“Will I Risk My Mental Health?” Black Caribbean Women Collegians Transition and Coping at PWI.

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Sunday 9:50 am Four Seasons Ballroom 1
  In Roundtable Session: The Experiences of Black and Brown Students to and Through Higher Education (Table 12)

Abstract

This qualitative case study utilizes Black Feminist Thought to understand the experiences of four Black Caribbean women in their transition to and through a predominately white institution (PWI) during the peak of COVID-19. There were three ninety-minute Sista circle sessions conducted in which these women described the challenges they experienced in adjusting to a PWI, spaces that served as community, and ways they enacted their own remedies to survive and thrive at this institution. Findings demonstrate the need for higher education institutions to institutionalize resources on campus to promote belonging, inclusivity and detail ways to begin chipping away at structural inequities present within postsecondary education for Black Caribbean women.

Author

• Allante Moon, University of Pennsylvania