professors will
help students gain more confident in approaching them for advice.
Hierarchical Cluster Analysis
The hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) acknowledges valid regions or clusters of
objects that clarify the fundamental data structure. HCA is significant because it took a
complex co-ordinate map and sub-divided it into clusters of homogeneous parts of
increasing interpretability (Bedi & Alexander, undated). This map tells us how the
students conceptually looked at the 12 individual categories and combined them into
coordinated essential groups.
Trochim (1989a) wrote that the appropriate number of cluster solutions must
make sense for the case at hand and selecting the number of clusters is somewhat
subjective. Furthermore, the dendogram displayed in Chapter three Figure 2 was
developed to analyze and find meaningful clusters.
92

Although the MDS solution states, “categories of impact vary on these two
dimensions”, the cluster solution allows us to see the five cluster of impact (Bedi &
Alexander, undated). These five clusters point out the college related sources of impact
as perceived by these first-generation Armenian American community college students.
These five clusters were:
1. Personal Growth, contains four categories: Disassociate from old friends because
of new goals/interests or aspirations, encountering gender discrimination, finding
career direction through an academic/classroom experience, and being
encouraged or advised by an professor or counselor. Each of these categories
expresses how individuals can change in their beliefs, attitudes and behavior.
Having to deal with issues of disassociating from old friends because of not
sharing the same viewpoints, choosing a career based on your interest or having
encouragement from professors or counselors that can effect individuals’
adaptation of a new campus environment. Although the categories in this cluster
are different, the categories do provide the personal perspective of the participants
to make their own decisions on dealing with their environments.
2. Persistence, is composed of three categories: being confronted with a low grade
or the need to drop a class, encountering increased self-awakening through a
course or real-life experience, and participating in student government volunteer,
or intern experience. These categories demonstrates how individuals deal with
93

issues of having low grades in their courses and or dropping the courses because
of receiving low grades, how they perceive they feel about being judgment
towards their cultural group, and joining in campus activities that may be
beneficial to their developmental growth.
3. Accountability is composed of two categories: encountering professors or
counselors who gave bad advice or rude and balancing school responsibilities
with work and family. The first category, as mentioned previously, was a
negative impact on first-generation students’ self of sense (M=2.80; SD=2.10).
Students felt deceived by the most important people, their teachers and
counselors. They truly believe that teachers and/or counselors did not have their
best interest in helping them with their concerns. Also, students have to learn to
balance their responsibilities. Part of their responsibilities is their home life,
school and work. This is the time that most young adults become independent
and so being responsible is part of their development.
4. Heritage is composed of only one category, joining the Armenian Student
Association. This category indicated a positive experience in students’ sense of
self (M=7.00; SD=1.01) because they felt that they were in an environment of
appreciation. They decided on their own to join the Armenian Student
Association to have a better understanding of their cultural traditions.

94

5. Socialization composed of forming a community of friends and support and
experiencing increased self-awakening through a course or real-life experience.
Forming a community of friends and support explains the importance of making
and having a support peer system in their life. Experiencing a self-awakening
experience consists of students discovering an experience that made an impact on
them. They finally feel aware of what is valuable to them.

Limitations of the Study
As with any study, there are several limitations in this study that are addressed in
this section: participant selection, validity of survey data, and using concept mapping.
Participant Selection
All participants were from a single community college, which had a relatively
high proportion of Armenian American students. They were recruited through that
college’s Armenian Student Association (ASA). Only very cautious generalizations
should be made beyond the particular sample of first-generation Armenian American
students who participated in this study. Their experiences are not reflective of all first-
generation Armenian American students in community colleges. It is possible that the
sources of impact might differ if the data were obtained in another setting. Notably,
though, there are few other colleges that would match this in terms of the high proportion
of Armenian-Americans.
95

Conclusion should be regarded as preliminary and tentative and remain to be
confirmed by future studies. Bedi and Alexander (undated) noted that the reality that
respondents alternate are necessary to similarity rating tasks and advise that alternates
should be chosen cautiously, they stress that the use of alternate sorters “can draw the
validity and generalizability of the results into some question” (p.12).
Another limitation is the method relied on students’ explanations of their
descriptions. This gives rise to several concerns, including whether respondents are
inefficient or inaccurate about remembering the events accurately and reporting them
truthfully. Sometimes people forget important aspects or nuances of their past, or they
misremember (Nisbett & Wilson, 1977). In addition, people may makeup about the
events in their past of the basis of other memories, their general knowledge, and social
demands of the retrieval situation (Hyman & Loftus, 1998).
According to Henry, Moffit, Caspi, Langley and Silva (1994) noted that naturally,
people remember more positive events than negative ones, people tend to remember
events as having occurred earlier than they did, people often remember invent the past to
suit their current needs and circumstances. As Conway and Wood (2006) state that when
recalling memories of negative or positive events that helped to shape identity, people
tend to single out any fear, anger or other negative emotions experienced at the time and
remember more of the positive emotions.

96

However, Hyman and Loftus (1998) state that even though memory drifts are the
outcome of usual memory construction, this means that a person can remember the exact
emotions. “Most memories will be generally accurate” (Hyman & Loftus, 1998, p. 945).
Gremler (2004) has observed “CIT has been demonstrated to be a sound method since
Flanagan (1954) presented it” In the last 52 years, very few alterations have been made.
Another study by Cohen, Kasen, Bifulco, Andrews, and Gordon (2005) found that young
adult (18-24) narrative reports of their growth path after the high school years produce
reliable and valid scaled measures covering a substantial period of time.
The last limitation comes from using concept mapping. Because concept
mapping is psychological interpretation of a concept, then it can be likely that a common
mental map does not exist for first-generation Armenian American students. Concept
mapping entails conceding between breadth and depth of understanding. This can lead to
additional limitations such as: categories of themes were not limited; the category labels
from the incidents by the raters, there may be other explanation of the dimensions in the
MDS configurations and of the 12 clusters.
Moreover, Bedi and Alexander (undated) have stated, that this type of concept
mapping is unclear in understanding individual difference, whereas, the intend is to
increase cumulative understanding. Hence, this research did not get into how gender
affected results.

97

Directions for Future Research
The findings of this study created several directions for future research. Concept
map was stemmed from categories of impact by using incidents from first-generation
Armenian American community college students. The results were accumulative by this
specific subgroup.
The demographics of the participants in this study were all first-generation
Armenian Americans students attending the same single community college. In fact, all
the participants were from the same cultural group (ASA) on campus. This similarity
limited the generalizability of the study’s results and future research should be steered in
recruiting students from various community college campus and non-cultural group. To
bring validity to this study, it would be by conducting the study in simultaneously at
various community colleges.
In addition, future research should be reproduced by gender differences of
participants. This would be significant to see if there are any differences in concept maps
between male and female participants. Evans et al. (1998) have made references to
differences based on research such as Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger, and Tarule noted
that for many women, their formal education is not essential to their development, but
“most valuable lessons were derived from relationships, crises, and community
involvements” (p.146).

98

The final area of future research is to look into greater detail of the way CYEQ
was worded. The primary question on the CYEQ was on hand to learn not only the
“what do you think was important about this experience and why” and “what do you
believe the long-term effect to have been on your sense of who you are”. These two
questions only lead to participants to describe the incident and to reflect on the outcome
of that specific experience. But we need to learn the “how did this incident impact your
sense of self” we would better understand how the student knew the impact that had
occurred (Chickering & Reisser, 1993).
However, the study did not use the descriptions for the long-term effect on self
that were at times included with the experience description. Furthermore, the raters
examined the actual experience to create the categories, while overlooking to apply the
long-term effect description. These descriptions were not observed or investigated, but
rather utilized the seven-point scale for positivity and impact construed the experiences.
Future research could utilize these brief descriptions for the long-term outcomes to
develop a concise explanation for impact. The impact descriptions, for example, may
create new conclusions about how the effect the experiences had on participant’s sense of
self.
Implications for Higher Education Professionals
The findings of this study produced important information that can be used by
higher education professionals to develop learning and maximize positive outcomes for
first generation Armenian American students in community college.
99

The most important implication for practitioners is to acknowledge that first-
generation Armenian American students do exist on respective campuses. Although,
they are under one umbrella-Caucasian-this is a group of students that have a culture that
is different than any other White ethnic group.
This study has several implications for higher education professionals, professors,
and administrators. According to Chickering and Reisser (1993) higher educational
professionals, professors and administrators focus on college being a place they transfer
information and ponder on the classroom experiences as the only source of gaining
intellectual development. But this study suggests that colleges are a place for students’ to
develop his or hers identity. The term development is viewed as “a positive growth
process in which it enables individuals to become increasingly able to integrate and act
on many different experiences and influences” (Evans et al. 1998, p.4).
Colleges have a variety of assets that shapes students identity development.
Many of the higher education professionals, professors and administrators need to have
an open-mind view of what a community college can do for its students so that it can
make more effective impact on their identity development. Perhaps this can lead to
professional development workshop training for higher education professionals that
oversee students on a consistent basis.
The result of this study indicates that students would benefit from establishing
positive interactions with faculty. Many of the respondents suggested that student-faculty
relationships are very important to their academic experience and their sense of self.
100

The implication from these categories implies that student service personnel play
an important role in the acclimation, transition, and retention of first-generation
Armenian American students attending a community college. The sense of feeling and
being part of something is a very crucial for development. Student service personnel
need to regard support by having activities that is identified as important in the reported
experiences. Although, Armenians are under the umbrella of White ethnicity, it is
important not to pigeonhole them because this is a cultural group of people that have their
own traditions, alphabet, language and country.
Often it may be helpful for practitioners to read about the diversity issues that
may be concerns within the Armenian community to be able to educate themselves and
others about the current issues for this population. Another, more simple way to show
interest for this group would be to talk confidentially with first-generation Armenian
American students to learn firsthand about their experiences on campus.

101

References
Aleman, A. (1994, April). The cognitive value of college women’s friendships.
Paper presented at the meeting of the American Educational Research
Association, New Orleans.

