Designing Transitional Programs to Meet the Needs of Multi-Ethnic First-Year Students

Colleges and universities often rely on transitional programs to convey a sense of institutional expectations to new students. These programs, however, are often defined and created from a perspective of history and tradition, and do not necessarily reflect the increasingly diverse college student population. Using the "CAS Standards for New Student Orientation," a student orientation program was reviewed with special attention to multi-ethnic student perceptions of the goals outlined in the standards. Using two years of data collection, the findings suggest that multi-ethnic students are more satisfied with the orientation program than are Caucasian students as measured by the CAS Standards.

How Youth Are Defined

This project examines alternative measures to charging at-risk youth and the importance of transitional programs due to the ineffectiveness of punitive approaches. Punitive approaches are known for worsening issues with delinquent youth, such as recidivism. Youth are optimal to examine when tackling socioeconomic issues such as these because they are young enough that intervention can be done to set them on the right path. This intervention can prevent harms that would otherwise define them for the rest of their lives. There are shortcomings in the way society handles delinquent youth, and many are trapped in their criminal label. Because of this, they often continue to offend and ‘rebel’ against the system. Alternative measures to charging youth and transitional programs could make the difference in the way delinquent youth choose to move forward as adult members of society, potentially preventing criminal career formation.

Drug Use, HIV, and the High-Risk Environment of Prisons

Prisons often concentrate people with or at risk for HIV within them and, due to the high-risk environment within prison, further amplify disease. Suboptimal access to evidence-based HIV prevention and treatment within prisons, including opioid agonist therapies with methadone or buprenorphine, antiretroviral therapy, and needle/syringe programs, results in worsening of disease during incarceration. Effective transitional programs that address continuity of prevention and treatment of HIV and substance use disorders, along with other co-morbid conditions, are crucial to reduce the harms from incarceration. Such programs not only must provide access to these services within prison but also must ensure that the services are continued after release. This chapter reviews how prisons contribute to negative health consequences related to HIV and addiction, provides examples of settings where policies and services greatly influence the high-risk prison setting, and offers a number of strategies to improve HIV detection, treatment, and prevention.

Teachers and Specialists Attitudes toward Implementing Transitional Programs for Deaf Students, and the Difficulties They Face in the Implementation in Al-Amal Institutes in Riyadh

This study aimed at studying the actual status of implementing transitional programs for deaf students at the secondary level in Al-Amal Institutes in Riyadh, the most important results of the study were: All the study sample agreed on the weak application of transitional programs in Al-Amal secondary institutes for deaf students. There were many obstacles that impacted negatively on the application of transitional programs, such as difficulties applying transitional programs relevant to teachers; difficulties applying transitional programs relevant to deaf students; difficulties applying technical and administrative transitional programs and difficulties of applying transitional programs relevant to establishments and companies and finally there was no statistically significant differences (p. 0.05) in the awareness of the actual status of the application of transitional program and the difficulties that face it from the point of view of teachers and specialists in Al-Amal Institutes for deaf students in Riyadh, due to qualification, years of experience, nature of work, specialty, gender, reading level and general knowledge.