Paper 2026 · ≈ 8 min
First-Generation Participation in Professional Organizations at Higher Education Institutions: A Qualitative Research Study Using Social Capital and Bioecological Systems.
Argues that institutional opportunity structures, not individual choice, are the primary driver of inequity in first-generation students' access to professional and career-oriented organizations. Based on semi-structured interviews with first-generation UVA students, analyzed through Bronfenbrenner's bioecological systems theory and Putnam's social capital framework. Finding: awareness shapes access, access shapes engagement, and the institutional exosystem controls all three.
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