Aleman, A. (1997). Understanding and investigating female friendship’s educative
value. Journal of Higher Education, 68, 119-159.

Alessandria, K.P., & Nelson, E.S. (2005). Identity development and self-esteem of
first-generation American college students: An Exploratory study. Journal of
College Student Development, 46(1), 3-12.

Arroyo, C.G. & Zigler, E. (1995). Racial identity, academic achievement, and the
psychological well-being of economically disadvantaged adolescents. Journal
of Personality and Social Psychology, 69(5), 903-914.

Astin, A. (1984). Student Involvement: A developmental theory for higher education.
Journal of College Student Personnel, 25, 297-308.

Astin, A. (1993). What matters in college: Four critical years revisited. San
Francisco: Josey-Bass.

Astin, A.W. (1999). Student Involvement: A developmental theory for higher
education. Journal of College Student Development, 40(5), 518-529.

Avakian, A.S. (1977). The Armenians in America. Minneapolis: Lerner.

Bakalian, A. (1993). Armenian-Americans: From being to feeling Armenian.
New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction

Baxter Magolda, M. (1992a). Cocurricular influences on college students’ intellectual
development. Journal of College Student Development, 33, 203-213.

Baxter Magolda, M. (1999). Evolution of epistemology: Refining contextual
knowing at twentysomething, Journal of College Student Development 40,
333-344.

Bedi, R.P. (2006). Concept mapping the client’s perspective on counseling
alliance formation. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 53(1), 26-35.

102

Bedi, R.P. & Alexander, D.A. (undated). Using multivariate concept-mapping for
assessing client understanding of counseling and psychotherapy.

Belenky, M.F., Clinchy, B.M., Goldberger, N. R., & Tarule, J.M. (1997).
Women’s ways of knowing: The development of self, voice, and mind.
New York: Basic Books. (Original Work published 1986)

Borgen, F. H., & Barnett, D. C. (1987). Applying cluster analysis in counseling
Psychology research. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 34, 456-468.

Cabrera, A. F., Nora, A., & Castenada, M.B. (1993). College persistence:
Structural equations modeling test of an integrated model of student
retention. The Journal of Higher Education, 64, 123-139.

Chickering, A.W. (1969). Education and identity. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Chickering, A. W., & Reisser, L. (1993). Education and Identity. San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass.

Cheng, D.X. (2004). Student’s sense of campus community: What if means and
what to do about it. NASPA Journal, 41, 216-234.

Clark, M.R. (2005). Negotiating the freshmen year: challenges and strategies among
First-year college students. Journal of College Student Development, 46, 296-
316.

Cohen, P., Kasen, S., Bifulco, A., Andrews, H., Gordon, K. (2005). The accuracy
of adult narrative reports of developmental trajectories. International
Journal of Behavorial Development, 29(5), 345-355.

Conway, M. & Wood, W.J. (2006). Subjective Impact, Meaning Making, and Current
and Recalled Emotions for Self-Defining Memories. Journal of Personality,
73(3) 811.

Daughtry, D., & Kunkel, M.A. (1993). Experience of depression in college
students: A concept map. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 40(3),
316-323

DeSteno, D.A., & Salovey, P. (1997). The effects of mood on the structure of the
self-concept. Cognition & Emotion, 11, 351-372.

103

Erickson, P.I., & Kaplan, C.P. (2000). Maximizing qualitative responses about
smoking in structured interviews. Qualitative Health Research, 25, 589-603

Erickson, E.H. (1950). Childhood and Society. New York: Norton.

Erickson, E.H. (1959). Identity and the life cycle: Selected papers. Psychological
Issues, 1(1), monograph.

Erickson, E.H. (1963). Childhood and Society. New York: W.M. Norton.

Erickson, E.H. (1968). Identity, Youth, and Crisis. New York: Norton.

Erickson, E.H. (1980). Identity and the life cycle. New York: W.W. Norton.

Evans, N.J. (1996). Theories of student development. In S.R. Komives, D.B.
Woodard Jr., & Associates, Student services: A handbook for the
Profession (3
rd
ed., pp.164-187). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Evans, N.J., Forney, D.S., & Guido-DiBrito, F. (1998). Student Development in
college: Theory, research, and practice. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Flanagan, J.C. (1954). The critical incident technique. Psychological Bulletin, 5
(4), 327-358.

Gol, A.R. & Cook, S.W. (2004). Exploring the underlying dimensions of coping: A
concept mapping approach. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 23,
155-171.

Goodyear, R.K., Tracey, T.J.G., Claiborn, C.D., Lichtenberg, J.W., & Wampold, B.E.
(2005). Ideographic concept mapping in counseling psychology research:
Conceptual overview, methodology and an illustration. Journal of
Counseling Psychology, 52, 236-242.

Graham, S., & Cockriel, I. (1996). Indexes to assess social and personal
development and the impact of college. College Student Journal, 30, 502-515.

Graham, S., & Cockriel, I. (1997). A factor structure for social and personal
development outcomes in college. The NASPA Journal, 34, 199-216.

Gremler, D.D. (2004). The critical incident technique in service research. Journal of
Service Research, 7(1), 65-89.
104

Hamrick, F.A., Evans, N.J., & Schuh, J.H. (2002). Foundations of student affairs
practice. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Hayrapetian, S. (2002). Armenian acculturation and parenting attitudes.
Unpublished master’s thesis, California State University, Long Beach.

Henry, B., Moffitt, T.E., Caspi, A., Langley, J., & Silva, P.A. (1994). On the
“remembrance of things past”: A longitudinal evaluation of the retrospective
method. Psychological Assessment, 6(2), 92-101.

Hyman, I.E., Jr., & Loftus, E.F. (1998). Errors in autobiographical memories. Clinical
Psychology Review, 18, 933-947.

Jackson, K.M., & Trochim, W.M.K. (2002). Concept mapping as an alternative
approach for the analysis of open-ended survey responses. Organizational
Research Methods, 5, 307-336.

Johnson, L. (1995). The psychosocial development of academically talented college
students: An exploratory investigation. College Student Journal, 29, 278-289.

Jones, S.R. (1997). Voices of identity and difference: A qualitative exploration of the
multiple dimensions of identity development in women college students.
Journal of College Student Development, 38(4), 376-386.

Kroger, J. (1997). Identity in adolescence. London: Routledge.

Krushal, J.B. (1964). Multidimensional scaling by optimizing goodness of fit to
nonmetric hypothesis. Psychometrika, 29 (1), 1-27.

Kuh, G.D. (1995). The other curriculum: Out-of-class experiences associated with
student learning and personal development. The Journal of Higher
Education, 66, 123-155.

Lamport, M. (1994). Student-faculty informal interaction and its relation to college
student outcomes in Christian college settings: Research and implications.
Research on Christian Higher Education, 1, 66-78.

Leppel, K. (2005). College persistence and student attitudes toward financial
success. College Student Journal, 39, 223-241.

105

Love, P., & Goodsell Love, A. (1995). Enhancing student learning: Intellectual, social,
and emotional integration. ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Reports, No. 4.
Washington, D.C.: George Washington University, Graduate School of
Education and Human Development.

Marcia, J.E. (1966). Development and validation of ego identity status. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 5, 551-558.

Marcia, J.E. (1980). Identity in adolescence. In J. Adelson (ed.), Handbook of
Adolescent Psychology (pp. 159-187). New York: Wiley.

McConnell, P.J. (2000). ERIC Review: What community colleges should do to assist
first-generation students? Community College Review, 28(3) 75-87.

Minassian, A.T. (2001). The Armenian women in the diaspora. Hask
Armenological Annual, 9, 21-31.

Mirak, R. (1980). Armenians. In S. Thernstrom (Ed), Harvard encyclopedia of
American ethnic groups (136-149). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Mirak, R. (1983). Torn between two lands: Armenians in America, 1890 to World War
I. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Moffatt, M. (1991). College Life: Undergraduate culture and higher education. Journal
of Higher Education, 62, 44-61.

Morgan, R., & Heise, D.R. (1998). Structure of emotions. Social Psychology Quarterly,
51, 19-31.

Moss, G. (2003). Intellectualism vs. career preparation: A comparative
assessment of self reported growth among graduation college seniors. College
Student Journal, 37, 309-320.

Nisbett, R.E., & Wilson, T.D. (1977). Telling more than we know: Verbal reports on
Mental processes. Psychological Review, 84, 231-259.

Nosofksy, R.M. (1992). Similarity scaling and cognitive process models. Annual
Review of Psychology, 43, 25-53.

Pascarella, E.T. (1980). Student-faculty informal contact and college outcomes.
Review of Educational Research, 50, 545-595.
106

Pascarella, E.T., Edison, M.I., Nora, A., Hagedorn, L.S., & Terenzini, P.T.
(1998). Does work inhibit cognitive development during college? Educational
Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 20(2), 75-93.

Pascarella, E.T., & Terenzini, P. (2005). How college affects students: A third
decade of research. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Patton, M.Q. (2002). Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods. Thousand Oaks,
CA: Sage Publications.

Paulsen, B. L., Truscott, D., & Stuart, J. (1999). Client’s perceptions of helpful
experiences in counseling. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 46, 317-324.

Phinney, J.S. (1990). Ethnic identity in adolescents and adults: A review of research
Psychological Bulletin, 108, 499-514.

Phinney, J.S. (1992). The Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure: A new scale for use with
diverse groups. Journal of Adolescences Research, 7, 156-176.

Pike, G.R., & Kuh, G.D. (2005). First-and-second generation college students: A
comparison of their engagement and intellectual development. The Journal of
Higher Education, 76(3)276-300.

Polkinghorne, D.E. (1995). Narrative configuration in qualitative analysis.
International Journal of Higher Education, 69, 278-297.

Rendon, L. I. (1994). Validating culturally diverse students: Toward a new model
of learning and student development. Innovative Higher Education, 19 (1), 33-
51.

Rendon, L., & Jalomo, R. (1993, November). The in- and out-of-class experiences of
first-year community college students. Paper presented at the meeting of the
Association for the Study of Higher Education, Pittsburgh, PA.

