Graduating Class: Disadvantaged Students Crossing the Bridge of Higher Education

Graduating Class Disadvantaged Students Crossing the Bridge of Higher Education

Latty L. Goodwin — with a Foreword by Lois Weis —

Graduating Class

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Graduating Class Disadvantaged Students Crossing the Bridge of Higher Education

Latty L. Goodwin

With a Foreword by Lois Weis

State University of New York Press

Published by State University of New York Press, Albany © 2006 State University of New York All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

For information, address State University of New York Press, 194 Washington Avenue, Suite 305, Albany, NY 12210–2384 Production by Kelli Williams Marketing by Susan M. Petrie

Library of Congress Cataloging–in–Publication Data Goodwin, Latty Lee, 1950– Graduating class : disadvantaged students crossing the bridge of higher education / Latty L. Goodwin. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-7914-6741-4 (hardcover : alk. paper) — ISBN 0-7914-6742-2 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Youth with social disabilities—Education (Higher)—United States—Case studies. 2. Children of immigrants—Education (Higher)—United States—Case studies. 3. Educational equalization—United States. I. Title. LC4069.6.G66 2006 378.1'9826'940973—dc22 2005014624 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

This book is dedicated to the resilient young people whose experiences create the heart of this book, and to Dan, who has my heart

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CONTENTS Foreword

xi

Preface

Water, Water, Everywhere!

Chapter 1

Introduction

Chapter 2

xv 1

Why Should We Care? Looking for Answers Who Are These Students? How Did These Students Succeed? Will Success in College Pay Off in the “Real World”?

2 5 7 8 13

Who Are You?

17

The Pleasers: First-Generation Immigrant Students The Searchers: Second-Generation Immigrant Students The Skeptics: Multigenerational Immigrant Students Conclusion

vii

18 22 26 29

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Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Contents

Living Within the Culture of an Elite University

31

The Sum of Its Parts: How to Describe the College Experience Climate Issues Institutional Change Conclusion

33 43 50 55

Lessons Learned: The Academics of College

57

The Pleasers: First-Generation Immigrant Students The Searchers: Second-Generation Immigrant Students The Skeptics: Multigenerational Immigrant Students What Made a Difference Chapter 5

Chapter 6

58 63 68 74

“All Work and No Play”: The Social Relevance of College

79

All Stressed Out The Pleasers: First-Generation Immigrant Students The Searchers: Second-Generation Immigrant Students The Skeptics: Multigenerational Immigrant Students Conclusion

79

Storming the Bridge: Surviving the Challenges of College

101

Adversity Comes in Big and Small Packages Persistence: “What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger!” Academic Resilience

103 112

82 86 91 96

121

Contents

Chapter 7

ix

Exit Ahead: The Outcomes of College

127

Outcomes: What Was Acquired? Reflections of Regret and Hope for the Future Conclusion

128 139

Now Which Way? Choosing the Right Road

151

Balancing Acts: Challenges Ahead The Moon and the Stars: Goals for the Future Conclusion

152 160

Conclusion: Closing the Gap

171

Recipe for Success: Making It Happen Short-Term Outcomes Implications

172 176 179

Appendix A

Suggested Readings

191

Appendix B

Participant Profiles

199

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

References

149

168

203

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FOREWORD

I think the most disappointing aspect was probably like, I guess the minority population used to be so much richer when I first started. Now it’s just like bland. The students that are here aren’t as interesting—where they’re all like school oriented. I mean being school oriented is good, but all they do is study and they don’t really come to any things . . . I think college being more rigorous, like, I think, students now, it’s like college is just like this jungle, survival of the fittest. And you have to really prove yourself. And in the midst of trying to prove yourself academically, you like, you slack off socially. —Roberto, recent graduate of Ivy University

With Roberto, we begin Latty Goodwin’s story of those who made it—the survivors, the ones who beat the odds related to poverty and obtained admission to Ivy University. Entering under the Higher Education Opportunity Program (HEOP)—a compensatory program designed to help disenfranchised populations both enter and survive the elite private university sector—students brave and survive all that is unfamiliar. Goodwin invites us into the worlds of those who graduate—those among the “Pleasers,” the “Searchers,” and the “Seekers” who make it. With the author, we walk through the lives and experiences of those who live at the margins of elite private universities. Experiencing the “fatigue of representation”—the feeling that one always represents and speaks for an entire group—Roberto nevertheless makes it through. Working 30 hours a week, he gives money to his mother and completes a rigorous academic course of study. Roberto is a first-generation immigrant from Jamaica. As we weave through college and beyond with Latty Goodwin’s participants, we learn that Roberto has just been accepted for graduate-level work at Yale.

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And so we move with Latty and the success stories through this volume. Working off her earlier work with these same students as they entered Ivy University the summer before their freshman year, Goodwin offers a glimpse into what it takes to make it. Weaving between arguments for and against affirmative action, as well as the scholarly literature related to the reproduction of social inequalities through school, Goodwin asks, what happens when a group of students who are admitted under an alternative admission process attempt to survive and even thrive inside elite tertiary-level institutions? She offers a rare glimpse into the processes at hand. Kicking off with university admission, moving through a special summer program designed to “get these students ready” for the rigors of the Ivy League, following them through their course of study, and encouraging us to witness, with her, their graduation from college and beyond, Latty Goodwin does what few scholars are able to accomplish. Following them into the dorms and classrooms, she offers a rare look at what actually happens when usually “locked-out” students “get in.” Although we have excellent studies of social class, race, gender, and schooling, we have few studies that look carefully at college and university attendance as related to these issues. Even more telling is that studies that follow subjects over a period of time are almost nonexistent. In addition, although we know the numbers associated with college access and outcomes, we know little about the faces and struggles underneath such numbers. Goodwin offers a rare look at the real people who exist just below the surface of our statistics and, even more importantly, she does so over time. Employing a form of what I call “ethnographic longitudinality,”* Latty Goodwin works with the normally “locked out” over a period of six years. In using this method, she is able to track not only attitudes and behaviors in the moment, but the consequences of such behavior over time. Unlike one-shot ethnographic portraits, no matter how compelling, such longitudinality enables us to peek into the future and examine carefully the consequences of student actions and activities. In this case, with great perseverance and “resiliency,” a very high proportion of students survive and graduate from what is arguably the best. They rise to the occasion—with some help from faculty and staff, with great initial help from the HEOP program, yet mostly by themselves in relation to friends and relatives, they do it nevertheless. Their internal strength is what gets them through, suggesting that programs such as HEOP jump-start disenfranchised youth in the early years of college but

*Lois Weis. 2004. Class reunion: The remaking of the American White working class. New York: Routledge.

