"Is This F*cking Play About Us?" First-Generation College Applicants Writing Collective Selves in the Personal Statement (Poster 44)

• In Event: Promising Scholarship in Education Research: Dissertation Fellows and Their Research

Abstract

This presentation examines how first-generation college applicants who are members of immigrant families negotiate the complexities of producing family narratives in the documents they write as part of the higher education admissions process. Specifically, the presentation uses ethnographic data alongside excerpts from original personal statements to explore how students grapple with ownership over shared family experiences. Studying the tactical maneuvers students make in their essays provides a window into how they express respect for their family members while simultaneously working to access a different kind of life. It also shows the pressure of constructing a collective “narrative self” while speaking to imaginary readers on the other side of the process.

Students’ essays echo the capitalist rhetoric to which they are exposed, but they also reflect a keen understanding of the hidden logics of admissions and an ability to navigate unspoken rules of application writing with impeccable dexterity. In addition, the pride students felt in being able to tell their stories in their words and without interruption indicates the value they placed in being able to represent themselves, their families, and their communities. While this came with significant pressure, it also presented an important opportunity for students to build the kinds of stories they wanted to see told more often. Thus, while in some regards engagement with the college application as a genre involved complex decision making about what and how to disclose intimate details of family life, in other regards it gave students the opportunity to reframe their own experiences.

Author

• Corinne Kentor, Teachers College, Columbia University
  Presenting Author