Reisser, L.I. (1995). Revisiting the seven years. Journal of College Student
Development, 36, 505-511.

Rich, M., & Ginsburg, K.R. (1999). The reason and rhyme of qualitative research:
Why, when, and how to use qualitative methods in the study of adolescent
health. Journal of Adolescent Health, 25, 371-378.

107

Roth, P.L., & Clarke, R.L. (1998). Meta-analyzing the relation between grades
and salary. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 53, 386-400.

Schuyler, G. (1999). A historical and contemporary View of the community college
Curriculum. New Directions for Community Colleges, 108, 3-15.

Somers, P., Woodhouse, S., & Cofer, J. (2004). Pushing the boulder uphill: The
persistence of first-generation college students. The NASPA Journal, 41, 418-
435.

Stauss, B. (1993). “Using the Critical Incidents Technique in Measuring and Managing
Service Quality, “in The Service Quality Handbook, Eberhard, E. Scheuing and
William F. Christopher, (Eds.). New York: American Management Association,
408-427.

Terenzini, P.T. (1994). Educating for citizenship: Freeing the mind and elevating
the spirit. Innovative Higher Education, 19(1), 7-21.

Terenzini, P.T., & Pascarella, E.T. & Blimling, G. (1996). Students’ out-of-class-
experiences and their influence on learning and cognitive development: A
literature review. Journal of College Student Development, 149-162.

Terenzini, P.T., & Pascarella, E.T. (1994). Living with myths: undergraduate
education in America. Change, 26, 28-32.

Terenzini, P.T., & Springer, L., Yaeger, P. M., Pascarella, E.T., & Nora, A. (1995).
Influences affecting the development of students’ critical thinking skills.
Research in Higher Education, 36, 23-39.

Terenzini, P.T., Yaeger, P.M., Pascarella, E., & Nora, A. (1996). First-generation college
students: Characteristics, experiences, and cognitive development. Research in
Higher Education, 37, 1-22.

Thompson, M.D. (2001). Informal student-faculty interaction: Its relationship to
educational gains in science and mathematics among community college students.
Community College Review, 29(1), 35-57.

Tinto, V. (1997). Classrooms as communities: Exploring the educational
character of student persistence. The Journal of Higher Education, 68, 599-623.

108

Townsend, B.K. (2003). The two-year college as a first choice, second chance institution
for baccalaureate-degree holders. Community College Journal of Research and
Practice, 27: 273-288.

Tracey, T.J.G., Lichtenberg, J.W., Goodyear, R.K., Claiborn, C., & Wampold, B.E.
(2003). Concept mapping of therapeutic common factors. Psychotherapy
Research, 13(4) 401-413.

Treat, T.A., McFaoo, R.M., Viken, R.J., Nosofsky, R.M., Mackay, D.B., &
Krusche, J.K. (2002). Assessing clinically relevant perceptual organization with
Multidimensional scaling techniques. Psychological Assessment, 14, 239-252.

Trochim, W. M. (1989a). An introduction to concept mapping for planning and
evaluation. Evaluation and Program Planning, 12, 1-16.

Wadsworth, B.J. (1979). Piaget’s theory of cognitive development (2
nd
ed.). New
York: Longman.

Yacoubian, V. V. (2003). Assessment of racial identity and self-esteem in an
Armenian American population. Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Southern
California, 2003.

Yaralian, T. (1999). Acculturation, Ethnic Identity, and Psychological Functioning
Among Immigrant and First Generation Armenian Young Adults. Thesis (Ph.D.)
Pepperdine University, 1999.

Yentsen, J. (undated). Strategies for Learning-from concept mapping to learning objects
and books to Wooks. Retrieved on 5/13/08 from http://www.eaa-
knowledge.com/ojni/602/strategies.htm

Yeretzian, A. S. (1974). A History of Armenian Immigration to America with
special reference to conditions in Los Angeles. San Francisco: R & E
Research.

109

APPENDIX A
RESEARCH PROJECT INFORMATION SHEET

University of Southern California
Rossier School of Education
Ed. D. Program
Waite Phillips Hall, Room 802, Mailcode 4038
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA 90089-4038

INFORMATION SHEET FOR NON-MEDICAL RESEARCH

The Impact of College on First-Generation Armenian-American Community
College Students’ Personal Development and Mapping Their Experiences

You are asked to participate in a research study conducted by Roza Ekimyan and Rod
Goodyear, Ph.D., from the Rossier School of Education, Ed.D. Program, at the University
of Southern California. The results of this research study will contribute to a dissertation.

You were selected as a possible participant in this study because you are a first-
generation Armenian-American community college student in your second semester
course work. This is a two phase study and a total of 100 subjects who are first-
generation Armenian-American community college students who have attended at least
one semester of course work, will be selected to participate in Phase One. Fifteen
participants from Phase One, who indicate interest in continuing, will participate in the
second phase of the study.

Your participation is voluntary. You should read the information below, and ask
questions about anything you do not understand, before deciding whether or not to
participate

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
We are asking you to take part in a research study because we are trying to learn the
sources of impact (either positive or negative) that first-generation Armenian-American
community college students perceive to have affected their personal identity
development. We are also interested to learn how first-generation Armenian-American
community college students conceptually organize these sources of impact.

110

Completion and return of the questionnaires will constitute consent to participate in
this research project.

PROCEDURES
In the first phase of the study, you will be asked to complete two questionnaires. Each
asks you to reflect on your experience as a college student and identify one incident or
experience that has affected your sense of who you are. This College Years Experience
Questionnaire (CYEQ) asks you to describe what the incident was, if another person or
persons was/were involved, why the incident was important to you, and what you believe
the long-term effect has been. The questionnaires also ask for basic demographic
information. The questionnaires will be completed at the (Women’s Center or Women
and Adult Reentry Center) on your campus and should take you approximately one-half
hour to complete.

If you would like to participate in Phase Two of this study, you can complete an Intent to
Continue postcard. Phase Two participants will be randomly selected from the people
who completed the Intent to Continue postcard.

If selected to continue to Phase Two and wish to participate, you will be asked rate the
similarities of the categories of sources of impacts from the CYEQ on a scale of one to
six (1=not at all alike; 6=very much alike). This paired comparison questionnaire is
called the College Years Experience Concept Similarity Rating Scale (CSRS) and will be
posted on a web-based survey service. If you participate in this phase of the study, the
web address will be emailed to you along with instructions for completing the CSRS.
The CSRS should also take about one-half hour to complete

POTENTIAL RISKS AND DISCOMFORTS
There are no anticipated risks to your participation. You may be inconvenienced from
taking time out of your day to complete the questionnaires and you may also experience
some discomfort completing the questionnaires.

POTENTIAL BENEFITS TO SUBJECTS AND/OR TO SOCIETY
You may not directly benefit from your participation in this research study. However,
there are potential benefits; contingent on the results of this research, to the educational
community as the sources of impact of college on women undergraduates, 35 years old
and older, personal identity development emerge.

111

PAYMENT/COMPENSATION FOR PARTICIPATION
You will not receive any payment for your participation in this research study.

CONFIDENTIALITY
No information that is obtained in connection with this study can be identified with you.
Contact information that is supplied by Phase One participants on the Intent to Continue
postcard will be stored in the investigator’s office in a locked file cabinet.

The data from this study will also be stored in the investigator’s office in a locked file
cabinet and in a password protected computer. Only members of the research team will
have access to the data associated with this study. The data will be stored for three years
after the study has been completed. After the three year period, the data will be
destroyed.

PARTICIPATION AND WITHDRAWAL
You can choose whether to be in this study or not. If you volunteer to be in this study,
you may withdraw at any time without consequences of any kind. You may also refuse
to answer any questions you don’t want to answer and still remain in the study. The
investigator may withdraw you from this research if circumstances arise which warrant
doing so.

RIGHTS OF RESEARCH SUBJECTS
You may withdraw your consent at any time and discontinue participation without
penalty. You are not waiving any legal claims, rights or remedies because of your
participation in this research study. If you have questions regarding your rights as a
research subject, contact the University Park IRB, Office of the Vice Provost for
Research, Grace Ford Salvatori Building, Room 306, Los Angeles, CA 90089-1695,
(213) 821-5272 or upirb@usc.edu.

IDENTIFICATION OF INVESTIGATORS
If you have any questions or concerns about the research, please feel free to contact:
Roza Ekimyan Rod Goodyear, Ph.D,
15411 Hart Street Rossier School of Education
Van Nuys, CA 91406 WPH 1100A
(818) 640-1822 cell Los Angeles, CA 90089-0031
ekimyan@usc.edu (213) 740-3267
goodyea@usc.edu

112

APPENDIX B
COLLEGE YEARS EXPERIENCE QUESTIONNAIRE (A)

Developing a sense of who we are occurs across time and in many situations. But college
often is unique in the ways it can affect that sense of self. Moreover, there often are
particular incidents or experiences that stand out as having been particularly influential.

Think back over your experience as a college student and identify one incident or
experience that had particular influence on your sense of who you are. This could have
been either positive or negative.

Please describe that incident or experience in a few sentences. Be sure to indicate
(a) what that incident or experience was,
(b) if another person or persons were involved in this incident or experience, describe
them and their relationship to you, and
(c) why was this incident or experience important to you?
(d) what you believe the long-term effect to have been on your sense of who you are?

At what point in your college experience did this incident or experience occur (please check
one)?
Freshman year
___
Junior year ___ Other (please specify)
_______________________
Sophomore year
___
Senior year ___

113

Please respond to the questions below by circling the number that best represents your
answer.

Very Negative

Very Positive
Degree to which you experienced this incident
or experience as positive

1 2 3 4 5 6 7
The eventual effect this incident or experience
had on your sense of yourself

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

114

APPENDIX C

COLLEGE YEARS EXPERIENCE CONCEPT SIMILARITY RATING SCALE
(CSRS)

Welcome
Thank you for participating in the first phase of our study in which we asked you to
describe an experience that had an impact on your sense of self. A research team
examined your responses, along with many others, and classified them into the twelve
categories described below. We would you like to participate in Phase 2 of our study by
completing the College Years Experience Concept Similarity Rating Scale (CSRS)?

