ABSTRACT

Nicole Stella is a first-generation Latina who realized half way through college that higher education could be “a career in itself rather than a stepping stone to real life” (Russell, 2015, para. 1). She is now an academic advisor at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, a Minority Serving Institution (MSI). UNLV’s designation as an Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) was a priority to her; there she can reach out to students of color who share her experiences. First-generation advisors like Nicole aspire to support students as they were supported during college. MSIs play an important role in fostering cultural and career development for undergraduate first-generation students of color (Gasman & Sullivan, 2012). The challenges facing underrepresented students who aspire to pursue careers and advanced degrees in the health sciences are that they are less likely to be recruited and know how to navigate pursuing postgraduate opportunities (Perna, Gasman, Gary, Lundy-Wagner, & Drezner, 2010). Another problem is that the fraction of students of color who have been conferred advanced degrees in the health sciences continues to remain slim in comparison to their White counterparts. In the 2011–2012 academic year, 46,323 students received doctorates in Dental Medicine (D.M.D., D.D.S.), Medicine (M.D.), Optometry (O.D.), Osteopathic Medicine (D.O.), Pharmacy (Pharm.D.), Podiatry (Pod.D., D.P., D.P.M.), and Veterinary Medicine (D.V.M.) (National Center for Education Statistics, 2013, Table 324.55). Students who solely identified as White received 30,056 of these degrees, approximately 2/3 of the medical degrees.