Due to the recent increase in disasters such as COVID-19, it has been established by many researchers that there is minimal research on the effects of disasters on college students (Copeland et al., 2021). However, there has not been a great number of disasters that have impacted college students. The most recent disaster, COVID-19 was very different from other disasters. It forced most institutions to continue teaching students remotely. Even though, there was no research on the implications that it would have on students, faculty, and other staff members. Thus, our work is to analyze the role that disaster capitalism plays and how does it impact Latinx undergraduate students. To work toward our findings, we will be using a phenomenological approach focused on how individuals experience or live through a specific phenomenon (Moustaskas, 1994). Phenomenology is used to reduce a person’s individual experiences with a phenomenon to a description of the collective (Creswell, 2009). The goal of phenomenology is to understand how participants describe “what” and “how” they experienced a common event, feeling, and/or state of being (Moustaskas, 1994).  Hence, our preliminary findings exhibit high levels of stress and depression when displaced. Also, there is minimal institutional support for students, which affects their ability to learn while remote. Furthermore, this study can contribute to an important understanding of institutions’ response to disaster and how to include Latinx undergraduate students within it.

Research has identified a specific form of stress experienced by minority groups. This stress, known as Race-Based Stress has shown to be linked with racial identity statuses and psychological functioning. The purpose of this study is to understand the relationship between racial socialization and academic success in Black college students, moderating for symptoms of race-based stress. Data from 150 Black college student were collected using the Comprehensive Racial Socialization Inventory, and the Race-Based Traumatic Stress Symptom Scale. A regression analysis was conducted to examine the moderating effect of race-based stress on the relationship between racial socialization and academic success. The results of this study should indicate how, depending on the presence of race-based stress, the level racial socialization that an individual receives has a significant impact on determining academic success. The findings of this study could be applied to the education system, where often Black students are encouraged to push through challenges they might face, without recognizing the harmful effects it could have on them. Limitations and implications for future research are discussed.

The purpose of this study is to determine if there is a significant difference between running times in a short course compared to a long course. The second purpose of the study is to determine if high stress levels correlate with a lower performance outcome. Prior literature such as Chang, Young-Hui, and Kram (2007) found that athletes were up to 0.4 seconds slower on a track with more curves such as the short course in this research. Nippert, Smith (2008) found that psychological stressors can cause injury occurrence in athletes, which can lead to a decrease of performance in their sport. Two groups will be formed from college students and will be split evenly to perform a crossover study. A scale questionnaire will be given out prior to each run to determine stress levels among the students. The first group will run 1.25 miles on the long course, followed by a 48 hour break, they will then run the short course as the second group will progress in the opposite order. The mile times will be used in a T-test to determine which course resulted in a faster performance time. The questionnaires will be evaluated to determine if high levels of stress correlated with a slower performance time. These results can be used by coaches to determine which type of path can result in their athletes achieving peak performance, as well as allowing them to understand how stress can correlate with performance outcome.