College Years Experience Concept Similarity Rating Scale (CSRS) Demographics:
Before completing the CSRS, please tell us a little bit about you:

Which community college are you currently attending?
_____________________________

What is your class standing?

□ Freshman □ Sophomore □ Junior □ Senior

Are you a first-generation college student? □ Yes □ No

What is your gender? __________________ What is your age?
______________________

What is your ethnicity?
□ Asian/Pacific Islander
□ Black/African American
□ Hispanic/Latino/Latina
□ White/European American
□ Other _____________

115

Instructions
The CSRS is a rating task. In order to complete the CSRS, it will require you to have
some understanding of what the categories mean. Please review the following
descriptions in order to better understand each of the categories.

Category Descriptions:

1. Joining the Armenian Student Association (ASA).
Students join a cultural club at school because they want to learn more about their
cultural heritage and participate in the cultural activities.

2. Encountering Professors or Counselors who gave me bad advice or treated
me badly
Students feel that their professors or counselors did not help them succeed on in their
classes and are being given the wrong information. Students feel that they are being
treated rude by their professors and counselors.

3. Disassociating from old friends because of new goals, interests, or aspirations
Students understand that they are not in the same wave length anymore because they
want to pursue other goals, interests and have other aspirations.

4. Forming a community of friends and support
Forming a bond with new people on campus or in class. Class mates become
student’s support network. Developing camaraderie among classes.

5. Encountering gender discrimination
Students believe that gender peers will not accept them in their majors, or feeling
stereotyped because of gender differences.

6. Participating in student government, volunteer or intern experience
Students are pursuing student government on campus, or volunteering at the learning
center or having an internship opportunity that leads to picking out their goals for
their future.

116

7. Finding career direction through an academic/classroom experience
Students take various courses and realize that they want to pursue a different career
field or realize that they belong in their field.

8. Being Encouraged or Advised by an instructor or counselor
The professors and/or counselors take a personal interest in the success of the student.
The professors and/or counselors recognize the individual student’s abilities and
achievements. The professors and/or counselors encouraged the student to keep trying
and not give up.

9. Being confronted with a low grade or the need to drop a class
Receiving low grades in class assignments and/ or feeling overwhelmed by classes;
which leads to students to drop the class? Students feel like a failure when they make
mistakes in their courses and so they decide to drop their classes.

10. Experiencing increased self-awakening through a course or real-life
experience.
Skills and/or experiences learned in a class or outside of class that opened the
student’s mind to new possibilities. Curriculum taught in class challenged and
changed student’s personal views or opinions. Information presented in class
prompted the student to search deeply within him or herself to better understand
issues that affected them and their family. Class allowed students to view their past
and provided a vision for the future.

11. Encountering discrimination based on ethnicity or immigrant status
Students feel that they are feeling belittled by professor comments. Professors and or
counselors are not taking the time to getting to know them or care about their culture.
Counselors are misinforming them.

12. Balancing school responsibilities with work and family
Students are accountable for their duties as a college student, as a working adult and
holding family obligations.

117

Instructions for Completing College Years Experience Concept Similarity Rating
Scale:

Now that you have read the 12 categories, we are interested in assessing how similar you
see these to one another.

Please look at each numbered line (1 to 66) below, and at the paired items in it. Each line
has 2 of the 12 categories. Please rate the extent to which you view these categories as
alike using the 5 point scale ranging from 1 = Not at all Alike to 5 = Very Much Alike.
For example, in line one you see two categories “Joining the Armenian Student
Association (ASA).” And “Encountering Professors and Counselors who gave me bad
advice and treated me rudely.” If you think these two categories are very much alike, you
would circle 5. If you think they are not at all alike, you would circle 1

CSRS
Paired Categories
Not
at all
Alike

Very
Much
Alike

1. Joining the Armenian Student
Association (ASA).
AND
Encountering Professors and
Counselors who gave me bad
advice and treated me rudely.
1 2 3 4 5
2. Disassociating from old friends
because of new goals, interests,
or aspirations.
AND
Forming a community of friends
and support.
1 2 3 4 5
3. Experiencing increased self
awakening through a course or
real-life experience.
AND
Encountering gender
discrimination.

1 2 3 4 5
118

4. Being encouraged or Advised by
a Professor or Counselor.
AND
Encountering discrimination
based on ethnicity or immigrant
status.
1 2 3 4 5
5. Participating in student
government, volunteer, or intern
experience.
AND
Finding career direction through
an academic/classroom
experience.
1 2 3 4 5
6. Failing or receiving a low grades
on a class or assignment and or
dropping the class.
AND
Balancing school responsibilities
with work and family.
1 2 3 4 5
7. Being encouraged or Advised by
a Professor or Counselor.
AND
Encountering gender
discrimination.
1 2 3 4 5
8. Forming a community of friends
and support.
AND
Joining the Armenian Student
Association (ASA).
1 2 3 4 5
9. Encountering gender
discrimination.
AND
Disassociating from old friends
because of new goals, interests,
or aspirations.
1 2 3 4 5
10. Balancing school responsibilities
with work and family.
And
Disassociating from old friends
because of new goals, interests,
or aspirations.
1 2 3 4 5
119

11. Forming a community of friends
and support.
AND
Encountering Professors and
Counselors who gave me bad
advice and treated me rudely
1 2 3 4 5
12. Balancing school responsibilities
with work and family.
AND Encountering Professors
and Counselors who gave me
bad advice and treated me
rudely.
1 2 3 4 5
13. Encountering Professors and
Counselors who gave me bad
advice and treated me rudely
AND
Being encouraged or Advised by
a Professor or Counselor
1 2 3 4 5
14. Failing or receiving a low grades
on a class or assignment and or
dropping the class.
AND
Joining the Armenian Student
Association (ASA).
1 2 3 4 5
15. Participating in student
government, volunteer, or intern
experience.
AND
Disassociating from old friends
because of new goals, interests,
or aspirations.
1 2 3 4 5
16. Experiencing increased self
awakening through a course or
real-life experience.
AND
Failing or receiving a low grades
on a class or assignment and or
dropping the class.

1 2 3 4 5
120

17. Finding career direction through
an academic/classroom
experience.
AND
Encountering gender
discrimination.
1 2 3 4 5
18. Disassociating from old friends
because of new goals, interests,
or aspirations.
AND
Encountering Professors and
Counselors who gave me bad
advice and treated me rudely
1 2 3 4 5
19. Finding career direction through
an academic/classroom
experience.
AND
Encountering discrimination
based on ethnicity or immigrant
status
1 2 3 4 5
20. Experiencing increased self
awakening through a course or
real-life experience.
AND
Disassociating from old friends
because of new goals, interests,
or aspirations.
1 2 3 4 5
21. Encountering discrimination
based on ethnicity or immigrant
status.
AND
Participating in student
government, volunteer, or intern
experience.
1 2 3 4 5
22. Disassociating from old friends
because of new goals, interests,
or aspirations.
AND
Joining the Armenian Student
Association (ASA).

1 2 3 4 5
121

23. Forming a community of friends
and support.
AND
Participating in student
government, volunteer, or intern
experience.
1 2 3 4 5
24. Experiencing increased self
awakening through a course or
real-life experience.
AND
Encountering Professors and
Counselors who gave me bad
advice and treated me rudely.
1 2 3 4 5
25. Encountering discrimination
based on ethnicity or immigrant
status.
AND
Encountering Professors and
Counselors who gave me bad
advice and treated me rudely.
1 2 3 4 5
26. Balancing school responsibilities
with work and family.
AND
Finding career direction through
an academic/classroom
experience.
1 2 3 4 5
27. Encountering Professors and
Counselors who gave me bad
advice and treated me rudely.
AND
Encountering gender
discrimination.
1 2 3 4 5
28. Experiencing increased self
awakening through a course or
real-life experience.
AND
Forming a community of friends
and support.

1 2 3 4 5
122

29. Being encouraged or Advised by
a Professor or Counselor.
AND
Participating in student
government, volunteer, or intern
experience.
1 2 3 4 5
30. Encountering discrimination
based on ethnicity or immigrant
status.
AND
Disassociating from old friends
because of new goals, interests,
or aspirations.
1 2 3 4 5
31. Joining the Armenian Student
Association (ASA).
AND
Participating in student
government, volunteer, or intern
experience.
1 2 3 4 5
32. Forming a community of friends
and support.
AND
Encountering gender
discrimination.
1 2 3 4 5
33. Encountering Professors and
Counselors who gave me bad
advice and treated me rudely
AND
Participating in student
government, volunteer, or intern
experience.
1 2 3 4 5
34. Finding career direction through
an academic/classroom
experience.
AND
Encountering Professors and
Counselors who gave me bad
advice and treated me rudely.

1 2 3 4 5
123

35. Participating in student
government, volunteer, or intern
experience.
AND
Balancing school responsibilities
with work and family.

1 2 3 4 5
36. Experiencing increased self
awakening through a course or
real-life experience.
AND
Joining the Armenian Student
Association (ASA).
1 2 3 4 5
37. Failing or receiving a low grades
on a class or assignment and or
dropping the class.
AND
Participating in student
government, volunteer, or intern
experience.
1 2 3 4 5
38. Forming a community of friends
and support.
AND
Being encouraged or Advised by
a Professor or Counselor.
1 2 3 4 5
39. Being encouraged or Advised by
a Professor or Counselor.
AND
Finding career direction through
an academic/classroom
experience.
1 2 3 4 5
40. Experiencing increased self
awakening through a course or
real-life experience.
AND
Participating in student
government, volunteer, or intern
experience.

