COMMITTEE CHAIR: Dr. Fred Bonner

TITLE: BARRIERS AND BRIDGES: CHARACTERIZING AFRICAN AMERICAN MALE STUDENTS’ ENGAGEMENT WITH UNIVERSITY COUNSELING SERVICES AT HBCUS IN THE PURSUIT OF ACADEMIC SUCCESS

ABSTRACT: African American male students attending Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) continue to experience unique academic, social, and psychological challenges that may influence their persistence, identity development, and overall collegiate success. Although HBCUs have historically served as supportive educational environments for Black students, the utilization of university counseling services among African American men remains limited due to factors such as stigma, cultural perceptions of mental health, and mistrust of counseling. Despite growing attention to collegiate mental health, limited research has explored how African American male students characterize their experiences with university counseling services and the extent to which those experiences contribute to their academic success and identity development within the HBCU context. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive phenomenological study is to explore the lived experiences of African American male undergraduate students who have engaged in university counseling services at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Specifically, this study seeks to understand how participants characterize their counseling experiences and how they perceive those experiences as influencing their academic persistence, scholar identity development, self-efficacy, and overall collegiate success. Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory serves as the theoretical framework guiding the study by examining how individual, interpersonal, institutional, societal, and temporal influences shape participants’ counseling experiences and academic development.

Keywords: Educator preparation programs, teacher certification, Astin’s I-E-O model, critical race theory, culturally responsive teaching, educational policy, equity, teacher diversity

Room Location: Delco Building, Room 228