This study examined opportunities for enhancing transfer outcomes for community college students through summer research opportunities at a university. It emphasizes the significance of academic capital, derived from Bourdieu's cultural capital theory, in facilitating successful transfers. By offering ten-week paid summer research opportunities at a university for community college students, the study aims to identify practices supporting transfer abilities and addressing disparities in social mobility. The concept of academic capital encompasses easing financial concerns, enhancing support networks, and ensuring access to relevant information for students from low-income backgrounds. The research findings highlight the positive impact of research internships on students' academic capital, transfer readiness, and faculty perceptions. The study addresses three key research questions: (1) Academic capital increase: Analyzing changes in community college students' academic capital post participation in summer research projects; (2) Student transfer perceptions: Examining how summer research opportunities influence community college students' perceptions of transferring to four-year programs; (3) Faculty views on student success: Investigating faculty mentors' perceptions of community college student interns succeeding in baccalaureate programs. The findings underscore increases in academic capital, improved student perceptions of transfer capacity, and positive faculty views of community college student researchers. Despite challenges like payment delays and legal status issues affecting student participation, the study highlights the importance of providing support and opportunities for community college students to enhance their academic capital and improve transfer readiness. The research emphasizes the need for tailored transitional supports and strategic infrastructure changes to ensure successful transfers from two-year to four-year programs, ultimately aiming to uplift social mobility for diverse learners and advance educational and industry goals.

College graduates are expected to acquire certain skill sets that are necessary andsought after by potential employers, as many industries in the United States continue to grow a global footprint. Employers also value good communication skills, and communication classes are a staple of most general education curricula, including those taught on community college campuses. The diversity of the student populations on community college campuses in the United States is vast, as is the cultural wealth accompanying this diversity. Diverse and internationalized student populations at community colleges include local students living in communities surrounding community colleges and international students studying abroad in the United States. This action research study infused intercultural intelligence activities into a third culture Communication 100 classroom using the prescribed course objectives to prepare both local and international students to enter a global, or a glocal-local (glocal) workforce. This was done by having local and international students communicate, share, and teach each other and their instructor via their cultural capital in a third culture classroom. Mixed methods were employed by collecting student reflection journals after completing four class activities that introduced them to the principles of cultural intelligence. Students in an experimental class and two control classes completed the Global Perspectives Inventory (GPI) as a pre- and post-assessment. The experimental students’ GPI scores indicated they perceived themselves to have grown more on all seven variables in the study and felt more prepared to enter a global workforce. In the experimental class, results from both qualitative and quantitative data indicated that the international and local Latine students had comparable cultural intelligence skills upon entering the class and that they felt they learned more about the world by working with each other. Their perceptions changed in a positive direction regarding their intercultural intelligence growth, and they felt more prepared to enter a global and glocal workforce due to their participation in the Communication 100 third culture classroom.

This action research study, informed by qualitative critical bricolage methods explored immigrant-origin adult learners’ lived experiences around education. It examined a California community college’s practices and campus climate that hinder adult immigrant learners’ equitable access to and success in postsecondary education. In an attempt to humanize and decolonize the “traditional” research processes, six immigrant-origin adult students on the Central Coast of California participated as co-researchers in a cycle of Critical Participatory Action Research (CPAR), which served as the innovation within the overall action research. The CPAR innovation aimed to raise immigrant-origin adult learners’ critical consciousness through their five-month-long participation in art-based autoethnographic inquiries and praxis. Through the exploration of their community cultural wealth, the goal of the CPAR innovation was to empower immigrant-origin adult learners to build local capacity for solutions. The CPAR team initiated collective action to improve campus climate and services by sharing their stories through an on-campus exhibit. The study revealed tremendous strengths and resilience of the participants and their communities. The study also found systemic barriers as well as personal and situational factors that affected their educational journeys. The barriers included past traumas, family and work responsibilities, as well as biases and inequitable practices in the education system. Recommendations for educational institutions include (a) training educators on trauma-informed approaches; (b) implementing culturally and linguistically responsive and contextualized instruction and knowledge assessment; (c) making support programs inclusive, adult-focused and stigma-free; (d) valuing students’ aspirational, familial, and social capital; and (e) expanding distance learning opportunities through improving technology access and academic support for online students. Study findings suggest that critical consciousness develops in a complex way and that collective efficacy and opportunity structures support student agency toward equitable academic access and success.