博士生的研究解决了一个被忽视的人群

在她童年和青春期的大部分时间里, 莫莉Sarubbi would have been deemed an unlikely c和idate for a bachelor’s degree, much less the PhD she will claim at the University of Denver’s Commencement  ceremony in June. 

这并不是因为她是一个冷漠的学生. 相反，她在学校表现优异. 但她的好成绩和令人印象深刻的表现, 统计数据显示, 不太可能推翻一个引人注目的传记事实.

“我在寄养家庭中长大，”萨鲁比说. 这种经历通常会阻碍中学后的成功. 事实上，在高中毕业的寄养儿童中，上大学的甚至不到3%. 从那里开始，数据追踪器就失去了它们. 有多少人完成了大学学业? 有多少人继续读研究生. 谁也说不准.

萨鲁比希望提高这个坚韧群体的知名度. 高等教育领导的学生 莫里奇教育学院, she has focused her dissertation on degree attainment among the 3% of foster-system veterans who get into college.

Sarubbi has made their challenges part of her job as well: As a project manager 和 政策 researcher at the Denver-based Education Commission of the States, she closely follows foster-system issues 和 how they are addressed in 教育 政策. 在未来的岁月里, 她是否为非营利组织工作, 政府机构或大学, 萨鲁比计划继续关注寄养儿童的教育前景.

“这个话题非常贴近我的内心, 我真的试着从各个方向去触及它:倡导, 政策, 教育,萨鲁比说. “There hasn’t been a whole lot of research around this population 和 their [academic] success. My dissertation specifically looks at the tools that helped the low percentage that do succeed.”

为什么MG线上电子游戏和坚持这么成问题? 对于初学者来说, 寄养学生经常从一个家搬到另一个家，从一所学校搬到另一所学校, which isn’t conducive to pursuing things like application-enhancing AP classes 和 extracurricular activities. The simple act of dispatching a high school transcript to colleges is pretty daunting if you’ve attended four or five schools in a h和ful of years.

But that’s nothing compared to filling out the Free 应用程序 for Federal Student 援助 (FAFSA) when a parent’s financial information 和 tax returns simply are not available. And it's nothing compared to determining — without benefit of parental advice — the best strategies for applying: early decision 和 early action vs. 定期招生? 

一旦寄养校友进入大学，挑战依然存在. “This traumatic life that they may have had doesn’t end because now they are a freshman at DU,Sarubbi解释道, citing the experiences of some of the young men 和 women she met while completing her dissertation. That project draws on the accounts of numerous students who found even their first days on a college campus to be alienating 和 baffling.

考虑学生, 很典型的, 他的私人物品连个手提箱都没有. “我带着一个垃圾袋出现，里面大概有三样东西.  然后一个人去检查家庭取向,’”萨鲁比说, 转述一位准大学生新MG线上电子游戏大学生活第一天的故事. That same student might have been delighted to have a roof over her head for the fall months, 但后来, 因为假期宿舍都关闭了，也没有家人可以拜访, 无家可归和饥饿似乎真的很有可能发生.

In collecting 和 examining these experiences, Sarubbi adopted unusual methodology. 她 not only surveyed 和 interviewed foster system veterans with college classes to their credit, 她让他们参与数据分析和结论的形成.

“我没有进去, interview people 和 take their stories 和 make my own conclusions — which is traditionally what academic research has done. 我们共同构建了知识，”她说.  “历史上, I think a lot of research has been on the backs of populations that we want to learn about. 我的[研究]真正把参与者作为知识创造者. 我不拥有这项研究. 当然，这是我的论文和学位. 学术体系就是这样建立起来的. But they were involved with analysis; they helped write some of it. … All the recommendations 和 findings are really developed as a result of the participants’ voices 和 stories.”

作为萨鲁比博士论文的导师, 朱迪Kiyama, 莫里奇学院高等教育系主任, credits Sarubbi not only with using groundbreaking methodology — “it’s called participatory action research,她解释说，但要以一种创新的方式使用它.

To enlist participants in the project, Sarubbi had to ensure they were using appropriate practices. 她不能假设他们都接受过研究训练, 所以她不得不为他们开设一个培训课程，让他们学习如何做研究,Kiyama说. 还有她的论文本身, Sarubbi breaks from convention by using the first chapter not to define the problem or challenge at h和 but to introduce the study's participants 和 let them share their definitions of 教育 success.

 “莫莉的项目不仅在方法论上推动了我们, 但她在敦促我们重新思考论文的分担方式,Kiyama说.

Sarubbi’s own story of growing up in Rochester, New York, also informed her approach to her research. 她 entered foster care at age 5 和 lived within the system until just before she graduated from high school.

她回忆说:“上多所幼儿园到12年级的学校真的很难. “(但)对我来说，上学一直是我的事. I could thrive there; I could try hard, 和 teachers would recognize that I was a smart student. 这是一个安全的避风港. Even if I moved around schools, what I learned in a classroom I could take with me.”  

但有些经历在她的记忆中仍然模糊不清. 谁会参加家长会来了解她的进展? 萨鲁比不知道. 也许没有人. Who was on duty to make sure she took the PSAT 和 the right college-entrance exams? That was pretty much left up to her, 和 she’s not sure how she pieced all the parts together.

“我不记得有人说过，‘你必须上大学.“我家里没人上过大学. 我没有一个朋友. 我不认识任何上过大学的人. 当然，当我被照顾的时候，没有人谈论大学，”她说.

And certainly no one was talking about how she should have a list of schools with a range of "stretch" 和 "safety" options. 她不明白她有选择, 许多大学会认为她是一个很有前途的候选人. So she pursued a bachelor’s degree at the institution she knew best: Nazareth College, 她在那里学习心理学. “I honestly applied to the school that was down the road from where I worked,” she says. “我在公共汽车上经过了它. 我知道那所学校，我觉得校园很漂亮.”

When it came time to pursue graduate studies, she enrolled at the University of Rochester. 在那里，她开始与Kiyama一起学习，Kiyama于2013年搬到了DU. 虽然萨鲁比很少离开帝国大厦, 她也决定搬到丹佛去, 这样她就可以在Kiyama的指导下继续她的工作. 这意味着在一个她从未想过要去的州开始新的生活. “我从没想过要离开罗切斯特，”她说. “我真的不认识宾夕法尼亚州以西的任何人. 当你有一个小的现实，你只知道你所知道的.”

回顾她的研究生工作, Sarubbi is struck by the resilience 和 courage that foster-system alumni demonstrate in the face of so many obstacles.

她说:“他们拼命想要靠自己的双脚站稳脚跟。.

她, 与此同时, 决心帮助他们这样做吗, in part by providing the research 和 insights that will spur positive change within 教育 systems. 毕竟，萨鲁比说:“我不喜欢现状.”