1 2 3 4 5
124

41. Joining the Armenian Student
Association (ASA).
AND
Encountering discrimination
based on ethnicity or immigrant
status.
1 2 3 4 5
42. Balancing school responsibilities
with work and family.
AND
Encountering gender
discrimination.
1 2 3 4 5
43. Encountering Professors and
Counselors who gave me bad
advice and treated me rudely.
AND
Failing or receiving a low grades
on a class or assignment and or
dropping the class.
1 2 3 4 5
44. Balancing school responsibilities
with work and family.
AND
Joining the Armenian Student
Association (ASA).
1 2 3 4 5
45. Failing or receiving a low grades
on a class or assignment and or
dropping the class.
AND
Disassociating from old friends
because of new goals, interests,
or aspirations.
1 2 3 4 5
46. Encountering discrimination
based on ethnicity or immigrant
status.
AND
Balancing school responsibilities
with work and family.

1 2 3 4 5
125

47. Disassociating from old friends
because of new goals, interests,
or aspirations.
AND
Finding career direction through
an academic/classroom
experience.
1 2 3 4 5
48. Forming a community of friends
and support.
AND
Failing or receiving a low grades
on a class or assignment and or
dropping the class.
1 2 3 4 5
49. Finding career direction through
an academic/classroom
experience.
AND
Joining the Armenian Student
Association (ASA).
1 2 3 4 5
50. Joining the Armenian Student
Association (ASA).
AND
Being encouraged or Advised by
a Professor or Counselor.
1 2 3 4 5
51. Encountering gender
discrimination.
AND
Participating in student
government, volunteer, or intern
experience.
1 2 3 4 5
52. Finding career direction through
an academic/classroom
experience.
AND
Failing or receiving a low grades
on a class or assignment and or
dropping the class.

1 2 3 4 5
126

53. Balancing school responsibilities
with work and family.
AND
Being encouraged or Advised by
a Professor or Counselor.
1 2 3 4 5
54. Being encouraged or Advised by
a Professor or Counselor.
AND
Failing or receiving a low grades
on a class or assignment and or
dropping the class.
1 2 3 4 5
55. Experiencing increased self
awakening through a course or
real-life experience
AND
Encountering discrimination
based on ethnicity or immigrant
status.
1 2 3 4 5
56. Failing or receiving a low grades
on a class or assignment and or
dropping the class.
AND
Encountering gender
discrimination.
1 2 3 4 5
57. Experiencing increased self
awakening through a course or
real-life experience.
AND
Being encouraged or Advised by
a Professor or Counselor.
1 2 3 4 5
58. Experiencing increased self
awakening through a course or
real-life experience.
AND
Finding career direction through
an academic/classroom
experience.

1 2 3 4 5
127

59. Balancing school responsibilities
with work and family.
AND
Experiencing increased self
awakening through a course or
real-life experience.
1 2 3 4 5
60. Disassociating from old friends
because of new goals, interests,
or aspirations.
AND
Being encouraged or Advised by
a Professor or Counselor.
1 2 3 4 5
61. Forming a community of friends
and support.
AND
Encountering discrimination
based on ethnicity or immigrant
status.
1 2 3 4 5
62. Balancing school responsibilities
with work and family.
AND
Forming a community of friends
and support.
1 2 3 4 5
63. Encountering gender
discrimination.
AND
Encountering discrimination
based on ethnicity or immigrant
status.
1 2 3 4 5
64. Encountering discrimination
based on ethnicity or immigrant
status.
AND
Failing or receiving a low grades
on a class or assignment and or
dropping the class.
1 2 3 4 5
65. Joining the Armenian Student
Association (ASA).
AND
Encountering gender
discrimination.
1 2 3 4 5
128

66. Finding career direction through
an academic/classroom
experience.
AND
Forming a community of friends
and support.
1 2 3 4 5

129

APPENDIX D
INCIDENTS ARRANGED BY OVER-ARCHING THEME

ID# Standing Occurred Gender Age degree effect__ _______

Freshmen Freshmen F 19 7 7

1. There have been many experiences that had negative and positive influences on
me. One of which was when I joined the Armenian Club. For me, it was not only
interacting with friends, and finding new ones, but it also gave me the chance to
see life differently. Since we do concentrate mostly on issues of Armenians, it
was an opportunity for me to see what is really going on around me. We had
several guest speakers that we came happily to give us more information about
issues that I personally did not know about. This club is a great way for students,
to come together and come up with solutions for the long run. This experience
also let me take life more seriously.

Freshmen Freshmen F 19 7 7

2. A friend of mine once said that I am not good for anything and I can never
become someone successful in the future. Those words hurt me deep down in my
heart. I felt like I need to try hard and do anything to become a successful student
and achieve all of my goals.

Freshmen Freshmen F 20 2 1

3. My listening and speaking teacher was very mean and after his wrong attitude I
couldn't learn the subject. Before I liked to study that subject and I was considered
best student in the class.

Freshmen Freshmen F 18 2 1

4. Last fall semester I received my first failing grade in a class. Even though I tried
my hardest and did whatever I could to keep up in the class, it just didn't work.
This was like a wake-up call for me, because I realized I have to take college
much more seriously. I realized I needed to put more effort into my classes, and
that good grades will not be just handed out to me, I’m going to have to earn
them.
130

Sophomore Freshmen F 21 7 6

5. The incident that occurred was related to math teacher who helped me understand
that even though I'm climbing a steeper hill as a first-generation student, I can
accomplish my goals as long as I am confident and strong.

Freshmen Freshmen F 18 7 7

6. I have been in college for one semester only and I have not had any overly
dramatic incidents happen. However, one occurrence that comes to my mind as I
am writing this was when we spent the whole day studying for our chemistry final
and at night we went to Borders to study a couple more hours. The persons
involved were simply my classmates. We helped each other with ideas we did not
understand and explaining concepts to each other helped me grasp the information
better and have a better understanding of it. A long term effect could be that the
information we studied and went over is bound to stay in my mind longer because
it was a memorable experience even though we were just studying.

Freshmen Freshmen F 18 7 6

7. I am an architecture major student. Every time I would go to my architecture
class, and the guys would say that I am a female and that architecture is for guys.
I would always feel bad. But after the final grades were posted, I proved them that
the girls can be architects, even thought the girls don't like it.

Freshmen Freshmen F 19 1 5

8. The experience that occurred to me was when I took my first chemistry class in
college. I had always loved science, but the teacher that I had in chemistry was
very negative and bluntly told me to change my major. This experience taught me
to always work hard and not allow others to push me down. After that class I took
many other science classes and I am glad I did not quit.

Sophomore Freshmen F 19 7 7

9. 1. My experience was Student Government. 2. My best friend introduced me to
this. 3. This built up my confidence in college and helped me succeed and gain
more knowledge about things. 4. It has made me more aware of things in my life
and how I should deal with certain things. I have the courage to go and introduce
myself to the staff of the college and find ways to get more out there and help.
131

Didn’t State Sophomore M 19 7 7

10. Watching the movie "The Secret" I realized that I have so much potential in
everything, that I am in charge of my destiny. It opened my eyes once again. Even
Wider. I became more self-aware and more efficient in everything I do.

Senior Junior F 22 7 7

11. Joining the Armenian student association resulted in making 2 true life-long
friends and giving back to the community as well as getting in touch with my
heritage, which I may not have done otherwise.

Freshmen Freshmen F 18 7 7

12. It was in my English 101 H class that my teacher assigned an in-class essay,
where we had to write who we are. It was the time where I just wrote what came
to my mind and I think that I was the most truthful to myself, because I had no
time to revise the essay and take out the things about me that I do not like, even
though they are part of me. I think that the long term effect has been sticking to
my senses and beliefs, no matter friends and others who surround me.

Junior Junior F 20 7 6

13. I would stay studying abroad in Spain was the most memorable and influential
experience I ever had. It taught me to be independent, responsible, and decisive. I
believe that in the future, I will always remember how much I grew up as a person
during that short span of time and the amount that I matured and learned about
myself.

Sophomore Sophomore F 20 7 7

14. The first year experience at Glendale College helps each new student make a
smooth transition into her new home away from home. I understand the many
levels of change taking place during students first year at Glendale College, and
am prepared to assist in many ways. I also know that a successful first year is
critical in forming a strong base for the years comes.

132

Junior Sophomore F 19 7 7

15. My major is business. One of my professors is an excellent in teaching because
he teaches in so many ways of business strategies. This class demanded many
assignments in which I learned so much. I enjoyed the class and I am confident
that I will succeed in school and in my future.

Sophomore Sophomore F 19 6 6

16. (a) I was given the opportunity to be involved in an internship position with a
local political figure. I worked on his reelection campaign and was exposed to
how the political system works. (b) Yes, my professor and the political figure. (c)
Prior to this experience I was not clear as to the in's/out's of the political system.
My parents were immigrants and were not aware of the political system so we
limited our involvement in it. However, after being the first person in my family
to be involved in this type of activity I was able to provide this information to my
family and have they involved in the political system. (d) Providing confidence
and knowledge in the working of a valued American system (our political
process) which I will someday pursue as a career.

Sophomore Sophomore F 19 7 7

17. The experience that I had as a sophomore was when I was taking a speech class
and had to do several presentations in front of the class. It was my first time
getting up in front of college students and I was really embarrassed. I was really
frightened and I remember my hands shaking and my head spinning. I was really
nervous. I think just getting up in front of the class taught me to be strong and
positive.

Senior Junior F 23 7 7

18. One of my teachers encouraged me to continue my education and work hard. It
was a very positive comment and helpful in my life.

Junior Sophomore F 22 7 7

19. I had teachers who encouraged me to be patient and continue my education. He
gave me some ideas how to learn or how to spell the words so it will be easy for
me to remember. He was my grammar, vocabulary and listening speaking
teacher. The way he was teaching was unique and it gave positive affect.

133

Junior Junior F 21 5 6

20. Ever since I could remember I wanted to become a lawyer when I grew up. I
would constantly do research, read law books, and even watch movies involving
trials. I really thought I had a passion for until; I went and shadowed a law firm
for a while. I was disgusted. Just the way they were and how stuck up they were
I did not like it. That was the time I decided to change my major. I realized that I
did not want to be like them nor did I like the environment.

