Abstract
Although volunteer community engagement has been recognized as promoting positive academic outcomes among college students, such experiences can be impractical for underrepresented students who often need to work. Community-engaged employment offers paid opportunities for students to earn money while participating in meaningful community initiatives. In this study, we explored the impact of community-engaged employment on the academic outcomes of underrepresented students. We created a comparison group using propensity score matching, which reduced selection bias and group differences on background characteristics, thus strengthening causal arguments. Results showed that underrepresented students who were employed in a community-engaged work program had significantly higher second-year retention rates, graduation rates, grade point averages, and number of credits completed compared to similar students not employed in the program. These findings indicate that community-engaged employment can provide positive academic outcomes similar to volunteer community engagement experiences, while also addressing financial barriers that many underrepresented students encounter.
Translated title of the contribution | Improving Outcomes of Underrepresented College Students Through Community- Engaged Employment |
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Original language | Spanish |
Article number | 11 |
Journal | International Journal for Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement |
Volume | 8 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2020 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2020 Tulane University. All rights reserved.
Keywords
- academic achievement
- community engagement
- employment
- higher education
- underrepresented students