Browsing by Subject "African Americans"
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Item African Americans and HIV/AIDS-related bereavement: an exploratory study of loss, coping, and help-seeking(2009-08) Allen, Sydnye Dyan; Hazen, HazenThe purpose of this study was to understand how individuals from African American families process the HIV/AIDS-related bereavement of a loved one. A sample of African American adults age 18 and older who experienced the loss of a loved one to HIV/AIDS-related death were interviewed for this study. Qualitative methodology was employed for data collection and thematic analysis was used to identify central themes. Due to the exploratory nature of the study, emergent themes regarding AIDS related bereavement were expected. It was postulated that African American individuals shared experiences related to HIV/AIDS-related loss. Individuals were also expected to report unique bereavement experiences. In particular, prolonged grief and internalized coping strategies were expected to impact bereavement experiences of individuals in families acutely affected by HIV/AIDS-related stigmatization. Secrecy about a loved one’s HIV/AIDS-related death was expected to impact the ability of bereaved persons to process and effectively cope with loss; results yielded evidence of protracted states of shame or blame regarding loss. The findings of this study are useful for identifying methods for targeting bereavement resources toward individuals who are underrepresented in HIV/AIDS-related intervention programs.Item Arizona’s Rising STEM Occupational Demands and Declining Participation in the Scientific Workforce: An Examination of Attitudes among African Americans toward STEM College Majors and Careers(Texas Education Review, 2017) Jackson, Jerlando F. L.; Charleston, LaVar J.; Lewis, Chance W.; Gilbert, Juan E.; Parrish, Walter P. IIIAccording to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (2008), science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) occupations constitute a growing sector of Arizona’s economy. However, the number of African Americans earning degrees related to these occupations has not kept pace with this growth. Increasing the participation of African Americans in STEM education fields and subsequent related occupations in Arizona is vital to growing and maintaining the state’s economic stature. This objective is made even more compelling given that each year, from 2008– 2018, there are 3,671 projected job openings in STEM fields in Arizona. This study explores the extent to which the attitudes held by African Americans in Arizona toward STEM related majors and careers influence their likelihood of joining the state’s scientific workforce. Our analyses reveal the importance of career consideration, confidence in one’s ability to be successful in a STEM related field, and family support of the pursuit of STEM education and careers.Item Arts for all : exploring the ways arts serve East Austin residents affected by gentrification(2013-08) Esekawu, Celina Ngozi; Adejumo, Christopher O., 1959-This study examined two community programs, Helping Everyone Recognize Opportunity and Excellence in Success (HEROES) and the Alamo Recreation Center (ARC). Both programs incorporated art making in order to serve central East Austin residents affected by gentrification in the area. The purpose of this study was to present ways these two programs utilize the arts to provide a voice for a population challenged by gentrification. This study integrated firsthand experiences obtained during participant observations of the programs and a historical look at of East Austin to identify the significance of HEROES and ARC in their surrounding community.Item Black economic empowerment : Booker T. Washington and rhetorical intervention in markets(2019-06-18) Smith, Shawn Nicholas; Butterworth, Michael L.; Brummett, Barry; Stroud, Scott R; Taylor, ToneishaMoney as symbolic form has tremendous motivating power over the collective. What other force in the modern era can make strangers show up in vehicles to move us wherever we wish to go, or engage in casual sex, or prepare meals for us and cater to our every need, or lead grown adults to spend their adulthood playing the games of children in front of raving fans, or get us to spend two-thirds of our lives away from our native communities in the offices of the wealthy? I suggest that what actors are willing to spend their money on is a snapshot of their ideological, emotional, social and political commitments. As such, contemporary markets are spaces where people consciously or unconsciously construct the world in which they live. Markets, then, are the modern incubators of public awareness. Additionally, I propose that markets are also sites of public intervention and resistance as they are primary grounds for affecting public consciousness either by producing new business systems of communication or by resisting old ones. My proposition: Critical rhetorical scholars must take seriously markets and dollars as sites of