Date of Award
2026
Degree Type
Open Access Dissertation
Degree Name
Education, PhD
Program
School of Educational Studies
Advisor/Supervisor/Committee Chair
Linda Perkins
Dissertation or Thesis Committee Member
Dina Maramba
Dissertation or Thesis Committee Member
Cristina Alfaro
Dissertation or Thesis Committee Member
Mónica Baldonado-Ruiz
Terms of Use & License Information
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Rights Information
© 2026 Nora Anitzya Jin-Leyva
Keywords
early-career, entry-level, higher education, narrative inquiry, student affairs, women of color
Subject Categories
Education | Higher Education
Abstract
At the time of this study, data revealed student affairs professionals were exiting the profession at high rates (Chamberlain et al., 2022). This rate was higher among new student affairs professionals (Buchanan & Shupp, 2015). Professionals in the field face common challenges including low job satisfaction and high levels of burnout (Aros, 2022; Chamberlain et al., 2022; Quaye et al., 2024) and a lack of appropriate supervision (Shupp & Arminio, 2012) and mentoring opportunities (Aros, 2022; Maramba, 2011). However, people of color and women in the profession face additional challenges, including racial battle fatigue (Quaye et al., 2024), racism and microaggressions (Briscoe, 2022; Garcia, 2016; Núñez et al., 2025), and tokenism (Bizzell, 2024; Maramba, 2011). Researchers have investigated the experiences of senior-level women of color student affairs professionals, yet existing research has failed to center the experiences of early-career women of color in student affairs. The purpose of this narrative inquiry study was to better understand the experiences of early-career women of color in student affairs. The researcher used critical race feminism as a theoretical framework to understand the impact of coparticipants’ races and genders on their experiences and perceptions of institutional resources and support. The findings, presented as four composite narratives, revealed coparticipants perceived their experiences as shaped by the challenges of navigating primarily White spaces, others’ attitudes toward them because of their ages, their communities of support, positive and negative supervisory experiences, a decline in mental health and burnout, their passion for supporting students, and feeling undervalued and undercompensated.
ISBN
9798247966388
Recommended Citation
Jin-Leyva, Nora Anitzya. (2026). A Narrative Inquiry of Early-Career Women of Color in Student Affairs. CGU Theses & Dissertations, 1107. https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/1107.
