The objective of this study was to determine if certain interventions made by the Iowa Edge program influenced their success and persistence of African American students who went through the Iowa Edge program. The hypothesis of this study is that African American students who participated in the Iowa Edge program were retained at higher rate because of the different mechanisms of the Iowa Edge program.
The study used qualitative data that was retrieved through in-person interviews with participants. Participants were between the ages of 18 and 24, identified as African American/Black, were University of Iowa students, and previous participants of the Iowa Edge program. This study focused on assessing whether certain mechanisms such as peer mentors, resource, and social support/network of the Iowa Edge program led to successful outcomes for participants of the Iowa Edge program. Participant interviews were audio recorded and then transcribed for coding. Transcripts were coded, and themes were presented.
The results suggest that overall the mechanisms within the Iowa Edge program assisted students in being successful through their first semester after the Iowa Edge program and led to successful outcomes for African American students. There is, however, variation in the positive effect of such mechanisms. Additionally, certain mechanisms of the Iowa Edge program were viewed as not helpful for some participants. Adding in institutional data from the University of Iowa with the mechanisms of the Iowa Edge, the results support the hypothesis stating that Iowa Edge program leads to successful outcomes for African American students with some variation in response to the generalized approach of the Iowa Edge program.