Latino Students’ Transition to College and Perceptions of Future Goals

• In Event: Bridging Multiple Worlds of Immigrant and Indigenous Students’ Pathways to Academic and Life Success

Abstract

The challenges facing Latino immigrant youths in becoming the first family members to attend college are well-documented (Gándara & Contreras, 2009). Challenges include appropriate academic preparation; access to role models and guidance in college preparation, application, and attainment; financial aid; resolving immigrant legal status; and family and peer engagement and support. Less well understood is how students adapt to college entry and envision their future selves along their pathways. Drawing on Bridging Multiple Worlds Theory (Cooper, 2011), this paper examines case study evidence of how students undergo this transition, with attention to patterns in maintaining or changing aspirations for future selves and in the challenges and resources affecting them.

Methods and Data

Longitudinal case studies were conducted of eight Latino students participating in a university-family-school college access partnership from high school to college. Data included qualitative interviews, responses to the Your First Year College Survey (HERI, 2009), and qualitative coding of responses to prompts developed as Bridging Multiple Worlds tools for understanding and fostering adolescent and early adult pathways (Dominguez et al., 2001). Prompts assessed: self-concept; worlds that students engaged in; and future aspirations for career/personal development.

Interviews were conducted during students’ senior year of high school and after completing their first year in college. Narrative analysis methods were used to identify unique and common themes in students’ progress towards personal and social goals.

Findings

Aspirations over time. Students varied in adhering to educational and career aspirations they expressed in high school once they had experienced their first year in college, though commonalties stood out. Three patterns were found: maintaining original aspirations; temporarily suspending immediate pursuit of aspirations to achieve pressing personal priorities; and changing aspirations as a result of experiences once in college.

Challenges and resources. Six participants attended a community college and two attended a four-year state university. All but one reported difficulties adjusting to college life. Four performed less than satisfactorily in a course in their first year in college.

All but one were employed part-time to help finance college attendance. Three undocumented immigrant students reported significant challenges in college adjustment and pursuit of goals due to their immigrant status and associated personal risks. All reported moral and motivational support for completing college from family, friends, mentors, school staff, or college outreach programs. Four were impacted significantly by new opportunities and priorities that led them to adapt or change aspirations once in college.

Implications

This study contributes to understanding how transitions of immigrant youth into and through college and their pursuit of long-range educational and personal aspirations are mediated by social and institutional resources and challenges. For researchers, educators, and policy investors, the study shows college arrival is not the last step on immigrant youth pathways. Students’ challenges continue through college, including those from finances and undocumented status.

This work also demonstrates interview and survey methods that collaborative college pathway programs can use to map impacts on immigrant students and as part of practices to promote students’ self-understanding of challenges and resources along pathways through college.

Authors

• Richard P. Duran, University of California - Santa Barbara

• Sugely Chaidez, University of California - Santa Barbara