resistance in the modern era. The purpose of this dissertation is to articulate an economic vision of resistance, one that acknowledges the way in which capital is rhetorically constituted. In this project, I will identify how rhetoric constructs markets, the conduits of the monetary symbol, and in turn how markets constitute public consciousness and, therefore, are sites of intervention in the struggle against the neoliberal state. The use of rhetorical force within markets offers a version of resistance where dominant ideologies are challenged, subverted, or reinforced, and where wealth can be redirected to generate sustainable organizations that serve the communal good as defined by the communities for which the organizations serve. As a guiding exemplar and model, I identify the twentieth century Black figurehead, Booker T. Washington, as a critical thinker and model in line with this rhetorical understandingItem Blackness and bilingualism: language ideologies in the African American community(2015-12) Greer, Elizabeth Jane; Palmer, Deborah K., 1969-; Foster, Kevin MThis qualitative interpretivist study uses Richard Ruiz’s language orientation framework to explore the perspectives of African Americans towards Spanish-English bilingualism as it relates to dual language education. Ruiz presented three ideologies towards minority languages: language as a problem, language as a right, and language as a resource (1984). Galindo later added the idea of language as a boundary (1997). This study attempts to add to these frameworks by providing an alternative perspective: a minority language as seen by members of another marginalized group. Previous research demonstrates the potential of dual language programs to promote academic, linguistic, and cross-cultural competence in all students (Howard, Sugarman & Christian, 2003; Thomas & Collier, 2011), yet also suggests that African American students are experiencing limited inclusion in these types of programs (Center for Applied Linguistics, 2008; Lindholm-Leary, 2001). This project contributes to the scant but growing body of research on African American involvement in dual language by examining the existing language ideologies in the African American community towards multilingualism, specifically Spanish-English bilingualism. The researcher analyzed 5 semi-structured interviews with members of the African American community in one urban school district. Thematic coding revealed the representation of each of Ruiz’s original orientations as well as Galindo’s, however, the data analysis also uncovered nuanced and additional ideologies emerging from the racial position of African Americans in U.S. society. This project provides compelling insight into the perspectives of African Americans towards Spanish-English bilingualism. In practice, the implications of this study suggest alternative approaches to the design, recruitment, and implementation of dual language programs with African American students in mind. In theory, this study presents a racially nuanced understanding of Ruiz’s original language orientation framework as well as engages in problematizing the existing raciolinguistic hierarchy of power in U.S. society.Item Cerebral and peripheral microvascular function in individuals with elevated cardiovascular disease risk(2015-08) Hurr, Chansol; Brothers, Robert Matthew; Farrar, Roger P.; Coyle, Edward F.; Tanaka, Hirofumi; Davis, Scott L.The series of studies in this dissertation determined: 1) the effectiveness of a clinically applicable dietary supplement on cerebral vascular function in African Americans (AA), 2) cerebral vascular function in obese individuals, and 3) the underlying mechanism of cutaneous microvascular dysfunction in AA. Study #1 identified that acute flavanol consumption improves cerebral vasodilatory capacity in response to rebreathing-induced hypercapnia in AA. Our laboratory previously found that hypercapnia-induced cerebral vasodilation is reduced in AA when compared with Caucasian Americans (CA). Findings in study #1 may provide an effective interventional strategy to mitigate the high incidence of cerebral vascular diseases, which is commonly found in AA. Study #2 assessed the cerebral vasodilatory capacity in obese individuals. Cerebral vasodilation during hypercapnia, as indexed by the total range of change and the maximal increase in cerebral vascular conductance, was decreased in obese individuals relative to lean counterparts. This attenuated response in obese individuals may explain why they are at higher risk for cerebral vascular diseases including Alzheimer’s disease and stroke. In study #3, mechanisms underlying impaired cutaneous microvascular thermal reactivity in AA were explored using an intradermal microdialysis technique. Our preliminary data previously found that cutaneous vasodilation in response to local heating is decreased in AA. As a follow-up study, we assessed cutaneous vasodilation using pharmacological agents ascorbic acid and tempol, a global antioxidant and superoxide-specific scavenger, respectively. Study #3 determined that reduced cutaneous microvascular thermal reactivity in AA is mainly due to elevated concentration/activity of superoxide. Collectively, the series of studies in the current dissertation provide a potential therapeutic strategy to ameliorate the vascular impairment as well as potential mechanisms for elevated cerebral and peripheral vascular dysfunction in individuals with elevated risk of cardiovascular diseases for future clinical/mechanistic investigations.Item Consumers' perception of the ethics and acceptability of product placement in movies : African Americans and Anglo Americans(2008-12) Johnson, Glynnis Michelle; Cunningham, Isabella C. M.The goal of the study was to explore African Americans’ perceptions and acceptance of products used for placement in movies and to compare their perceptions to those of Anglo Americans. A mix between and repeated measures ANOVA was run to test four hypotheses dealing with race, gender and product differences. A factor analysis was run on the 30 attitudinal measures. A content analysis was done on the comments obtained from the open-ended question. Cross-tabulations were run on product and media consumption data. The results indicated that there are differences in the perceptions and acceptance of products used for placement in movies across ethnic and cultural groups in the U.S., specifically African American and Anglo Americans. Not only were African Americans less likely to accept ethically charged products for product placement in movies than Anglo Americans, their product acceptance ratings, in general, were lower than those of Anglo Americans. In fact, African American males rated all of the products lower than African American females and Anglo American males and females. The implications are that product, race, gender, frequency of movie watching and attitudinal differences should be considered when the product placement strategy is used. Advertisers and marketers should use caution when using the product placement strategy to target the African American market and when selecting the types of products to be used for placement.Item Contesting the mark of criminality : resistance and ideology in gangsta rap, 1988-1997(2009-08) McCann, Bryan John; Cloud, Dana L.This dissertation situates the emergence of gangsta rap from 1988-1997 within the historical trajectory of the American criminal justice system and the mass incarceration of African Americans. Specifically, it examines how the genre enacted the mark of criminality as a gesture of resistance in a period of sustained moral panic surrounding race and criminality in the United States. The mark of criminality refers to a regime of signifiers inscribed upon African American bodies that imagines black subjects as fundamental threats to social order. Drawing upon the theoretical resources of historical materialism and cultural studies, the project locates the mark of criminality within the social structures of capitalism, arguing that hegemonic fantasies of racialized criminality protect oppressive and exploitative social relations. The project concludes that while gangsta rap has many significant limitations associated with violence, misogyny, and commercialism, it nonetheless represents a salient expression of resistance that can inform broader interventions against the American prisons system. A number of questions guide this project. Chief among them are the following: In what ways does the criminal justice system operate as a site of rhetorical invention and hegemonic struggle? To what extent does gangsta rap enable and disable rhetorical and political agency? To what extent does it enable and disable interracial political practice? What are the implications of gangsta rap for a gendered politics of criminality? Three case studies demonstrate how specific gangsta rap artists inverted the mark of criminality toward the constitution of affirmative and resistant fantasies of black criminality. While the work of these artists, I argue, was significantly limited in its emancipatory potential, it nonetheless offered important insights into the contingency of race and crime in America. The project also considers how other rhetors responded to gangsta discourse, frequently toward the end of supporting hegemonic notions of race and criminality. The dissertation concludes that criminality functions as a vibrant site of rhetorical invention and resistance provided it is articulated to broader movements for social justice. While the often-problematic discourses of gangsta rap do not constitute politically progressive rhetorics in their own rights, they provide resources for the articulation of righteous indignation and utopian desires capable of challenging the prison-industrial complex.Item The crossroads of race : racial passing, profiling, and legal mobility in twentieth-century African American literature and culture(2004-08) Dunbar, Eve, 1976-; Woodard, Helena, 1953-; Harlow, Barbara, 1948-Item Daughters of Ruth : enterprising black women in insurance in the New South, 1890s to 