Senior Junior F 21 7 7

21. The most influential experience I experienced at GCC was last summer during
microbiology course. Interacting and meeting new people has always been
important for me, but none had been like the incident to follow. I befriended a
girl that was three years older than me. I can now say she has been a key factor in
my decision in becoming a doctor. I had always dreamed, however, her
influence, love and encouragement was what I needed to make my decision and
pursue my goal and make my dream come true.

Senior Sophomore F 21 7 7

22. I was sitting in lab with one of my friends finishing our lab and our teacher, Ron
Harlen, came to talk to us. We were worried about not succeeding at UCLA
because it was going to be too hard for us and he told us that we were going to do
just fine. He gave us advice and motivated us. This experience was important
because he gave us hope and made us realize that we can do it. The long term
effect has been that I’m more confident about what I can do now.

Junior Sophomore M 23 7 7

23. In the beginning, I wasn’t a good learner and I didn’t take education seriously.
After I met with a counselor who really took the time to help me out, it changed
my opinion about going to school. Therefore, I still attend and will continue until
I finish my education.

134

Senior Sophomore M 21 3 5

24. My English 101 Instructor asked a question, “Where do you see yourself in 5
years from now?” I replied, “I will be in law school.” He laughed at me and said,
“With your immigrant accent, do you really think you will be accepted to law
school.” Now that I am accepted to a four year school in the spring semester, then
afterwards, I will be attending law school. Then I will head back to Glendale to
see if he is still teaching there, so I can laugh at him. I can’t wait until that day.

Junior Freshmen F 22 6 5

25. Other than the fact that nothing in particular has been influential on me while
attending GCC; I have learned more about diversity. Diversity plays a big role in
the U.S. sp it is important to know about different cultures and their religions.

Sophomore Freshmen F 18 7 7

26. My student development class teacher who was also a counselor in our college
helped me to choose the right classes. He showed me the right way to move on in
my life.

Junior Sophomore F 23 1 1
27. I had an incident where I had a teacher who failed me because according to her I
had not taken the midterm exam and did not turn in one of my essays. When I
found this out I went directly to her and she told me that she had no records of me
turning it in and that my word was not enough for her to believe that I had turned
it in. She checked her office and finally found my test and essay in her drawers.
She did not say sorry or anything. I was upset and should have taken action.

Junior Sophomore F 23 1 1

28. The incident happened a year ago, my English teacher thought I was cheating
when in fact I was sitting in the front of class. She had mistaken me for another
student. She apologized to me, but I was really hurt.

135

Junior Freshmen M 23 1 4

29. About a year and a half ago, I had an English 101 class. We read this book and
we had to do an essay about it. We read this book and we had to do an essay
about it. When I did it and turned it in to the teacher; he just looked at the paper
and didn’t even explain or tell me what was wrong. He almost threw the paper at
me. I felt embarrassed at that moment, but I took it as a challenge. I did it better
and I ended up getting a B.

Junior Freshmen F 19 7 7

30. I can recall a time when I was in English 104 class. This teacher encouraged me
to do better in my education. He is the reason why I want to be a teacher. He left
a very positive impression on me and everyone else in the class.

Junior Sophomore M 23 7 7

31. Having motivated and effective teachers in college is very successful guide for
me. One of my experiences from GCC is my Accounting teacher, who changed
my whole negative and had a vision about business classes and all over the
business world. His motivation caused me to change my major and I am very
glad.
Sophomore Freshmen M 22 3 5

32. One of my Junior Counselors tricked me into taking some computer classes that
were not credited. She also discouraged me of taking courses that would count
towards my major.

Sophomore Freshmen F 19 6 6

33. Participating in the STARS volunteering program at GAR services, which is a
Glendale Association for the Mentally Retarded, made me realize that I am caring
and boring person. The people were very generous and nice. At first, I felt
uncomfortable working with the mentally ill, but as time passed by I felt much
more comfortable.

136

Sophomore Freshmen F 21 6 7

34. As a freshman, I have experienced a lot while attending GCC, but this incidence
that occurred during my first semester. It helped me establish high self-esteem in
myself and in my strengths. In one of my courses, I got a “C” once on my
homework, and as an “A” student it was a shocking experience that could have
occurred to me. However, I realized how to get an “A” in the course. I just
simply had to meet the professor’s requirements on an assignment. I worked
toward this goal and got a solid “A” in that class. As a result, I was feeling much
prouder than ever.

Freshmen Freshmen F 19 6 5

35. When I decided to drop one of my classes. I got really depressed because I
thought I was failing during my first semester. However, I realized that it has
nothing to do with success. I’m still confident that I’ll make a great academic
progress.

Sophomore Freshmen F 23 7 7

36. My experience that I had during the years in GCC is the ASA (Armenian Student
Association). As an ASA executive gave me the chance to express, myself. The
ASA faculty advisor, Dr. Marashlian, gave me confidence and advice about the
ASA and helped my life at GCC go smooth. The ASA is important to me because
it’s my culture. ASA teaches about the Armenian culture and current events.
This experience will help my life by knowing more about my culture that, in the
future, I’ll teach my children.

Senior Senior M 22 7 7

37. My college experience was great. The amounts of lessons I have learned here
[GCC] are wonderful and I figured myself out and found out what I want to do
with the rest of my life.

Junior Sophomore M 20 7 7

38. My first meeting at the Armenian Student Association (ASA) is the one incident
that sparked my enthusiasm in my culture. My brother gave me the idea; hence,
this led to constant activism. This experience greatly made me understand who I
exactly am and made my college experience a one of a kind.

137

Sophomore Freshmen F 19 5 6

39. At the end of my freshmen year in college, I was required to write a research
paper comparing a poem and a song. The research paper was for my English 102
Critical Thinking Class. For some reason, writing the research paper became a
very difficult task for me. I couldn’t write while anything for hours and even
when I did write I would erase everything and start over. Finally, two days before
my paper was due I sat down with my English Professor who looked over all of
my notes and outlines and helped me get a start on the paper. That night I went
home and wrote the whole research paper. My professor looked over the paper
the following day, corrected some details and a day before my research paper was
due I was still working on it. This experience made me realize that I didn’t have
to get things right the first time around, not only in writing, but in all of my
endeavors. I also learned that sometimes seeking help is necessary and is not
scary at all because certain people are more than willing to help.

Junior Sophomore F 24 6 6

40. Meeting my friend Tina on campus. Tina who is a positive and supportive
influence in my life. My friend Tina drove me to school when I sprained my
ankle. What’s more, she introduced me to LA County Website, where I am
currently working right now.

Sophomore Freshmen M 19 7 6

41. In my first year at college, I would occasionally converse with my friends from
high school. We would regularly talk about non-educational, useless things,
focusing on short-term goals rather than our futures; as if we were still in high
school. Although I had easily joined in those conversations and had no problem
with them, I felt a sense of disgust that people would remain so callous and never
even consider what was going to happen to them in a couple of years. This
particular experience stood out in that I was only one in that group who cared of
what was going to happen after college. This really shaped my outlook on
realizing not to end up callous on such important like that.

138

Sophomore Freshmen F 19 4 4

42. During the spring semester of 06’ I was really struggling with one of my major
courses. I ended up dropping the class which was really devastating because I’ve
always done really well in school. It impacted me a lot because it actually made
me think about changing my major and doing something different with my life.
But I’ve took the class and realized that sometimes certain things deserve a
second chance even though you fail the first time. So, I took it again and I got a
“B” in the class. I realized that I can do it even if it requires a second try.

Sophomore Freshmen M 19 6 6

43. I had taken 20 units and near finals I had become extremely stressed and on the
verse of a breakdown. My sister stood out and calmed me down, brought my
hopes up, made me feel confident and hopeful about my future. This has made
me take with me the feeling of self strength and motivation to guide me through
school and life.

Senior Freshmen M 21 7 6

44. I participated in Armenian Student Association (ASA). I found a lot of friends.
Among them was Professor Levon Marashlian. I found out that I can be part of
active Armenian community. I could invest my time and effort to our issues. I
have become more confident in issues like Armenian causes and education.

Sophomore Freshmen F 19 7 7

45. I haven’t had a particular incident, but I always wasn’t the best student in high
school and once I came her I decided to change that, and ever since I have been
working hard on my grades and I hope to go to a great university and make
something great of myself because I see hoe hard it is on my mom and I don’t
want that for me.

139

Sophomore Freshmen F 29 3 7 4

46. For me the first semester as freshmen at GCC I started to realize something that I
had not seen in me before. I realized that I was surrounded by many intelligent
and competitive students. I then began to question everything I did and started to
compare my intelligence to the “A” students. It became hard at times because I
felt as if I was not good enough when I was unable to get that “A”. But after a
while I realized that being in college means I have to take control over my actions
and to never give up and to never allow other people to make me feel low.

Sophomore Freshmen F 19 7 7

47. In my first semester at GCC, I took chemistry 101 and started off the year tough.
I wasn’t doing very well on the tests and it started to discourage me. However, I
realized that I needed a little more motivation to want to learn in order to start
doing well. I’m glad I didn’t give up on the class and I stuck through it to get a
“B”. Of course, it’s not about the grade, but learning something about you in the
process.

Sophomore Freshmen F 18 7 6

48. I had always wanted to become a cardiologist and one day there was a
conversation with my family members that made me realize why I really wanted
to be a doctor. Being Armenian and a girl, we have certain responsibilities when
we get married. However, I was frustrated that everyone thought I shouldn’t have
such a demanding career. This experience was important because it helped me be
more assured of what I wanted to do with my life. I learned that other people’s
discouragement gives me more determination to not give up on my goals. My
mom was my support system in my decision.

Sophomore Freshmen F 21 6 6

49. When I transferred to GCC, I wanted to become a social worker. I’d like to help
people with any questions they have. I found a job in a program called GEAR UP
tutoring in middle schools and I liked it very much. This made me realize that my
major is the right choice for me.

140

Sophomore Freshmen M 19 7 6

50. There is no particular college experience that has shaped my character. The
whole college atmosphere, the independence, and the freedoms that are presented
to me made me a more responsible person and mature person. I think that college
enabled me to be more confident as an independent adult and help set the
foundation for my future.