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such youth must take the next step and make it on their own. With the jump start of the initial summer course work and the first year support system provided by HEOP, this remarkable group of students graduate from Ivy University and move into graduate and professional school and the early stages of their careers. This “leg-up” offers a critical piece of what they need to move on. And, as Goodwin shows through her remarkable stories, move on they do, even, in the case of Roberto, as far as graduatelevel work at Yale. Of course we don’t have the end of the story. The students are still relatively young, just having graduated from university. However, they and the program bode well for such compensatory programs across the country. Diploma in hand, smiles all around, they “shoot for the moon.” As Goodwin’s work suggests, even if they miss the moon, they have a “level of resiliency and optimism” that will most certainly “place them among the stars.” It is impossible to complete this volume without wishing this cohort of students well. The moon and the stars no doubt await them. Lois Weis Distinguished Professor

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PREFACE Water, Water, Everywhere!

In recent years, I have been struck by rivers and water used as metaphors for students and higher education. William Bowen and Derek Bok’s popular study of postgraduate outcomes for talented Black men and women, entitled The Shape of the River (1998), was the first time I took note of this phenomenon. Their employment of the river metaphor appears throughout their text, as these opening excerpts illustrate: The image of the river is also central to the story of our book, which is concerned with the flow of talent—particularly of talented black men and women—through the country’s system of higher education and on into the marketplace and the larger society. . . . It is more helpful [than the traditional image of a pipeline] to think of the nurturing of talent as a process akin to moving down a winding river, with rock-strewn rapids and slow channels, muddy at times and clear at others. (p. xxi) The image of the river, with its twists and turns and muddy patches, as well as its occasional brilliant vistas, seems exactly right for describing an educational process that has turned out to be even more subtle and complicated than we had imagined it to be when we began our research. (p. xxv) The idea that there is nothing smooth about the educational process of young people as they encounter unpredictable bends, turns, and curves while learning to navigate downstream provides a strong visual image for the course of college life.

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This watery metaphor is picked up again in The Source of the River (2003), Douglas Massey, Camille Charles, Garvey Lundy, and Mary Fischer’s investigation of the “roots of minority underperformance in selective colleges and universities.” This sequel reads like a prequel to the information provided in The Shape of the River. In fact, William Bowen was influential in gaining access to the selective universities and funding for this study. As Massey et al. explain: Whereas the goal of Bowen and Bok was to understand “the shape of the river”—the path followed by minority students as they moved through life after college—ours was to comprehend the source of that river—who the students were, where they came from, what their characteristics were, and how these characteristics shaped their academic progress. (p. 3) The river metaphor is rarely woven into this text, but the title and moving forces behind this study were clearly riding the imagery coattails of The Shape of the River. A third source employs the river metaphor in a slightly earlier study of elite students at Stanford University entitled Cream of the Crop (1994), written by Herant Katchadourian and John Boli. Although the title does not convey the same focus as the previous two studies, a central concept concerning developmental stages of adulthood hums the same tune: Another puzzle in developmental studies relates to the segmentation of the life span into discrete stages, especially in adulthood. Like a river that flows from its source to its destination, each life is clearly a single and continuous entity. Yet the same river looks very different when it starts as a gentle mountain stream then rushes through rapids, cascades down a precipice, meanders through plains and spreads out in a delta. But beyond such metaphors, can we reliably divide the life span into predictable stages? (p. 24) When employing metaphors, care needs to be exercised to avoid simplifying complex situations or reaching too far to force a metaphor to fit just to satisfy the literary whims of the writer. However, the history of higher education employs metaphors in a variety of contexts. Peter NienChu Kiang (2001) uses a cultural talk-story metaphor of crabs struggling to crawl out of a pot and not caring about how they hurt each other in doing so. The pot symbolizes structural confines in which we find our-

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selves, and the crabs’ struggles relate to individual and collective needs/ actions/relationships. George Kuh and Elizabeth Whitt provide other examples in The Invisible Tapestry (1988): People define reality in metaphorical language and often draw inferences—consciously or unconsciously, set goals, make commitments, and execute plans based on the structure and experience provided by metaphor (Lakoff and Johnson 1980). . . . Consider the metaphorical paradigms used to understand institutional culture (Martin and Meyerson 1986). Colleges with an integrative culture attempt to reduce ambiguity by emphasizing consistency and consensus. One metaphor for an integrated college culture is the hologram or jungle clearing. In differentiated collegiate cultures, the metaphor may be islands of clarity, denoting consensus within but not between subcultures. A metaphor for an ambiguous institutional culture could be a web. (pp. 105–106) Whether rivers, jungles, islands, or webs, metaphors allow us to visualize reality in a more concrete and sensual form, relating a complex experience to a more conventionally recognized yet symbolic object. Understanding the power and utility of metaphorical allusions, I have carefully pondered the visual correlate to this study. The ebb and flow of a river is tantalizing, but with this metaphor I envision students as guppies being thrown in at the headwaters and allowed to sink or swim in the turbulent course of their college experience. Those who are not dashed on the rocks along the way and who survive to the mouth of the river are expected to have developed into sharks, able to navigate the really rough waters of the ocean and to survive by being lean, mean, and fit. The entire idea of water, even when educators, parents, and administrators assume the role of “pilots” (Bowen and Bok, 1998, p. xxii), is too random, left to the unpredictable whims of nature. Rather than students flowing or floating down a river, I envision college as a long bridge that students must cross, a transition between the safety of the mandated precollegiate education imposed by society and the alluring, yet uncertain, promise of career and opportunity on the other side—a bridge between the past and the future. This is a man-made structure that was designed, and is maintained, to serve a specific function and to operate in regulated ways. The toll takers impose a stiff toll at the entrance and many students lack the capital, both socioeconomically and educationally, to afford the crossing. They are turned away before

