I never would have expected it, but I think the most difficult aspect of this class will be selecting a research topic and research paradigm.  I have never felt so torn!  Well, maybe not never, but I feel as if I have been bouncing around among topics and I’m feeling frustrated.  I knew from the start that I wanted to focus on student success and persistence…but that is a wide topic and narrowing down my “piece of the pizza pie” has been challenging.  Here are some topics I have considered:

• Gender issues: How do the experiences of women in STEM and other majors where they are underrepresented (like Natural Resources and Management) differ from their peers in majors where women are the majority?
• Out-of-state students: This population is growing (currently at 13% of NCSU undergraduates).  Do they differ in their engagement, achievement or persistence when compared to similarly prepared in-state peers?  Do they face different challenges due to increased tuition costs, lack of a social network and not being in proximity to their  family?
• Increasing institutional graduation rates: How will/could we involve students in developing institutional plans for increasing our graduation rate?  Should students be part of this planning process, and if so, how do we engage them in it?
• Bouncing back and academic resilience: Why are some students able to “bounce back” from poor academic performance early in their college careers?  When most students do not bounce back, and either graduate with low gpas or even drop out, why are some students able to turn things around and even graduate with honors?  What are the personal and institutional factors that contribute to their success?

At this point, I think I will focus on the fourth topic listed above: Bouncing back from poor academic performance.  I believe it is an aspect of persistence worth studying, because we (as in administrators and faculty) should know how best to help students who stumble early on.  Many do, and it is too easy in a large institution to let them go, as Paul Simon said, “slip sliding away.”  Also, as I begin my research, I think there might be a knowledge gap on this topic which makes the research worth pursuing.  While there is a lot of research on academic and personal resilience, I have yet to find an article that specifically focuses on students who have exhibited poor academic performance followed by a significant and permanent turnaround.