1930s(2011-05) Garrett-Scott, Shennette Monique; Walker, Juliet E. K., 1940-The dissertation explores the imbricated nature of race, gender, and class in the field of insurance within the political economy of the New South. It considers how enterprising black women navigated tensions between New South rhetoric and Jim Crow reality as well as sexism and racism within the industry and among their industry peers. It complicates the narrative of black southern labor history that focuses more on women as agricultural laborers, domestics, and factory workers than as enterprising risk takers who sought to counterbalance personal ambition and self-interest with communal empowerment. Insurance organizations within black-run secret fraternal societies and formal black-owned insurance companies emerged as not only powerful symbols of black business achievement by the early decades of the twentieth century but also the most lucrative business sector of the separate black economy. Negro Captains of Industry, a coterie of successful, influential, self-made men, stood at the forefront; they represented the keystone of black economic, social, and political progress. The term invoked a decidedly masculinist image of “legitimate” leadership of black business. Considering fraternal and formal insurance, gender-inscribed rhetoric, shaped by racism and New South ideology, imagined black men as the ideal protectors and providers; women became the objects of protection rather than agents of economic development, job creation, and financial security. The dissertation explores how women operated creatively within and outside of normative expectations of their role in the insurance business. The dissertation considers the role of state regulation and zealous regulators who often targeted insurance organizations and companies, the primary symbols of black business success; in other ways, regulation dramatically improved profitability and stability. The dissertation identifies three key periods: the Pre-Regulatory Era, 1890s to 1906; the Era of Regulation, 1907-World War I; and the Professionalization of Black Insurance, Post-WWI to the Great Depression. It also considers the barriers to black women’s involvement in professional organizations. By the late 1930s, enterprising women in insurance lost ground as fraternal insurance waned in influence and as the strongest proponents of the black separate economy promoted a vision that embraced women as consumers rather than business owners.Item (De)sexing prostitution : sex work, reform, and womanhood in Progressive Texas, 1889-1925(2012-08) Rosas, Lilia Raquel Dueñas; Zamora, Emilio; Walker, Juliet E. K., 1940-; Alidio, Kimberly; Falola, Toyin O.; McKiernan-González, John; Menchaca, MarthaThis dissertation examines the participation and regulation of African American and Mexican women in the sex industry during the Progressive period of Texas to complicate ideas of womanhood. Between 1889 and 1925, sex workers survived, resisted, and contended with several shifts to their industry caused by the interventions of religious leaders, civil servants, community members, and reformers. Red light and related vice districts were socially- and legally-sanctioned tolerated forms of amusement and leisure throughout the state. Although black and brown madams, inmates, and prostitutes were not the most visible sex workers, they were often pivotal to that social and cultural fabric of numerous cities such as San Antonio, Fort Worth, Houston, and Laredo. The white slavery and antivice campaigns reshaped the discussions and reforms from the local to federal level. They created a social, economic, and political climate of stringent policing of vices that led to the eventual abolition of commercialized sex, where prostitutes of color embodied the worst tenets of womanhood. In contrast, the Mexican anarcho-socialist and African American progressive women’s club movements more broadly enhanced the views of women of color, demonstrating the ways that they (re)defined themselves. In this study, I argue that the intersection of prostitution and progressivism in the South/west represents a peculiar juncture in race- and sexual-making. At stake were the contested meanings of sexuality, race, and modernity under the growing vilification of vice by the national government and local groups in the Jim Crow Borderlands. While this dissertation contributes to the diverse historiographies of progressivism, the New South, and U.S. West, it also has important implications in enriching and facilitating the intersection of the histories of Mexican American and African American women in new and unconventional ways. Its significance is that it advances knowledge in topics of sexuality, race, and gender formation from a transborder and transregional framework. Moreover, it expands conceptual and methodological paradigms that presently exist in the field of the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands, by coupling them with the study of Jim Crow segregation of the Southwest.Item The development of vocational