xviii

Preface

they even begin. Others “charge the bridge,” finding unconventional means to force their way across. I view these as the warrior students, mounting a charge and surviving the passage through sheer tenacity— similar to the students in my study who gained admission to colleges that would normally not have accepted them. Their encounters on the bridge bring to mind Robin Hood and Little John: Lo! See my staff, it is lusty and tough, Now here on the bridge we will play; Whoever falls in, the other shall win The battel [sic], a so we’ll away. (Cross , Smith, & Stauffer, 1931, p. 66) Among those who make it onto the bridge, some are discouraged and turn back or drop off the side into the water, leaving only the most resilient to reach the other side. Those who survive the crossing all face the unknown on the other side. While graduation used to be a joyous occasion that guaranteed one a place on the career ladder leading to probable success, it has become a time of high anxiety for many graduates as they reach the goal of completion but emerge into the real world of economic downsizing and high unemployment. Rather serendipitously, the bridge surfaced in my conversations with the students who participated in the longitudinal research that generated this book. Ivy University (a pseudonym chosen in order to retain some anonymity for the students and the location) had recently built a graceful bridge over a river that flowed by the campus. A number of students viewed the bridge as a campus asset, noted for its beauty and for the serenity of the river that calmly flowed underneath, illustrated by Stacey, a student born and raised in New York City: “I still love the campus. Every week on Fridays, I walk over to the bridge and watch the water.” The bridge was designed to connect the campus to the community, but on the other side of the bridge, several students noted the deteriorating condition of the neighborhood. Bars, corner stores with grated doors and windows, and aging and neglected buildings and homes greeted the bridge crosser. Clarissa, a first-generation immigrant student from Guyana, commented on this: Over the bridge, it’s kind of rundown. You see liquor stores. There’s a West Indian store over there. It’s like Jamaican and you can get like vegetable there, curry powder. You can get little stuff. . . . After dark, I wouldn’t go there.

Reader’s Guide

xix

In contrast, another young woman in this study chose to live in an apartment building situated conveniently right across the bridge. She was delighted by the short walk to campus and the cheap rent. But the most unsettling reference to the bridge came from a young man struggling with many issues surrounding his identity. When he felt particularly stressed or depressed, he would end up at the bridge contemplating suicide by drowning himself in the river. For better or worse, the bridge was a visual focal point for many of the students who lived on this campus, and it became a fitting metaphor for the complex experiences these students traversed in college. The first part of this longitudinal study became a book entitled Resilient Spirits: Disadvantaged Students Making It at an Elite University (2002). In it I explored the “toll” taken at the entry point to college and the “fees” imposed during the first year of study for this group of students. This second part of the project, undertaken four years later with the same group of students, examines the exit point, when students have paid the full price of crossing and now face the exit ramp with enhanced intellectual resources but few prospects of employment. The other side of the river is congested by hordes of people carrying as nice, or nicer, sets of luggage and still finding no place to take them in. The story that this book tells is how this group of students approaches this new destination, the end of a long march across the bridge of higher education, and how they see this bridge as they look back on it with eyes that are more mature and experienced.

READER’S GUIDE This book targets a broad audience composed of educators (especially, but not limited to, those teaching in postsecondary institutions), higher education administrators, college students, the nonuniversity reading public, and policy makers, those holding the power over access to higher education through funding and legislation. My hope is that it will appeal to those with a more serious interest in critical aspects of society, such as power and class issues, as well as to those who have a more general interest in students and the system of higher education. The stories that are told resonate with hope and success and need to be accessibly universal in their appeal. I am mindful of the importance of writing beyond the “. . . ‘black hole’ of educational research; a black hole where academics write for almost exclusively academic audiences” (Gerstl–Pepin, 2004, p. 385). My student participants should feel as comfortable reading this text as my professional colleagues.

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In this text, the students’ voices are the central focus. All student names have been changed to protect their identities. To retain the authenticity of the responses of these college students and for readers to get an accurate sense of the personalities involved, I have transcribed the words of the students with as much precision as possible. This means that there are frequent interjections of “uhm” and “like” that have not been removed/“cleaned up” from the students’ responses. In addition, for a number of these students, English was their second language, and this is reflected in their speech patterns. I have not attempted to reword their responses, so these also appear in the “uncut” version. I resisted the temptation to put my words in the mouths of the participants unless it was necessary to retain clarity. To keep the flow as focused as possible, some segments of the students’ quotations have been omitted when they were superfluous to the context, or they have been clarified through my interjection. These are indicated by the conventional punctuation of ellipses and brackets. The format of this manuscript will allow the reader to approach the content in a number of ways: 1. My student participants, on reading drafts of the manuscript, found frequent interjections of theory and analysis distracting from the flow of the students’ stories. They felt they lost some reading continuity in these spaces. Therefore, because one of the major goals of this book is to give voice to these students, theoretical information is largely contained, when possible and practical, in the introductions and conclusions of each chapter. So, if the reader is only interested in the student narrations, these sections should be skimmed. For those who are interested in even more theoretical depth, please refer to the suggested readings in appendix A. 2. The participants are divided into three groups based on immigrant status, which are described in more detail in chapter 1. If the reader is interested primarily in the experiences of students from a particular group, reading only these sections of each chapter should create a fairly continuous picture of the college experiences for this group. 3. Similarly, if the reader wishes to follow the experience of one particular student, one “soloist,” from the beginning of college to graduation, each student is clearly identified in each chapter and should provide a self-contained story if his or her segments are read from the beginning of the book through to the end. 4. The stories of six students are highlighted in this book. These soloists are backed up by a “choir” of students from similar backgrounds. There are two soloists for each of the three identified immigrant groups,

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one of each gender. The bulk of the students are in their last year of college, right on the cusp of graduation. However, four of the participants (Luc, Jason, Nicole, and Sybill) are older graduates who provide a more reflective interpretation of their college and postcollege experiences. Some readers may wish to focus on specific student’s stories, or on gender-, age-, or immigration-based strands. For quick reference and to assist the reader in keeping track of the identities of these students, brief participant profiles are included in Appendix B.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS As an educator, I have been a practitioner far longer than a researcher. I write and think more from my teaching standpoint than that of a researcher, although I believe that all teachers must be part researchers at heart. Over the past 32 years, it has been my privilege to teach students of all ages from all walks of life. I have cherished the opportunities to work with young people, but perhaps none more than with this group of extraordinary participants. To them, I am indebted for their generous willingness to participate in this project, and for their natural candor, honesty, and optimism. I have truly learned from each and every one of them, and I deeply respect the lives that they have worked so diligently to carve out for themselves. I thank all of them and especially those who read chapters of this book and provided insightful feedback. It is my hope that one or several of them together will write the next installment about this exceptional group, and tell us how their lives progress after college. I am grateful to many people for contributing to this work. I thank the Rochester Institute of Technology for allowing me a sabbatical leave in which to complete the interview portion and make a beginning pass at the analysis stage. The writing has been done mostly in the margins and corners of my life—after work, spare hours on weekends, and late at night. I am grateful for understanding family and friends who have been nothing but supportive in this effort. Lauren Launer was a marvelous traveling companion on a trip to New York City to complete some of the interviews, and then graciously read and responded to the book chapters. Sora Sachs has been the constant wind beneath my wings and also provided invaluable feedback on the chapters. All of my colleagues in the Academic Support Center have added meaning to my life and work and taught me what it means to be a team. Lois Weis has my respect and gratitude for being a superlative teacher and a continual source of inspiration. Her commitment to her work and her critical insight into the workings of society are truly amazing.

