My name is Yunung Lee, and I am currently entering my third year as a PhD student in the School of Social Work at 捆绑SM社区. My research focuses on identifying the barriers and promoters of educational upward mobility among first-generation college students in the United States. I joined the LKS-STU program as an advanced research graduate student to conduct a side project related to my dissertation. During the 2024 STU trip, my goal is to interview first-generation, low-income students at STU, as well as faculty members, to identify the key factors influencing students' journeys toward educational upward mobility. These factors may include structural, policy, regional, community, educational, family, relational, and personal elements. Additionally, I am interested in exploring how the university experience affects the class migration journey for lower-income students at STU and how this process has influenced their identities and social relationships, particularly their perceptions of their families and hometowns.
With the tremendous help of STU's LKS team and other faculty and staff, I successfully recruited 13 undergraduate students and 3 master's students from various programs and majors, ranging from first to third year, as well as 10 faculty members, including English instructors, residential hall counselors, and psychological counselors.
One of the first significant events I participated in was two information sessions that Dr. Buckley, my program supervisor Dr. Lach, and I developed for STU students on the topic of "Study Abroad and Social Mobility." These presentations served two purposes. The first was to outline the benefits and challenges associated with studying abroad. The second was to provide a platform for me to introduce my research on first-generation, low-income students and invite eligible students to participate. Both sessions went smoothly, and I successfully recruited a few undergraduate participants from the audience. From there, I initiated a snowballing process to reach my target number of students. Additionally, I had discussions with a faculty member at STU who works in related fields and gained valuable insights into the historical evolution of educational upward mobility in China.
Recruitment was the main challenge. Initially, I was unable to recruit the targeted number of student participants through the information sessions as planned. To address this, I brainstormed alternative approaches to reach students. For instance, I asked residential hall counselors and faculty members to circulate my study recruitment posters within their networks. Additionally, I was able to gain more participants through word of mouth from the existing participants.
Another challenge was the time pressure and cultural differences. Although I am a native Mandarin speaker, the Shantou area in China has multiple layers of complexity regarding education and social mobility, which are not easily understood at a surface level. I realized that some of the interview questions I had prepared in advance did not resonate well with the students' contexts. Therefore, I made minor modifications to my interview protocol based on the knowledge and insights I gained along the way.
I also realized that conducting a meaningful and substantial study requires a much deeper understanding of the study setting, which, unfortunately, I did not possess at the outset. However, one important lesson I learned from this trip is how to make the best use of limited resources and capacity.