Success on Their Terms: Centering Latinas to Transform the Meaning of Success in Higher Education

• In Event: Latinx College Student Success

Abstract

Utilizing Critical Race Theory, LatCrit, and Chicana Feminism, this paper challenges the measures of success used in higher education to reimagine new measures, such as cultural congruity, adaptability, and well-being, that center the experiences, and values of undergraduate Latinas. As demonstrated by their steadily increasing enrollment in higher education, it is clear Latinas are committed to attending higher education and see it as a means to reach their self-defined goals. However, when Latinas enter higher education they experience a clash of their cultural values with that of the White American values upheld by their institution. This paper centers Latina undergraduates to redefine ideologies of success in higher education so they can thrive in higher education and reach their self-defined goals.

Author

• Lauren Rebekkah Contreras, University of Denver