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My husband, Dan, and my children, Correy and Eric, “make me want to be a better person,” to quote Jack Nicholson from the movie As Good As It Gets, a title that aptly describes my life. I have been fortunate in my life to be surrounded by a caring, compassionate family, and I am proud of all of them for having the courage to question and to want to help make this world a more humane place.

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION Parking is always a nightmare on a college campus, and Ivy University is no exception. I allotted what I thought would be ample time to find a place, insert the requisite pile of quarters into the meter, and hike to the library to be on time for my 5:30 appointment. What I hadn’t planned for was the change that had taken place in the guest parking areas in the few years since I’d been a regular visitor to Ivy University. Where there used to be a number of angled spaces, there were now only a few parallel slots, and I had to drive around several times before something opened up— “stalking the meters,” a familiar college pastime, but one for which I had little spare energy. To compound the parking challenge, the wind and rain put me in a foul mood for the walk, which now became more like a jog, dragging my backpack weighed down with my tape recorder and paperwork, and struggling with a flimsy umbrella that wanted to turn itself inside out, rendering it useless against the growing storm. On most of my visits to campus, I found Ivy University an inspiring place, with its expansive quadrangle hemmed in by the timeless building façades of classic and somewhat forbidding Greek architecture. The immediate impression one receives when walking on this campus is that this is an academically focused university that takes itself seriously; that message is delivered through its selectivity, its rigor, and its physical design. Tiana sat waiting for me in the library foyer, looking remarkably more confident and mature than when I last saw her four years earlier. Her hair was sleekly pulled back, lending a bit more professionalism to her look, despite the addition of a few more visible body piercings than I remembered. She radiated energy and enthusiasm, and I was delighted to see her again, despite her good-natured chiding of me for being late. We both appreciated the irony of this role reversal. As a college freshman four years before, it was Tiana who was often late to meetings. We embraced and entered the library together to begin a conversation about her college years. And so this research project began, retracing the connections that I’d formed four years earlier with a group of remarkable college students,

1

2

Graduating Class

most of whom were just beginning their experiences with higher education. These students were remarkable for a number of reasons: • They all came from backgrounds that disadvantaged them at an elite institution of higher learning. • As a result, these students did not meet the traditional entry requirements to Ivy University. • Their access came through a New York state and private university supported program—the Higher Education Opportunity Program (HEOP)—that was designed to provide access and opportunity for promising students who might otherwise be denied entrance to four-year colleges and universities. • They all chose to attend Ivy University, a selective private university that prided itself on aspiring to Ivy League status. • These students were amazingly diverse in terms of immigrant status, racial/ethnic/cultural identities, and chosen majors. • Despite the odds against their success at an elite university, 22 of the 23 students who were part of an earlier portion of this longitudinal ethnographic research project (published in Goodwin, 2002) graduated from this university within five years. In terms of persistence, resilience, and retention, this is clearly a remarkable group of individuals. Their stories are the focus of this book.

WHY SHOULD WE CARE? At the same time that I was writing about these graduates, a historic battle was being fought in the Supreme Court over the validity of affirmative action in admissions practices of colleges. Two cases, Grutter v. Bollinger et al. (2003) and Gratz v. Bollinger (2003), challenged the admissions policies of the University of Michigan. The nation’s most respected legal minds examined the complex question of democratic access to higher education. This issue was a hot topic for educators, researchers, students, and parents as we explored the equity of selective admissions to institutions of higher education, especially those that prepare students to become leaders in their chosen fields. Competition for credentials is fierce, and access to prestigious institutions is seen as a prerequisite entry card for future success. Numerous studies have documented the difference in outcomes for graduates from elite institutions versus graduates from nonselective institutions. These studies have also documented the disparate levels of admissions to elite institutions for students from diverse backgrounds (Bowen & Bok, 1998;

Introduction

3

Hurtado & Inkelas, 1998; Karabel & McClelland, 1987; Katchadourian & Boli, 1994; Kuh, 2001; Nettles, Perna, & Millett, 1998; Rendon, 1998; Trent et al., 2003). Admissions procedures to many selective colleges and universities continue to tilt toward the power of financial affluence and class status when determining who wins the academic lottery, giving advantage to those with the most social and political capital (Bourdieu, 1973/1977). Democratic access is not a reality in this country. Affirmative action is only one measure that attempts to provide more opportunity for equity of access. Hence, the Supreme Court decision deeply affects the lives of students like those in this study. In June 2003, the Supreme Court ruling made admissions to colleges almost as muddy as before by ruling that race may be used as a factor in admissions programs, but it must be “‘narrowly tailored’ to achieve the university’s diversity goals” (Split Ruling, 2003). Coinciding with the serious challenge to affirmative action, the economy has taken a disastrous nosedive in terms of productivity, earnings, and employment opportunities. Acts of terrorism in 2001 resulted in devastating effects on the economy and propelled the country into a war with Iraq and the establishment of expensive security mechanisms within the “homeland.” The current unemployment rate of slightly over 6% is higher than this country has seen in a number of years, and the median search time for job seekers has risen to 4.2 months, breaking a 17-year record (Sahadi, 2003, p. 1). Scores of discouraged job seekers have dropped out of the hunt and are not included in these figures. The students in this study are graduating into an economy that has no room for them, despite their academic achievements and contrary to the rosy forecast when they began their college careers. As a result, many of them face a bleak employment outlook and a diminished opportunity for earnings that would allow them to pay off the significant debt that they may have incurred during college. By default, many of them decide to accelerate their entry into graduate schools, a worthwhile alternative, but one that sees students incurring even more debt, especially in the tight economic climate that offers few scholarships for graduate education. In addition, there is no guarantee that upon completion of graduate school, the economic situation will have improved. Add into this dark equation the fact that some of these students have worked to provide financial assistance to their families, and things become even more complicated. It is not just the student who is disadvantaged by the economic situation, but the family who has invested in, and perhaps gone into debt to finance, an education that was supposed to elevate the entire family. In this “Job-search Hell” (Sahadi, 2003, p. 1), the loss of income during the undergraduate years may not be offset by a lucrative job at graduation.