education in Texas(1930) Blackburn, Samuel A.; Eby, Frederick, 1874-1968Item The effect of acute consumption of a flavonol-rich cocoa drink on cerebral vasomotor reactivity in African Americans(2014-05) Ku, ByungMo; Brothers, Robert MatthewAfrican Americans (AA) are at great risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) which can lead to brain damage, dementia, and endothelial dysfunction. Decreased nitric oxide (NO) bioavailability contributes cardiovascular disease in AA population. Flavonols of the subclass known as flavonoids that have several beneficial effects on cerebral blood flow and cerebral vasomotor reactivity (CVMR). This study investigated the effects of the acute consumption of a flavanol-rich cocoa drink on CVMR. Ten non-smoking African American (6 males and 3 females) participants were randomly recruited. The subjects participated in two experimental sessions which were separated before and after the consumption of cocoa drink. For the pre-session, baseline CVMR was measured by the hypercapnia rebreathing (CVMR test) prior to the consumption of the cocoa drink and the again at 2h after consumption of one serving of the cocoa drink (45g of cocoa mixed with 8oz of cold water). Cerebral vascular conductance (CVC) was significantly increased in the post-study during hypercapnia rebreathing compared with the pre-study(post-study: 3.649 ± 1.833 CVC % of baseline/mmHg, pre-study: 2.483 ± 1.418 CVC % of baseline/mmHg vs. P < 0.05) Thus, CVMR was significantly increased in the post-study after the acute consumption of a flavonol-rich cocoa drink compared to the pre-study in AA.Item An exploration of racial identity, perceived racism, and religious orientation as predictors of cultural mistrust in African Americans(2011-05) Holman, Andrea Chantal; Cokley, Kevin O. (Kevin O'Neal), 1969-; Bentley, KeishaCenturies of overt and covert segregation, oppression and discrimination against persons of African ancestry in America by their white counterparts have conditioned this marginalized group to be mistrustful of their relations with white Americans. This response, known as cultural mistrust, significantly contributes to negative help-seeking attitudes and underutilization of mental health services because the majority of practitioners are white (Grier and Cobbs, 1968; Whaley, 2001). This report will use multiple regression statistical analysis to explore racial identity, perceived racism, and religious orientation as predictors of cultural mistrust to propose ways practitioners can increase African-American utilization of mental health services. Gender differences in cultural mistrust will also be explored.Item Exploring counternarratives: African American student perspectives on aspirations and college access through a critical process of narrative inquiry(2009-08) Hayes, Danielle Christi; Young, Michelle D.This dissertation explored the perspectives of African American youth aspirations for college, their support systems, and their academic and social development towards college. The narratives of 7 student participants were used to gather perspectives of their supports and school circumstances in order to understand how some youth overcome or navigate the path towards higher education. This exploratory study was situated around two primary research questions: (a) In what ways do student aspirations intersect with capacity building systems (supports and interventions) for college, and (b) how does that intersection impact the academic and social development of students aspiring towards college? This study contributed to two areas. The first area had to do with providing an outlet for African American youth’s perspectives, particularly on the role that their aspirations and support systems play in their ability to access college. In the liberating tradition of critical race framework, accessing the experiences and perspectives “of the people” is the defining element of this study. We often hear about the pitfalls of minority students; their families and the communities from which they hail. There is general emphasis on this deficit perspective as the public education system strains under a multitude of contending factors. This dissertation, through the narratives of students, explored what students believed to work, what they perceived to fail, and the direction that their perspectives might contribute towards improved policy and practice. Thus, a second potential contribution of this study is its application for policy studies in that a participant-centered perspective is articulated. This multiframed approach demonstrated a more informed space from which to shape policy.Item Exploring the differences between African Americans and Caucasians in their preferences for employment within the advertising field(2005-08-15) Heid, Michael Konrad; Williams, Jerome D., 1947-The advertising business has long been criticized by trade publications and industry professionals for its continued lack of racial and ethnic minorities, relative to the U.S. population. Though members of the industry