Junior Sophomore M 20 7 7

51. Taking Armenian language classes at GCC. My best friend inspiring me to
discover my cultural roots, realizing my place in society among Armenians and
among others and being aware of my ancestor’s culture and heritage.

Freshmen Freshmen M 19 7 7

52. The day I realized how important learning had become in my life. Knowledge
meant success for me. I had never felt an urge to learn or expand the amount of
knowledge I had. This realization is going to lead me to my success and future
goals.

Junior Sophomore F 20 7 7
53. Armenian Culture Day was an important experience. The ASA was involved and
it showed everything about my culture from its music, dances, food, heritage
costumes, and etc. It showed where I come from, history of my ancestors in which
is the music, dance, interpretations etc.

Sophomore Freshmen F 19 6 6

54. I would say that this incident would be when I changed my major. During my
first semester I wanted to be a dentist, until I took chemistry. I went through a
really hard time trying to figure out what I wanted to be. I saw a counselor that
helped me a lot. It was important for me to figure this out so I can make a future
for myself.

141

Sophomore Freshmen F 19 6 6

55. I completely messed up on my first year, failing many classes. Now I am at the
start of my second year and trying to get myself back up on my feet. I am getting
help from my best friend because I really want to make up my mistakes during the
first year. He has changed my outlook on things. I am much more serious now.

Freshmen Freshmen F 18 6 6

56. The incident was the day of the essay that was supposed to be written in class in
an hour about who we are, the first day of school. It made me reflect about my
life and who I am. The overall experience throughout my school life.

Sophomore Sophomore M 20 7 7

57. I am not going to go into great detail of my personal experience (personal
reasons). Over the past year, Dec. 05 to Dec. 06, I have been involved with the
law, both sides. I have gone through community service, directly seeing the
enormous social economic differences of communities. The overall impact was
that I separated myself from people and things that were of no benefit to me and
were a negative influence. By God’s Grace and Mercy, my life has changed for
the best. I am highly motivated in my academics, my career, and my future’s
ambitions now. I have taken all views and beliefs and now act on them.

Sophomore Sophomore F 21 6 6

58. Talking to a lawyer at my school, who was a guest speaker, made me realize that I
want to become a lawyer. He told me about his work thoroughly, I even got to go
to a courtroom with him and experienced the whole event that took place at the
courtroom. This experience made me realize that I want to become a lawyer.

Junior Junior M 20 4 4

59. Participating in Gear Up tutoring program at Glendale Community College made
me realize that I like working with high school students. I also realized that I
want to become a teacher. The concept of teaching rose, I had never thought of
becoming one.

142

Sophomore Freshmen F 19 6 6

60. The only experience I had in college that I could remember was last year (1
st
year
in college) when my English Professor told the class to not treat college like high
school. I would miss assignments here and there and so did the rest of the class
until that one lecture. I realized that college was now what would lead to my
career. What was important about that experience was that I realized I had to
take this seriously and that I couldn’t just go through it like I had in high school.

Sophomore Sophomore M 20 5 5

61. It was in my Armenian Diaspora class during my sophomore year at GCC. I was
learning about Armenians situation in the early 90s. I wanted to help, but I
couldn’t due to years. It changed my life into wanting to go to Armenia and help
them rebuilt when I get a degree. What was important is that I never knew what
happened in the past. So it changed the way I saw the world. I would like to
thank my teacher, Dr. Marashlian; he changed my life for the positive. I want to
do want he does, educate the Armenian youth.

Senior Freshmen F 23 6 7

62. My experience as a student is to see all people have equal rights, especially
Armenian people having rights to protest against Genocide. Moreover, Armenian
people are able to have freedom of speech in order to protect their next
generation. Also, it is important for me to come to the U.S. and see different
kinds of students and people but to have equal opportunity of success and
progress. I am able to find out who I am and what I want to learn.

Sophomore Sophomore M 20 7 7

63. When I met a few individuals, GCC students who shared the same ideas, and were
driven by the same feelings that I am. This was very important to me as an
Armenian American because I have a great sense of patriotism and nationalism
and to see fellow young Armenians these days have the same qualities is very
rare. This greatly strengthened my faith in which I am, as an Armenian and gave
me a sense of feelings that we still have people who care, and that the Armenian
race will go on.

143

Junior Freshmen M 21 5 5

64. My 2005 wrestling season at Skyline College. It made me realize the importance
of preparation before starting a specific task. I moved up in weight from 141 to
149 and lost the starting spot. Previously, I had beaten their person in practice.
Due to my lack of preparation before the season started I began to collapse during
the season physically. I felt like a failure and was very disappointed in myself.

Freshmen Freshmen F 19 2 3

65. When I attended this college for the first time, I went to my counselor’s office for
help with my classes; however, the information was not right. I took three classes
that I did not even need for my major. My advice to all students is not to go only
one counselor. Go to some of them to get accurate information.

Freshmen Freshmen F 18 3 5

66. I have been having bad experiences with some of the Armenian girls. They
constantly talk behind my back because of the clothes I wear. I don’t understand
Armenian, but once my friend translated to me what she said, I talked to her and
she never said anything about me.

Junior Sophomore F 21 7 7

67. I think while I took the Armenian Diaspora class it influenced me so much to be
more involved with my community and the Armenian society. Just the fact to try
to become familiar with different types of Armenians without analyzing them, has
helped me to have a better attitude especially at school!

Freshmen Freshmen F 18 1 3

68. Well I just began college, so there isn’t a major event that occurred while I was
here. However, one negative incident occurred when I was bothered by a boy. It
turned into something big and my boyfriend was later involved. This left me with
fear every time I go to my night classes, because I feel like somebody is going to
bother me like that guy did.

144

Sophomore Sophomore F 19 7 7

69. In my first semester of my sophomore year, I took a Speech 101 class. I had a
speech due and I was extremely nervous. I went up in front of the class and it
turned out that my teacher was sick and heavily medicated. I was presenting and
my teacher stopped me and said, “You are extremely tan this week”. I replied by
saying, “Yes, I went to Palm Springs”. He then said, “Were you in a G-String?” I
was sooo embarrassed. I replied by saying, “No!” I thought I was going to die! I
didn’t die, and in fact I gathered up my nerve and finished my speech. Although
my teacher was completely unethical and that was negative, the outcome was
positive. I realized that I am in fact a great speaker to an audience.

Senior Senior M 24 6 5

70. During my senior year at GCC, a professor I had told me that the journey was
more important than the destination. Having always been worried about the final
outcome of events in my life. I realized that the journey or road to them have
always been more valuable.

Freshmen Freshmen F 19 5 6

71. Making friends, being social and being involved with other students was a
positive experience due to a teacher who made me feel comfortable and confident.

Freshmen Freshmen F 19 7 7

72. Unfortunately, it is my first year at GCC, it was very difficult to get used to the
campus. Because of the independent level. So far, I love my classes and I’m
looking forward to finishing GCC and transferring to a university.

Senior Sophomore F 23 5 7

73. Incident involving myself, realizing what an impact I can have in my career as far
as achieving the goals set for me. A professor once told me that Americans are
very forgiving as far as giving a second chance, something I was unfamiliar with.
She continued, “It’s not like other countries were we are discriminated against.”

145

Junior Junior M 21 5 7

74. One of the greatest experience I had in college is getting the internship at JPL/ Jet
Propulsion laboratory/NASA. I developed a positive relationship with my
teacher, Richard Guglemino. As a result, he encouraged me to apply for this
internship. I think this experience is important because I received hands-on
experience working in ground-based observation of Saturn and Jupiter in the
infrared. It also helped me build communication and leadership skills.

Sophomore Sophomore F 23 7 7

75. I took a Spanish class at Glendale Community College and I learned about the
Spanish culture and their nation, ways of life. This affected my life because after
that I decided that I would like to live in Spain.
Sophomore Sophomore M 19 1 6

76. In the fall semester, I decided to take three different classes altogether. These
classes were Calculus, Accounting (2
nd
level) and economics. I spent all of the
fall semester trying my best to do well in all of my classes, but it was just too
much. My economics teacher was really not the best there is. She was actually a
stats teacher who kept giving wrong lectures, she kept drawing wrong graphs and
her lectures were not coherent with the book. I just felt like I could have done a
better job if I had a better teacher. Her unenthusiastic attitude towards economics
made me dislike the subject. I asked to meet with her several times during her
office hours and her explanations were just vague. However, the tests were very
detailed and analytical. The reasons her tests were hard is solely because she
didn’t make them. She used a database for economics questions on our exams.
The reason why this experience affects me greatly is because at first I thought I
wasn’t doing well due to my incompetence. Then I heard complaints from my
fellow students. She also told us that no one in the class was receiving an A. My
final grade was the biggest disappointment of my academic life. I received a C
grade. This was something that had never happened. It really lowered my GPA
and also my chances of attending USC. I have been competent and goal-oriented
my whole life. Nothing has ever stopped me from achieving my goals. At first, I
thought the incident might stop me from attending USC. Then after some
thought, it made me realize that grades or GPA’s don’t really represent your true
level of competence in the real world. It made me realize that even if this incident
denies me entrance to USC, it will never stop me because I will try again next
year. This incident made me strive even harder in achieving my goals. I also
realized that my strength of will is still in place.

146

Junior Senior F 21 2 2

77. I had a music class. Back then I really liked music, so I decided to take music
120. My teacher was so rude and didn’t grade me properly. I dropped the class
with a “W”, which later affected my educational goal, since I wanted to get into
USC.

Senior Junior F 24 7 5

78. This incident occurred a year ago. My Anthropology Professor is handicapped.
She showed me the meaning of strength, positiveness, and accomplishment. In
spite of her physical disability she forged a great life and career for herself. I left
that class always inspired. I always remember her, especially when I run into
obstacles in my life.

Senior Freshmen M 23 7 7
79. When I started attending GCC, I took ESL Reading and speaking class. On my
first test, I got a “D”, which was very discouraging for me. I talked with my
teacher and she told me not to worry about it and just continue to studying the
best I could. On the second test, I got an “A” my teacher noticed my
improvement and gave me an “A” as my final class grade. That affected me so
positively that until now in every class that I took I got an “A”.