4

Graduating Class

Each of us who claims some type of allegiance to this nation has a vested interest in the success of all of our college graduates. College is touted as the proving ground for future leaders and professionals (Katchadourian & Boli; 1994, Keohane, 2001; among others) and as a prerequisite for employment that will pay a living wage in today’s society. Anticipated earnings for graduates of four-year colleges and universities continue to be significantly higher than for those who have high school or even two-year degrees. In fact, jobs requiring a bachelor’s degree as a prerequisite are expected to grow 21.6 percent between 2000 and 2010 (Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2003, p. 2). The degree becomes more and more important for achieving a job that pays well enough to support oneself, let alone a family, and at the same time provides a venue for giving back to society and the economy. However, the context of a society in crisis at the time of graduation impacts students and their experiences. But to what extent? What do we really know about the reality of college and postgraduate outcomes at this particular time for students from disadvantaged backgrounds? Hard-fought campaigns have created a number of successful access programs, and perennial battles have managed to salvage and maintain many of them, albeit at weakened levels. For example, in 2003, as in many years, the state of New York underwent an extensive battle over the education budget. The proposal submitted by Governor George Pataki included decreasing funding to compensatory programs in higher education by at least 50%. (For more discussion, please see Arenson, 2003.) The battle to provide equitable access is hard fought and never ending, yet we know little about what the students in these programs do after graduation. These programs are so strapped for funding that they can’t afford the resources to conduct follow-up tracking of their graduates (personal communication with Barbara Leonard, Supervisor, Collegiate and Pre-Professional Programs Unit, New York State Education Department, December 11, 2002). The first step is to get deserving students into college, but the tangential concern should be how this access impacts the students’ future quality of life. What little we hear are numbers that are quoted in the popular media to such an extent that they numb us to the realities behind these numbers. Quantitative research in its bright maze of astronomical statistics implies the magnitude of the outcomes—the numbers attending college, the numbers graduating, the numbers dropping out, the numbers employed, the numbers on welfare, the change in employment prospects—but it can only gloss over the on-the-ground lived experience of real people with names, faces, families, histories, hopes, and dreams, especially those who are most vulnerable to economic stress. The goal of this qualitative research, therefore, is to give a face to living, breathing college graduates from diverse backgrounds that placed

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5

them at a disadvantage at elite universities, and to understand how they navigated their college years and how they perceive their future opportunities. Two broad questions guide this research study: 1. How did this group of disadvantaged students experience, and eventually succeed at, an elite university? 2. What are the immediate outcomes after graduation from an elite university for this group of disadvantaged students? The narrations of the students as they describe their lived experiences and their aspirations are the focus of this book.

LOOKING FOR ANSWERS Tiana, the student I met at the beginning of this chapter, was part of a group of 23 students who participated in an earlier study that took place during 1998 and 1999. This qualitative research was conducted on the campus of Ivy University in New York State where I began by observing the students as they participated in a summer program that preceded their first semester of enrollment. The intent of the program was to give them a focused and paced introduction to the college experience through a concentrated period of study of one academic subject and a number of skillenhancing courses. The program, part of HEOP, which is partially funded by the New York State Education Department, supported students who were entering this university from disadvantaged educational and socioeconomic backgrounds, determined by a complex formula of family size, income, and high school location and rating (Bureau of Higher Education Opportunity Program, 1998–1999). During the fall semester, I interviewed each of these students twice and followed up with several focus groups in the spring. Faculty, staff, and graduate students who worked with the students were also interviewed. What emerged through the transcribing, coding, and analysis of these conversations was a complex picture of a diverse population navigating an educational environment that was perplexing and sometimes hostile to them. Of particular interest to me was the emerging significance of immigration status for these students and how this impacted their experiences at Ivy University. I became more connected with these students than I had expected. As a middle-aged, White woman (older than many of the students’ mothers and a late bloomer in the area of research) and coming from a position of upper-middle-class privilege (although not that far removed from my rural and immigrant, working-class roots), these students were surprising in the

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Graduating Class

trust and confidence they allowed me, despite the obvious differences in our life circumstances. One thing we could all identify with was the struggle of being a student. They seemed willing to participate because they would be assisting me in my studies, and they would be provided with an opportunity to give visibility to their experiences. In the intervening years, while I worked on turning these student observations and narrations into a book (Goodwin, 2002), I maintained limited contact with the students through e-mail correspondence and an occasional lunch or conversation on campus. As the students approached graduation, I felt compelled to discover how things turned out for them. They had been unselfish and generous with their time and stories, and I had been reeled into their lives after spending so much time poring over their words and experiences. I was curious about how everything played out, about the “ending,” so to speak. Hence, this project became a longitudinal study to explore the outcomes of college for this particular population and to answer the questions that were posed in the previous section. Reestablishing connections with all of the students came about in a variety of ways. The HEOP staff on the Ivy University campus, who provided ongoing support for these students throughout their college years, had been important support for me as well during this research process. The assistant director provided me with an update regarding the students’ status, and I contacted them by e-mail during the spring semester of 2002, their fourth year in college, to request their participation in a follow-up project. Many responded, and I began interviews that semester immediately before many of them graduated. In addition, the program held a graduation dinner for the students and their families. I wangled an invitation to the celebratory dinner where I was able to reconnect with most of the participating students and their families right at the point of graduation. Interviews continued the following fall semester with some students who were still on campus completing their fifth year of study. I also traveled to New York City to interview a few of the graduates, and I interviewed another in Buffalo. Some students were impossible to interview in person, but I was able to speak with several of them by phone. And then there were some who had dropped off the radar or who did not respond to my inquiries. In the end, I was able to complete 14 in-depth interviews, speak with 3 students by phone, and ascertain the whereabouts of the remaining 6 students, although I did not interview them. The reality of keeping track of students as they graduate is that as they move on with their lives, they move away from their college experiences. For some, the Ivy University years were not the most uplifting and rewarding period of their lives, and they chose to put it behind them as

Introduction

7

quickly as possible. Unfortunately, this probably included distancing themselves from my research that probed their college experiences and served as a reminder of things they just wanted to forget. Some may not have wanted to revisit who they were as young and naive first-year students or the grueling journey through the remaining years at college. I wish I had been able to include the unique experiences of all of the original participants because their stories are important and their strengthening voices need to be heard. But engaging and maintaining participation is a challenge that is inherent to qualitative research (LeCompte & Preissle, 1993, refer to this as the “mortality rate,” common in longitudinal research) and makes me value the contributions of those who agreed to participate even more.

