Community Resilience

Constructing belonging in a diverse campus community

A diverse student body holds the promise of enriching the learning experience of all students in a given school, but will this diversity inhibit students’ sense of belonging at that institution?

Constructing belonging in a diverse campus community by Robin Cooper discusses how a sense of belonging relates to student success. It also explores how higher education professionals can support students through the purposeful cultivation of collective identity among a diverse student body, as well as through the use of cultural tools that promote a sense of belonging. In addition, this article describes a model of student engagement recently developed at one large, private university in the Southeast with a highly diverse student body.

• Resilience within Indigenous communitiesJournal Article
• Research behind disparities in mental health and impacts on learningMultiple
• Universal Design for Learning: Theory and PracticeBook
• Students’ sense of campus community: What it means, and what to do about itJournal Article
• Constructing belonging in a diverse campus communityJournal Article
• Facilitating ‘Dialogues Across Difference’Book
• Why do women opt out? Sense of belonging and women’s representation in mathematicsJournal Article
• Sense of belonging and persistence in white and African-American first-year studentsJournal Article
• College students’ sense of belonging: Dimensions and correlatesJournal Article (PDF)
• Learning environment, interaction, sense of belonging and study success in ethnically diverse student groupsJournal Article
• A brief social-belonging intervention improves academic and health outcomes of minority studentsJournal Article
• Works citedWorks cited / Toolkit Post