Freshmen Freshmen F 22 7 7

80. My incident was working at GCC and taking classes at the same time. My co-
workers made the job more fun. I became more self-confident, I’m not a shy
person anymore and I can easily communicate with people.

147

Sophomore Sophomore F 19 6 6

81. In my sophomore year, I took a class called cultural anthropology with professor
Fonarow. The subject matter was completely different from anything I had ever
learned before. It was completely enlightening and led me to realize that I wasn’t
as open-minded or knowledgeable as I thought I was. I really enjoyed the
approach that Anthropology took trying to understand the human kind. I
particularly liked that it was called the science of empathy and I thought that it
was a unique perspective and it is important for people to embrace it. I decided to
embrace it to the extent that I changed my major to pursue Anthropology as a
career and not only that I had an incredible relationship with my professor that
remains very strong to this day. Not only am I pursuing a field that I love, but I
also love the people in the field who I love very much and the bonds that we
create together and the humanity that we see in each other just makes our
relationship seem more phenomenal.

Senior Freshmen M 23 6 6

82. Working full time and going to school to support my family, finally gave
realization that I want to go to medical school. My Professor of Biology helped
me out a lot with recommendations for the schools. This experience gave me an
understanding of how difficult it would be to be in school and follow my goals
with having to work full time. My teacher gave me advice on what to do. Helped
me out a lot. Reinforced in me that I really want to be a doctor.

Senior Sophomore F 24 7 7

83. About a year into college, I realized that the people I was friends with weren’t
headed down the same path that I wanted to head down. I made the decision to
slowly separate myself from them and associate with people that had the same
goals as I did. It was a good decision because I went after my goals and they soon
followed as well. It was a win-win situation.

148

Sophomore Freshmen F 19 6 5

84. The experience was being involved in the scholars program. The scholars
program is an honors program with a close knit group of students who meet
minimum requirements to get in. Through this program, I met many students who
helped make the college experience much easier to adapt to. Also, the scholars
counselor was extremely helpful and helped me adapt to the college experience
because of being surrounded by other students who shared my goals. I believe
that the long-term effect to my sense of who I am has improved in the sense that I
have more confidence.

Senior Senior M 21 4 4

85. Being part of student government and part of the GCC ASA was the most
influential. Also, working at the same time while going to college transformed
me into a more responsible person. Also, some of the Engineering Professors at
GCC were very influential in all aspects of engineering that I changed my major.

Sophomore Freshmen M 19 4 7

86. My grade was in between a “C” and a “B” and I asked my teacher if I could do an
extra-credit assignment to get the higher grade. He refused, adding that I’m
anyways outside on campus playing cards and the grade wouldn’t make a
difference. Even if it is a joke, it made me feel hurt, but I have more pride in my
nationality and I separate myself from any other Armenian because being
separated and alone we're more vulnerable to being prejudiced against.

Sophomore Freshmen F 19 7 7

87. Attending college was an interesting experience because it made me “see the
light”. After a year in college I broke up with my former boyfriend, whom I was
in a relationship with for dour in a half years. The want of becoming an
individual was the cause and this occurred due to my first experience in college.
My older brother helped me to become an independent individual who does not
rely on others emotionally. This experience has and will make me a stronger
individual. And I believe Glendale College was the catalyst for my actions.

149

Junior Sophomore F 21 7 7

88. One of the counselors at GCC was so nice that she pushed me into graduating as
soon as possible. She believed in me when no one else did. She was there for me
when I had questions and believed me. She always found the answers for me.
Spring 2007 will be the last semester at GCC with this, I could say I achieved
with one of my educational goals.

Senior Junior M 22 7 6

89. I volunteered at the learning center for biology and chemistry. A freshmen who
had difficulty in choosing a major was a student of mine. After putting a lot of
energy and time in getting him on track he became very interested in biology
major and now is a top student and he will be applying to UCLA biology to
become a Premed student.

Sophomore Sophomore F 19 7 7

90. Joining the Associate Students, this is the student government. My friend told me
about the organization and the advisor helped me to become more involved. This
experience was extremely important because it taught me leadership skills. This
had a great long-term experience on me because it gave me more confidence to
pursue other organizations.

Sophomore Sophomore M 19 7 7

91. During my volunteer experience at a local hospital, the experience that affected
my sense of who I am dealt with the neglect of a patient’s rights by the medical
staff. While they were ignoring the constant requests I was the only one to listen
to her demands and her outcry to the medications she was allergic to. The
medical staff, to calm her down, gave her the medication that she was allergic to.
I was quick to alert them. However, she went into cardiac arrest. Luckily, she
was revived. It taught me the virtue of patience and respecting patient’s rights.

Freshmen Freshmen F 20 5 4

92. I have a two-year old at home and as a single working mother I found it very
difficult to return to school. But with the help of my counselor, she helped me fit
school into my schedule.

150

Senior Junior F 24 6 7

93. I have had many instructors who were great at teaching, but the most remarkable
one was instructor Karen Pederson.

Junior Junior F 23 6 6

94. I had a teacher at ESL Class and she was very nice. She encouraged me to take
English class one after another. Therefore, I was able to learn English quickly.

Freshmen Freshmen F 18 6 6

95. I am chairman of Public Relations for the ASA at GCC. I gained a great deal of
knowledge about my native Country Armenia. Learning about living conditions
in Armenia inspired me to maximize all the resources that were available to us in
the United Stated to realize my potential and give as much as I can help those in
need at home.

Junior Junior F 21 7 7

96. One of my professors asked us to write a paper about someone we idealize. At
that point, I had lots of idols who were talented, respectful and well known. But I
chose to write about Charles Aznavour. I found out (after researching) how
inspiring his life was. After writing the paper, I started appreciating more of the
celebrities who help all types of charities and even I started organizing walk-a-
tons for different charities.

Sophomore Sophomore M 20 7 7

97. One of my college instructors motivated me to excel in the areas that I showed
interest in specific subject. One of the subjects was business. He was able to
bring out an important talent. It is a sense of business. After talking with a few
business leaders. They convinced me that I will become a great business man.

Sophomore Freshmen M 19 7 7

98. I was undecided as to my major and failing my psychology class, due to the lack
of interest in school. My professor sat with me and offered to tutor me. Within
time my grades were back up, my test scores improved and I had a sense of
direction. I enjoy school now and know what the future holds for me.
151

Senior Sophomore F 20 6 6

99. I was having difficulties in one of my classes and my professor wasn’t any help,
so I decided to go to my dean of students. They were very helpful and guided me
to in the right direction and approaches I could use with my professor. It helped
me with my course and with my other classes.

Sophomore Freshmen F 23 1 7

100. I was tested for learning disabilities –was found disabled and told I could
never make it in a four-year college. At first, it effected me by not believe in
myself. However, I worked hard in college and had a wonderful counselor who
believed in me and others that had helped me. This experience just made me
work harder and prove to myself it wasn’t true, so far I’m doing well.

152

COMBINED GROUP SIMILARITY MATRIX (GSM)

Abstract (if available)

Abstract This study had two purposes: (1) to identify types of college-related impact on identity that first-generation Armenian American community college student reported and (2) to determine how those students conceptually organized those factors of impact. Utilizing Flanagan' s (1954) Critical Incident Technique, first-generation Armenian American community college students (69 females

Linked assets

University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

Conceptually similar

PDF

Undergraduate single mothers' perception of the impacts of college on their cognitive and psychosocial development

PDF

Concept mapping of the sources of perceived impact on community college students' identity development: a students' perspective

PDF

From their perspective: discovering the sources of impact on older women undergraduates' identity development and mapping those experiences

PDF

Student perspectives on identity development: describing the experiences sorority members perceive influenced their identity

PDF

Describing and mapping the sources of college impact on the identity development of African American college students attending a predominantly white institution

PDF

The sources of impact on first-generation Latino college students' identity development: from the students' perspective

PDF

The sources of impact in college on gay male student identity: the current student perspective

PDF

Concept mapping and describing the sources of impact on Black gay college student identity development at 4-year institutions

PDF

First-generation college students: perceptions, access, and participation at urban university

PDF

Self-perceptions of student identity in community college students with disabilities

PDF

Discovering the sources of impact of college on LGBTQ students' identity development and mapping those experiences

PDF

More than one barrier to break: mapping the impact of college on identity in Latina undergraduates

PDF

And still we rise: examining the strengths of first-generation college students

PDF

Asian American and Pacific Islander student-faculty interactions: experiences of first-generation community college students

PDF

Families first: supporting first-generation college students’ families

PDF

Support service representatives impact on first-generation low-income community college students

PDF

The role of family and ethnic identity in the college choice process for first-generation Latinas

PDF

A formative evaluation of the student support services TRIO program for low income and first generation college bound students self-efficacy at Butte-Glenn Community College District

PDF

The impact of college success program on first generation college students in their preparation for college

PDF

Transfer first-generation college students: the role of academic advisors in degree completion

Asset Metadata

Creator Ekimyan, Roza (author)

Core Title First-generation Armenian American community college students' perception of events affecting their identity development

School Rossier School of Education

Degree Doctor of Education

Degree Program Education (Leadership)

Publication Date 04/28/2010

Defense Date 02/20/2008

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag college-related impacts,community college students,first-generation Armenian American,OAI-PMH Harvest,sense of self

Language English

Advisor Goodyear, Rodney K. (committee chair), Balok, David (committee member), Espalin, Charles A. (committee member)

Creator Email rozae@sbcglobal.net

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-m1190

Unique identifier UC1297802

Identifier etd-Ekimyan-20080428 (filename),usctheses-m40 (legacy collection record id),usctheses-c127-62296 (legacy record id),usctheses-m1190 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier etd-Ekimyan-20080428.pdf

Dmrecord 62296

Document Type Dissertation

Rights Ekimyan, Roza

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Repository Name Libraries, University of Southern California

Repository Location Los Angeles, California

Repository Email cisadmin@lib.usc.edu