Transfer-Intending Community College Immigrant Students' Pathways to Four-Year Institutions

• In Event: Tackling Transfer: Community Colleges, Summer Melt, Rurality, and Public Universities

Abstract

Community colleges serve as open-access institutions, offering educational opportunity to millions of students, including immigrants. This study examined transfer trajectories and factors influencing pathways to four-year institutions among immigrant community college students in central Texas. We used a case study approach to examine immigrant community college students’ transfer plans and pathways. We used Iloh’s (2018) model of college-going decisions and trajectories and Yosso’s (2005) forms of cultural wealth as frameworks to guide our inquiry. Immigrant students used multiple forms of capital to navigate their educational journey, and these forms changed over time due to a variety of institutional and contextual forces that shaped students’ educational plans and pathways.

Authors

• Catherine Hartman, North Carolina State University
  Presenting Author

• Elif Asli Yucel, University of Southern California
  Presenting Author