have taken some action to diversify advertising, the industry and academic researchers have neglected to investigate the possible differences between minorities, namely African Americans, and Caucasians in their preferences for employment within the advertising field. An understanding of these differences could help advertising companies better match the expectations of minority employees, increasing the chances of retention. Through the use of focus group interviews and a survey, this study was designed to gain a better understanding of these possible differences. The study results indicate a major concern of African Americans on issues relating to race (i.e. diversity in the agency, diversity of management, being able to express themselves culturally). Additionally, earning a high income and a clear path to management positions were much more important to African Americans than Caucasians. Last, significant differences existed between African Americans and Caucasians in their preferences for both type of company and discipline of choice. These results are discussed and areas of future research are recommended to expand the knowledge on this topicItem Freaks of the industry : peculiarities of place and race in Bay Area hip-hop(2010-05) Morrison, Amanda Maria, 1975-; Hartigan, John, 1964-; Flores, Richard R.; Stewart, Kathleen; Perez, Domino; Wakins, CraigThrough ethnography, I examine how hip-hop’s expressive forms are being used as the raw materials of everyday life by residents of the San Francisco Bay Area, home to what many regard as one of the most stylistically prolific, politically charged, and racially diverse hip-hop “scenes” in the world. This focus on regional specificity provides a greater understanding of the impact hip-hop is having on the ground, as an aspect of localized lived practice. Throughout, I make the case for the importance of ethnographically grounded localized research on U.S. hip-hop, which is surprisingly still relatively rare. Most scholars simply stress its continuity within a set of deterritorialized Diasporic African and African-American verbal-art traditions. My aim is not to contest this assertion, but to add to the body of knowledge about one of the most significant cultural inventions of the twentieth century by exploring hip-hop’s racial heterogeneity and its regional specificity. Acknowledging this kind of diversity allows us to reconceive what hip-hop is and how it matters in U.S. society beyond the ways it is usually framed: as either an oppositional form of black-vernacular culture or a co-opted and corrupted commodity form that reinscribes hegemonic values more than it actually contests them. Examining hip-hop within a specific, regionally delineated community reveals how hip-hop’s role in American life is more nuanced and complex. It is neither a pure vernacular expression of an oppressed class nor merely a cultural commodity imposed upon consumers and alienated from producers. In the Bay Area, hip-hop “heads” simultaneously consume mass-produced rap while producing homespun forms of music, dance, slang, fashion, and folklore. Through these forms, they construct individual and group identities that register primarily in expressive, affective terms. These novel cultural identities complicate rigid social markers of race, gender, and class; more specifically, they challenge the widely held perception that hip-hop is solely the terrain of inner-city young African-American men. More fundamentally, a sense of belonging is engendered through localized modes of expression and embodied style that manifest through shared practices, discourses, texts, symbols, locales, and imaginaries.Item Health disparities between blacks and whites with HIV/AIDS : an analysis of U.S. national health care surveys from 1996-2008(2011-05) Oramasionwu, Christine Uzonna, 1982-; Frei, Christopher R.Blacks are more affected by Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) than any other race or ethnicity in the United States. The purpose of this dissertation was to investigate potential race-based differences in cardiovascular disease (CVD)-related hospitalizations and use of opportunistic infection (OI) prophylaxis between Blacks and Whites with HIV/AIDS. This dissertation includes two systematic literature reviews that identified knowledge gaps in the areas of CVD diagnosis and OI prophylaxis use between Blacks and Whites with HIV/AIDS, as well as two independent studies that addressed some of the gaps identified in the literature. The first study evaluated the association between race and CVD-related hospitalization in Blacks and Whites with HIV/AIDS. Data were retrieved from the 1996-2008 National Hospital Discharge Surveys (NHDS). Approximately 1.5 million hospital discharges were identified. After controlling for confounders, the odds of CVD-related hospitalization were 45% higher for Blacks than Whites (OR=1.45, 95% CI, 1.39-1.51). There was a statistically significant difference in the proportions of CVD-related hospitalization type and race (x2=479.77; df=3; p<0.001). Compared