Using Counterstories to Challenge Dominant Narratives About Students of Color at a Predominantly White University

• In Event: Roundtable Session 22
  In Roundtable Session: Counterstories and Racialized Experiences of Students of Color in Multiple Settings

Abstract

This paper focuses on three high-achieving students of color who attended different urban high schools and then the same selective private research university. Their high school achievements and college acceptances were celebrated, but they faced significant academic challenges in college that were too easily explained away by university administrators. The counter-stories told by these students about high school preparation and university experiences challenge the simplistic explanations of university personnel and help explain how structural inequities in educational opportunity are perpetuated by practices at both the high school and college level. The students are co-researchers and co-presenters for this paper.

Authors

• Marla De Rosa, Boston College

• Audrey Guerrero

• Olivia Sterling

• Esther Pacheco