First-generation students (FGSs) have received a great deal of attention in education research, practice, and policy. The difficulty of understanding and subsequently addressing the various and persistent configurations of inequality associated with FGSs lies with the complicated yet obscure state of the FGS term itself. Leaving the term unquestioned limits the capacity to grasp how these students' backgrounds and identities shape their decisions and relationships to others and to institutions, and risks reproducing the very inequality that education researchers wish to mitigate. This chapter begins to resolve these conflicts by offering a critical analysis and discussion-grounded by the concept of intersectionality-of the empirical literature on FGSs. We identify and discuss the dominant and problematic manner in which the FGS term has been operationalized in research and discuss the implications of their findings. We end with a discussion on emerging topics that extends the consideration of research on FGSs beyond the imaginary, traditional boundaries of college campuses. G oogle "first-generation students." The result is 74,400 news articles. 1 American higher education as well as the American public have been fascinated with this population of students-broadly conceived as those first in their family to attend college-in part because they symbolize the social inequality that colleges and universities are perceived to help stamp out. But, in fact, institutions have been accused for doing the exact opposite. As of late, major news outlets like the New York Times (Harris, 2017; 59280R REXXX10.

In this article, we provide an overview-a primer-of the rise of Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) as context for understanding the contemporary place of these institutions in our broader system of higher education. We also demonstrate how the emergence and the evolution of MSIs stem from our nation's struggle to provide equal educational opportunities to minority communities. Throughout the article, we interweave the shared and individual struggles as well as the successes across these 4 major types of MSIs. Woven throughout this narrative, we explore in-depth (a) the role of the federal government in both suppressing and elevating higher education for minorities, and (b) the impact of various groups and individuals on the growth of MSIs. It is through the historical legacy of MSIs that we showcase how these institutions came to represent the voices and concerns of minority communities to take control and manage their own education. We conclude the article with a snapshot of the place of each of the 4 types of MSIs in contemporary higher education and recommendation for future research.

An important issue facing the world of medicine and health care is the field's lack of diversity, especially regarding African American doctors. African Americans made up 6% of all physicians in the U.S. in 2008, 6.9% of enrolled medical students in 2013 and 7.3% of all medical school applicants. The existing literature on the lack of diversity within the medical field emphasizes the role that inclusion would play in closing the health disparities among racial groups and the benefits acquired by African Americans through better patient-doctor interactions and further respect for cultural sensitivity. A large portion of current research regarding Black medical students and education focuses on why minority students do not go into medical school or complete their intended pre-med degrees. Common notions and conclusions are that many institutions do not properly prepare and support students, who despite drive and desire, may lack adequate high school preparation and may go through additional stress unlike their other peers. Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) are institutions that were designed to support African American students by providing an educational learning environment that caters to their unique challenges and cultural understandings. Given that HBCUs have had much success in preparing minority students for STEM fields, and for medical school success more specifically, this article looks at the history of such universities in the context of medical education, their effective practices, the challenges faced by African Americans pursing medical education, and what they can do in the future to produce more Black doctors. We also highlight the work of Xavier University and Prairie View A&M University, institutions that regularly rank among the top two and top ten producers, respectively, of future African American doctors among colleges and universities.

The purpose of this study is to enhance our understanding of how a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) is cultivating Black male achievement in STEM. In this in-depth qualitative case study, we explore 2 resource-intensive and successful STEM pathway programs at Morehouse College, the only all-male HBCU in this country, as an opportunity to examine the cultivation of Black male STEM scholars. Our study was guided by 2 overarching questions: What opportunities for participation in a rigorous STEM education do the programs provide? What individual and institutional practices contribute to STEM student persistence and learning?

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