to Whites with HIV/AIDS, Blacks with HIV/AIDS had greater proportions of heart failure and hypertension, but lower proportions of stroke and coronary heart disease. These results suggest that there is an influence of race on both the occurrence and type of CVD-related hospitalizations in patients with HIV/AIDS. The second study assessed if race was associated with the use of OI prophylaxis (Pneumocystis jiroveci pneumonia [PCP] and Mycobacterium avium complex [MAC]). Data for this study were retrieved from the 1996-2008 National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Surveys (NHAMCS). Approximately 9.1 million hospital ambulatory visits were identified. After controlling for confounders, the odds of PCP prophylaxis use were 16% higher for Blacks than for Whites (OR=1.16, 95% CI, 1.15-1.17). In a separate regression analysis, the odds of MAC prophylaxis use were 12% higher for Blacks than for Whites (OR=1.12, 95% CI, 1.10-1.13). These findings suggest that Blacks with HIV/AIDS may have increased odds for OI prophylaxis. Based on this work, there is a need for further research to confirm these findings and to identify the causes of these race-based disparities.Item The impact of African American academic-professional student organizations on African American college students' adjustment & career goals(2013) Birks, Lauren; Bentley-Edwards, KeishaResearch suggests that a major component in helping African American students successfully adjust socially and academically at a Predominately White Institution (PWI) is their involvement in a Black student organization (Guiffrida & Douthit, 2010). Involvement in an affinity group organization provides African American students the opportunity to connect with African American faculty and students who they can identify with and support each other in many areas of the college experience. Through an online survey African American undergraduate and graduate students reflected on their student involvement in various student organizations and how these organizations impacted their college and career development. The present study hypothesized that African American academic-professional student organizations have more positive impact on African American student college adjustment and career goals than any other student organizations. Results show that African American Academic-Professional student organizations greatly impact students' emotional, academic, interactions with faculty, and professional adjustment and development.Item Impaired cerebral vascular function in college-aged African Americans and Caucasian Americans : potential role of Vitamin D and arterial stiffness(2013-08) Hurr, Chansol; Brothers, Robert MatthewAfrican Americans have increased risk for cardiovascular and cerebral vascular disease relative to Caucasian Americans. While it is generally accepted that arteries become stiffer at a younger age in African Americans; less is known regarding cerebral vascular function / reactivity (CVMR) to hypercapnia in African Americans. Furthermore, little is known regarding the relationship between arterial stiffness and CVMR, particularly in young healthy adults. We hypothesized that African Americans have stiffer arteries (i.e. arterial stiffness) and reduced CVMR during hypercapnia relative to Caucasian Americans. We also hypothesized that there would be a negative relationship between arterial stiffness and CVMR. Lastly, we hypothesized that these responses would be related to a decrease in Vitamin D status in this population and there would be correlation between Vitamin D status and CVMR. In 11 African American and 19 Caucasian American subjects central arterial stiffness was indexed from carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (PWV). CVMR was assessed by the cerebral vascular conductance (CVC) response to rebreathing-induced hypercapnia. Vitamin D status was assessed from plasma 25(OH) Vitamin D. PWV was elevated in the African Americans (African American: 581.16 ± 27.7 cm/sec vs. Caucasian American: 502.98 ± 17.6 cm/sec; P < 0.01). CVMR was significantly reduced during hypercapnic rebreathing in the African Americans (African American: 3.05 ± 0.38% of baseline/mmHg vs. Caucasian American: 5.09 ± 0.29% of baseline/mmHg; P < 0.001). When data from all subjects was included there was a trend towards a negative relationship (R = 0.32, P = 0.10) between PWV and CVMR. Vitamin D status was significantly lower in African Americans (African American: 14.96 ± 0.97 ng/ml vs. Caucasian American: 32.73 ± 0.99 ng/ml; P < 0.001); however, there was no significant relationship between Vitamin D status and CVMR (R = 0.23 P = 0.23). In conclusion, these data indicate that African Americans have impaired cerebral vascular responses to hypercapnia, stiffer arteries, and lower Vitamin D status when compared with Caucasian Americans. In addition, there may be a negative relationship between CVMR and PWV; however, no significant correlation between Vitamin D status and vascular function including PWV or CVMR was observed in this study.