WHO ARE THESE STUDENTS? Experience is always contextual, so the personal and educational histories that these students brought to campus, as well as the influences of an elite college environment that mediated the experiences of these students, are critical pieces of the story of these four years. During my initial research project, at the point of college entry for most of these students, I found an interesting pattern emerging that grouped their histories and experiences in an unexpected fashion. The sociological lenses at the turn of the 20th century focused on group variations determined predominantly by race/ethnicity, class, and gender. Critical research questions around such topics as women in science and math, or the Black student experience of higher education versus that of White students, explored the differences in lived experiences of students who claimed membership in these various groups. However, this particular group of students in my study was so diverse in background that these parameters were immediately too constricting to guide this research. It was true that I had participants of both genders, but they also had tremendously diverse racial/ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Their class positions were similar, but certainly tempered by their gender, race/ethnicity/culture, and family history. Only after the summer spent observing these students in classes, when I finally talked with them one on one about themselves, did the richness of their ethnic histories become apparent. Over time, a grouping pattern evolved for these students that focused on, but did not collapse, these rich histories by looking at their immigration status. What became clear was that the length of time and experience in this country made a difference in the expectations these students brought to college and in their perspectives about the college experience. The three emergent groups corresponded to the generational nature of immigration. If the student had been born in another country and later

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Graduating Class

immigrated to the United States, the student was considered a first-generation immigrant and became part of a group that I called “The Pleasers.” One of the outstanding characteristics of the young people in this group, one that has also been documented in research focused particularly on first-generation immigrants (Suarez-Orozco & Suarez-Orozco,, 1995), is the desire to please their parents and family before themselves. In addition, they are generally committed to obeying the rules and regulations constructed by their communities and schools. Of the 23 students in the 1998 study, 9 of them fell into this group. Six of the students in the 2002 project were Pleasers. Students who were born in the United States to parents who immigrated from another country fell into the second group, “The Searchers.” Of the three groups, the Searchers seemed to have the greatest challenge deciding how to construct their identities. They were often torn between a dual allegiance (Ogbu, 1991; Suarez-Orozco, 1991) to the cultural roots of their parents and their desires to determine their own destinies. Hence, their search for an identity became a defining characteristic. Seven students in the 1998 study were Searchers, and four continued on with the 2002 research. Both the Pleasers and the Searchers were voluntary immigrants; the choice to immigrate to the United States was a deliberate and thoughtful decision on the part of these students’ families. By contrast, the third group, “The Skeptics,” were descendants of immigrants who involuntarily migrated to the United States (Ogbu, 1991). Many of their ancestors were slaves who had endured enforced marginalization and subordination to the culture of the dominant White, Anglo-European majority. Seven of the original research participants were Skeptics, and four of the 2002 cohort belonged to this group. These groupings were useful explanatory tools when exploring the variety of perspectives and experiences that the students narrated. Chapter 2 will examine the characteristics of these groups in greater detail. However, regardless of any group differences, no matter how interesting or seemingly significant, the bottom line is that 22 of the original 23 students completed their bachelor’s degrees at this university.

HOW DID THESE STUDENTS SUCCEED? During the follow-up interviews with these students, only 3 of the 14 who completed in-depth interviews felt that they had received a strong preparation for college from the high schools they attended. Several more talked about strong leadership opportunities and specific programs within their high schools that had given them a boost for college, but the majority of students felt that their high school preparation had been lack-

Introduction

9

ing in some way. These responses are not surprising given the context of the urban high schools from which most of these students graduated. Douglas Massey, Camille Charles, Garvey Lundy, and Mary Fischer, (2003) noted the following about incoming first year Latinos and Blacks when compared to Whites and Asians: In addition to coming from less stable and more socioeconomically disadvantaged families and neighborhoods, students from the former groups [Latinos and Blacks] are also, on average, more likely to have experienced social disorder, violence, and lower-quality instruction within their schools, especially if they attended racially segregated institutions. . . . Even though blacks and Latinos report comparable access to most educational resources, the average quality of the resources appears to be lower. To a considerable degree, this inequality is structured by school segregation. (pp. 106–107) The connections that these researchers trace between race and quality of educational resources, are expanded by William Trent et al. (2003) to include economic class location: Schools that are populated by almost exclusively low-income children tend to have fewer resources, less-prepared teachers, fewer college-preparation courses, and other conditions that negatively affect student learning than do schools populated by students with a diversity of income levels. (p. 3) One of the criteria that determined eligibility for the college access program (HEOP) in which my research cohort participated was educational disadvantage, meaning a school system that did not have the resources or programs that could provide strong opportunity for its graduates to pursue study at a college or university. The opportunity for special programs and AP courses (courses that offered advanced placement and college credit) may have been limited or nonexistent. Teresa, a participant in the 1998 study, described her situation at a local urban high school: I didn’t know that going to a high school that was below standards was really going to affect me in life until I got to college and realized that I’m totally unprepared for what’s going on around me. And I have to make it on my own wits. I mean, I don’t have any experience from high school. I think, I didn’t

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Graduating Class

know it at the time, I didn’t know it until I got here that I went to one of the worst high schools in the world. I don’t know anything and it’s not because I didn’t pay attention. It’s because it was never taught to me. Like other students are coming here and they took, “Well, I took AP biology; I took AP chemistry.” There are no AP classes in [my high school] whatsoever. Some students talked about how they had deluded themselves into thinking that they were prepared for college because, after all, they had been admitted to this selective university, only to find these illusions trampled in the first days and weeks on campus, taking a toll on their psyches. The following excerpts express some of the frustration the students experienced during this transition: L. G.: What was the most disappointing aspect of college? NICOLE: Uhm, I guess when you find out you’re not the smartest! Which, unfortunately, I started to find that out after freshman year. And, that was really disappointing. I just felt, was I doing something wrong? I thought I was studying, and yet, sometimes I didn’t really maybe understand the work. I couldn’t get a knack for the work. And it really made me start to look at myself. And, I guess that’s when I started to question whether math was what I wanted or not. CLARISSA: I think that I haven’t done as well as I expected. . . . I was accustomed to in high school, getting things right away and doing well. You know, that hasn’t been the case. So, that was hard to get accustomed to. No need to get accustomed to it. Just hard to feel that. MARTINE: Uhm, it was really very challenging with academics, with the education I had received before college. It was a very . . . it wasn’t just the next step. I felt like it took three steps at a time. I felt I didn’t have, I didn’t know enough about myself. In researching The Source of the River, Massey et al. (2003) also found that, at selective colleges and universities, overconfidence was problematic for specific groups of the entering student population: Through a judicious cross-tabulation of reported self-confidence and indicators of prior academic success and prepara-

