Latino Male Graduate Students Navigating Unchartered Waters: Exploring the Evolvement From Friendships to Compañerismo

• In Event: Place and Gender in Men of Color's College Experience

Abstract

This paper explores the development of a friendship between first-generation Latino male graduate students while navigating the unchartered waters, or unknown of graduate school, on their path to graduation. The authors introduce the concept of compañerismo in higher education to illuminate how the affinity and bond developed and the ways it positively shaped the participants’ experiences. A conceptual model grounded in focus group data provides insight into how the friendship evolved into a cultural phenomenon that could not be broken, not even in the face of difficulty.

Authors

• Osly J. Flores, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Oscar Patron, Indiana University - Bloomington