Profile

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Academic Advisor/Diversity Initiatives
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
rrosha@umassd.edu | (508) 999-8321

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Fulfilling a Promise, Honoring Commitments: Strategies for Developing FYE Programming for BIPOC and First Gen Nursing Students

Rekha Rosha, PhD, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

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Co-Author(s): Jason Campagnone; MEd, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

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Abstract
Through co-curricular design and implementation of a multi-year student leadership program for nursing students at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, the Student Support Services staff help students to explore a deeper understanding of inclusive excellence and promote more inclusive learning environment. We do this primarily through programming delivered through key initiatives based on the Jeffrey’s Nursing Undergraduate Retention and Success model of diversity nursing. The Jeffrey’s framework takes a “whole person approach” to engaging undergraduate nursing students. We have successfully applied this framework in the implementation and development of two key initiatives: Student Nurse Leadership Academy and the Diversity Nursing Scholars program. Through the Student Nurse Leadership Academy, nursing students meet several leadership benchmarks between their first and sophomore years to achieve career readiness. The Diversity Nursing Scholars programing focuses on creating supports for students to meet leadership development goals, as well academic success and professional integration. The combined efforts of these programs demonstrate meaningful advance of diversity in the UMD nursing school culture because these holistic support goals have been woven into the CNHS for past few years now in terms of admissions, engagement and retention. Through the HRSA grant which funds the College’s FYE programming, we have also provided meaningful financial support to students. In 2019, we provided as much as $125,000 in funding for books and scholarships. Our interactive presentation will layout the mechanics of building a more just nursing education culture, as well as identifying next steps.

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Biography
Dr. Rekha Rosha holds degrees from Northern Vermont University, The University of Vermont, and Brandeis University, where her doctoral work on the intersections of fiction and finance earned her several awards and appears in reference works and anthologies.

Having been a first-generation and low-income college student, and based on her research on class and capital, she began searching for opportunities to increase academic success for all students. Her search led her to student support services, where, for the past eight years, Dr. Rosha has worked in both public and private universities on persistence and retention programming for “at risk” populations.

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