Introduction

11

tion, we can identify a subset of black and Latino students whose confidence seems most out-of-keeping with their actual level of college preparation, people at greatest risk of experiencing psychological trauma in encountering the realities of academic life in very selective institutions. . . . These people are most at risk of experiencing emotional shock, disappointment, and depression in response to their encounter with college-level work. . . . Thus in terms of potential for undermining the psychological motivation for success in higher education, the most serious threat seems to be overconfidence. (p. 106–107) In addition to lacking a solid academic preparation for college, several students commented on personal skills, such as time management, becoming a problem for them. When Clarissa was asked why she felt that college was more of a struggle than she anticipated, she responded: I think, poor time management skills. Uhm, some of it was that I didn’t have the background in certain areas that I needed. But I think the majority of it was poor time management skills, especially my freshman year. I could have done much better had I stuck to what I knew coming in, what I was told. And even when the student felt prepared for a particular discipline, the transfer of skills to the college level didn’t happen as expected, as revealed in their responses to a question about whether they found Ivy University harder or easier than expected: TIANA: I went to a competitive high school. I’d say it’s harder than I expected. STACEY: Uhm, harder. The first year was definitely an eye opener for me. I had always been the person at the top. . . . So, I’m like, I did it in high school, a lot of the same stuff. I was able to get through it and do great. Why can’t I do it here? I was just so frustrated. The students were prepared for college to be a challenge. But they had worked hard and achieved well in their high schools and expected to succeed in this new challenge. Many students were in the top 10% of their graduating classes and they wondered why Ivy University was so much more difficult and challenging than they had expected.

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Graduating Class

Given the unexpected setbacks in the academic arena, how did these students move through these initial obstacles and go on to complete the four or five years of required courses, and become graduates of this elite university? Three simple words best summarize their formula for success: drive, persistence, and resiliency. The simplicity of these words belies the complexity of actions and behaviors that these students employed, most of them stemming from what may best be called “situational” incentives and motivators, those determined by their families and by their diverse historical and experiential cultures. For instance, Damon (a Skeptic who graduated from Ivy University cum laude with a major in political science) identified a number of culturally relevant influences as factors that pushed him toward success in college: Strong support system. Family and friends. Believing in God. Uhm, knowing that when you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything. And, you know, a lot of people who have helped me succeed in college don’t even know that they have helped me. Famous people, books that I’ve read of people who are my heroes, that when you read them, they’re so inspirational. When you read Dr. King’s speech, you get so inspirational [sic]. When you read a Malcolm X speech, you get so inspirational [sic]. You read an Earl Graves speech or a book by Earl Graves, or you read about people who live in interesting places where you want to be someday. You know that you can do it. It gives you that push. It gets you so motivated. You say, “Oh, I want to be Spike” [referring to Spike Lee]. The motivators are as diverse as the backgrounds of these students, and they all contributed to the remarkable persistence that these students demonstrated in the face of numerous obstacles. Their endurance epitomizes the definition of resiliency. Resiliency has received a considerable amount of research interest over the past couple of decades, especially in the fields of psychology and social work, primarily because of its positive connotation emanating from a “strength perspective” rather than from an explanatory model of victimization and pathology (Krovetz, 1999; Norman, 2000; O’Connor, 2002; Ward, 1999, 2000). Historically, educational research and the focus of media have been on the pathological model, where problematic students are “deficient,” causing them to become victims forever lost to society, whether through educational frustration resulting in dropping out of the system or through institutionalization within the penal or mental incarceration systems.

Introduction

13

Rather than further identifying factors that lead to failure in this deficiency model and piling more rhetoric on the growing mass of improbable “solutions” to this crisis of student failure, I find the shift of focus to the resiliency of students who find themselves in challenging situations more useful. Their stories can reveal the means for achieving success when faced with a number of obstacles set in place by the rigidity and inertia of society, or simply by the roll of the dice of fate. Therefore, this book continues the focus of its predecessor, Resilient Spirits: Disadvantaged Students Making It at an Elite University (Goodwin, 2002), by employing resiliency as the central pivot around which the success of these students will be discussed in upcoming chapters. For now, I adopt and paraphrase Janie Ward’s (1999, p. 177) revised definition of resiliency: the ability to withstand and become strengthened from crises, adversity, and risk factors known to produce negative outcomes. This version of resiliency includes the critical concept of “strengthening” versus “bouncing back” because, as Janie Ward points out, students like those in this study do not return to a previous state that is implied by bouncing back. Instead, they move through the crises and challenges and become empowered to the point that they are not the same as they were before these life experiences. It will become clear from the narrations of the students throughout this book that they feel empowered by their successes and emerge from college changed people. They have not simply bounced back, but have become individuals who are changed and stronger as a result of surviving the rigors of an elite university.

WILL SUCCESS IN COLLEGE PAY OFF IN THE “REAL WORLD”? With varying degrees of success, I have tracked the immediate outcomes of college for the 23 students who participated in the original study that began in 1998. Many of them knew from the beginning of college that they planned to go on to graduate school to enhance their professional careers. Some looked forward to medical school, others to MBAs or master’s degrees in fields such as education and engineering, and a few already planned to earn professional degrees or PhDs in their respective fields. Most of them acknowledged the necessity of work right after college to pay back loans, assist their families, and/or save for graduate school. However, the bright expectation was that having the degree in hand from a selective university would enable them to choose from lucrative job offers as soon as they graduated, without graduate-level degrees. That was then, 1998; this is now, 2003. How times have changed in those few years!

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Graduating Class

In the intervening years, the economy has turned upside down and the job offers have all but dried up, as corporations teeter on the globalization ledge and the stock market veers erratically north and south. Where the students hoped for financially attractive entry-level positions in their fields, they have discovered that they are now competing with a host of newly laid off and unemployed, overqualified, and experienced job seekers. And the competition is for virtually nonexistent jobs in this economy defined by downsizing and jettisoning work into the global market. As a result, the aspirations of the graduates have moderated, and a number of them have revised their immediate plans. They have had an opportunity to apply and enhance their resiliency skills beyond college. Nine of the original 23 students did not participate in these followup interviews for a variety of reasons. What follows is an accounting of the most up-to-date information about these students at the time I stopped recording changes, approximately five years after the majority of these students entered college. In regard to these “missing students,” through e-mails, phone conversations, and updates from the HEOP staff, I have fairly current and complete information about their situations at the time of this writing. Eight of the nine have graduated from Ivy University. One dropped out (the only one of the original group of 23 to not persist to graduation) at the end of his second year, and was living and working near Ivy University. One was just completing her fifth year at Ivy University and graduated at the end of the spring semester. Of the remaining seven graduates, one returned to her native Dominican Republic and two were working in the New York City/New Jersey area. From the information I last received from them, they both sounded like they were working for companies in their areas of expertise. The remaining four students set their sights on graduate school. Two continued on at Ivy University in the Master of Education Program. One was admitted to Howard University in Washington, DC, to begin work on a PhD in math, with her ultimate objective to become a college professor. The remaining graduate was admitted to Rutgers, but decided to return home to New York City to retake the law school entry board exams and to hold out for offers from more prestigious law schools. That brings us to the remaining 14 students/graduates who are the heart of this book. Their stories will be fleshed out and given more life in the ensuing chapters, but a brief summary of where they are now provides an appropriate preview of what lies ahead. Four of the participants were older students at the time of our initial interviews in 1998. These students all graduated from Ivy University between 1999 and 2001. In the intervening years, one of them completed a master’s degree at Emory, and all of them are currently working, three in jobs that are degree related. The

