Building Confianza Through Shifting Paradigms: Mapping a Conceptual and Literature Base for Community-Based College Fairs

• In Event: 29.063 - College Knowledge to College Action: (Re)Shaping College Information, Access, and Opportunity in San Antonio

Abstract

College fairs often take place in educational settings like high schools or college campuses and rarely enter into the threshold of the community sphere. The purpose of this paper is to map out traditional organizational models of college admissions, and demonstrate the need to move toward progressive approaches that bridge communities and academics. Regrettably, the school-family-community partnership has gone largely ignored despite the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) mandate for the development of such partnerships in Title I schools (Bryan, 2005). In addition, conventional models of college access have fallen short when working with diverse communities, particularly low income, first generation, minority populations (Swail, 2000). No doubt, a community-based college fair requires a paradigm shift from how we have commonly provided knowledge and access to higher education. This break from the standard is crucial as it can build confianza and establish relationships with key institutional agents (Harris & Kiyama, 2015; Stanton-Salazar, 1997). Furthermore, it provides a significant opportunity for whole families to participate in the college admissions process rather than the single student. Once again, this demands parting from another old paradigm that merely looks at the student as the sole unit in the college admissions process. It compels us to consider the family as central rather than periphery to the student’s ability to successfully complete the college going process (Bryan, 2005). This is, ultimately, central with research confirming the prominent role parents play in influencing future academic achievement (Henderson & Mapp, 2002).

Author

• Ripsime Bledsoe, University of Texas-San Antonio