Education

Kylie Clark, Kylie.N.Clark-1@ou.edu
University of Oklahoma, with Dr. Alisa Fryar

Identifying Patterns in Institutional Aid Distribution
Institutional aid plays a vital role in shaping student access and success in higher education. Unfortunately, it is easily influenced by evolving institutional priorities, economic constraints, and policy. This study analyzes patterns ofinstitutional aid disbursement over the past 10 years for all public 4-year institutions. Using a quantitative approach, we areanalyzing institutional aid data from the NCES Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) focusing on percentages and average institutional aid for full-time, first-time undergraduate students. The findings will highlight patterns in aid allocation and compare it to student debt data in order to determine which type of financial aid disbursement pattern is most effective. This research contributes to the ongoing discussion surrounding funding and the cost of higher education. Moreover, it provides relevant insight and data that will inform how universities can align aid strategies and policies to foster access and equity for students.
 

Efrain Garza, efrain.garza2@my.utsa.edu
The University of Texas at San Antonio, with Dr. Mark T. Leung

Optimizing Mentor and Mentee Pairing at UT San Antonio's Alvarez College of Business Using Binary Integer Linear Programming
This research proposes an optimization framework for pairing mentors and mentees in academic settings using Binary Integer Linear Programming (BILP). The objective is to enhance alignment between students’ academic programs and mentors’ professional backgrounds, while fostering mutual interests across various business fields. Developed in collaboration with the Alvarez College of Business at UTSA, the model supports undergraduate research, industry engagement, and student success initiatives.

The study frames mentor matching as a one-to-one assignment over a 39×39 cost matrix, pairing 39 student mentees with 38 professional mentors and one dummy mentor to maintain feasibility. Three research questions guide this work:

Can mentor–mentee pairings be formulated as a BILP problem to yield feasible and optimal one-to-one matches based on academic similarity and mutual interests?  Does a hybrid scoring model—combining Degree-Career Alignment (DCA) and Field of Interest (FOI) preferences—yield significantly more aligned and equitable pairings than models based on either component alone?  Can the BILP-generated pairings be considered statistically consistent with manually assigned matches from the 2024–2025 cycle, based on DCA and FOI alignment, at the α = 0.1 significance level?

This hybrid model bridges linear optimization and matching theory in an educational context. DCA  draws on Dantzig’s foundational work in linear programming and structured allocation (Dantzig, 1951; Birge, 2022), while FOI reflects preference-based principles from Gale and Shapley’s stable matching theory (1962). By relaxing strict stability constraints, the framework provides a scalable and transparent tool that reduces unintentional bias and streamlines the creation of well-aligned mentor–mentee pairs.
 

Gabriela Guadarrama, gguadarrama22fl@ollusa.edu
Our Lady of the Lake University, with Dr. Cindy Peñag

Voices of Aspiring Bilingual Educators: Lived Experiences within the Bilingual Education Student Organization
This qualitative case study explores the lived experiences of future bilingual teachers within the Bilingual Education Student Organization (BESO), focusing on their academic and professional development. The central research question guiding this study is: "What are the lived experiences of future bilingual educators regarding their academic and professional development within the Bilingual Education Student Organization (BESO)?" The sub-questions are 'How do Latina/o future bilingual educators specifically describe their experiences within BESO related to their identity development and perceptions of representation in the bilingual education field?' and 'What are the perceptions of future bilingual educators regarding the role of their participation in BESO in their decision to persist in their teacher preparation program?' Grounded in a phenomenological conceptual framework to capture participants' internal perceptions, this research employs a case study methodology. It aims to fill a gap in teacher preparation literature by addressing the influence of the BESO community on its bilingual educators. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with participants from active BESO chapters at four-year universities in Texas and analyzed using phenomenologicalthematic analysis. This study seeks to provide valuable insights into how BESO fosters academic and professional growth, supporting the development of bilingual educators.