Introduction

15

fourth is in temporary employment and will be entering law school in the fall. Seven of the remaining students graduated in the spring of 2002, within the traditional four years. Of these seven, three immediately went on to graduate schools, and four began working or looking for work. The final three finished college on the five-year plan. Two of them received degrees at the end of the spring semester of 2003, and one completed her studies at the end of the summer semester of 2003. Regardless of whether these students went on to graduate school immediately or sought employment with their freshly earned degrees, all 14 students plan to complete some level of graduate education within a few years of receiving their bachelor’s degrees. As their stories will reveal, none of these students breezed through college in a “traditional” fashion. All of them faced economic hardships and struggled with personal and academic challenges that were unique to their situations. And yet, all of these students valued their education and refused to become discouraged enough to drop out at the undergraduate degree level. Through waging their own wars within the academic system, they have become survivors and plan to reap more rewards. This is the story that follows. Chapter 2 explores in greater depth the identities of the student participants, focusing on their memberships in the three immigration groups and both the shared and unique characteristics within each cluster. Chapters 3, 4, 5, and 6 bring life to the students’ somewhat isolated and protected college years by exploring the culture of Ivy University as well as the academic and social experiences of the students. Chapters 7, 8, and 9 look beyond the structured experiences of college to the students’ goals and aspirations and to the reality of life for them after they breach the walls of Ivy University and cross the bridge into the “real world.”

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Chapter 2 WHO ARE YOU?

Sociologists and psychologists note that at the time people leave home and begin to live independently from their parents, often ages eighteen to twenty-two, they report a heightened sense of racial and ethnic identity as they sort through how much of their beliefs and behaviors are idiosyncratic to their families and how much are shared with other people. —Mary Waters (1996b)

The mantra for this entire longitudinal study could have been the refrain from the popular The Who song that kept running through my head. The research project that began in 1998 posed their oft-repeated question, “Who are you?” The underlying questions that guided the earlier study explored how these 23 students, all of whom were admitted to Ivy University under the auspices of the HEOP, constructed their identities as they made their way through an elite university. How did students from predominantly large, underfunded, urban schools transition to an elite university and persist in the face of such glaring culture shock? I really wanted to know! Through observing them during the summer program that preceded their entry to college and from the interviews that followed during their induction into the elite higher education system in the fall semester, I learned a great deal. This earlier study helped me begin to understand the complexity of these students whose only seemingly common characteristic was their membership in the decidedly nonelite Higher Education Opportunity Program. All of the participants in the original study revealed fascinating stories of their lives leading up to the time of their arrival at Ivy University. Their rich histories of voluntary and involuntary family migration from countries all over the world and the attendant cultural influences of diverse societies and belief systems provided a wealth of valuable information about what it means to be a citizen of the United States of America

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Graduating Class

at the end of the 20th century. Not a single individual in this select group shared a history that even vaguely resembled that of the dominant culture in the United States, a culture still strongly biased toward the White, Anglo-European heritage of the founding fathers and early settlers. To share the significant findings of the study from 1998, the findings that ground the research that led to this book, and yet not overwhelm the reader with too much of a good thing, I have selected six students who participated in both studies to be the primary voices, the “soloists,” for both projects. Their narrations of their precollegiate family histories, their undergraduate college experiences, and their transitions to the world beyond college, will anchor the discussions of significant events in the lives of students in programs like HEOP. I push their stories to the front to allow a focused retelling of large quantities of information. However, the voices of all of the student participants, the 23 in the original study and the 14 in the current study (the “choir”), will be woven through every part of this text. Among the six students are two students, one male and one female, from each of the three groups that emerged based on immigration status. The first group, the Pleasers, first-generation immigrant students, are represented by Luc and Roberto. Tiana and Jason are from the second group, the Searchers, students who are second-generation immigrants. And Stacey and Damon speak for the third group, the Skeptics, students from families who have lived in the United States for more than two generations and who arrived here as involuntary immigrants. The six students’ stories will illustrate some of the characteristics that constitute each level of immigration status and will help document the significance that length of time in this country has to the quality and perception of the educational experience. The American story is one of immigration, and these students and their families are important characters in this ongoing tale.

THE PLEASERS Their Profiles LUC. In 1998, Luc was 23 years old, a senior and a chemical engineering major. Due to a variety of circumstances, Ivy University was her third college, but she was poised for graduation at the end of the academic year. Her career goals were to get a stable job that would allow her to utilize her chemical engineering training. Luc emigrated with her family from Vietnam to a medium-sized town in upstate New York when she was 18. Her father had been in the Vietnamese army and was imprisoned for 10 years afterward. Because of

Who Are You?

19

discrimination and lack of opportunities in their native country, they elected to leave Vietnam when the government offered them the chance. Her father had completed two years of college before he was called into service, and her mother graduated from high school. In the United States, Luc’s father was a handyman, but he was unemployed at the time of the interviews. Her mother had worked at a retirement home, but she was also unemployed due to health problems. Luc had one older sister who had been a veterinarian in Vietnam and now worked in a technical position at a local company. When Luc arrived in the United States, she lacked fluency in the English language and was put back one grade level in high school, entering as a junior instead of a senior, to allow her time to learn English. Her English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) class, in which she was the only student, virtually isolated her from students in her high school. She had a difficult time making friends due to the language barrier. Luc elected to work at a fast-food restaurant because her family needed the money, but also because it provided her an ideal environment in which to pick up important language skills. One of the best things that happened to her was meeting her ESOL teacher. This woman became her friend and her advocate, and followed her progress throughout college. With the help of her ESOL teacher, Luc began her college experience at a local community college where she shored up her English and academic skills. When she felt she had made sufficient progress, she applied to and was admitted to an engineering program at a college about an hour away. Luc loved the program and the college. However, due to family circumstances, she decided to transfer to Ivy University for her senior year. She had to change the focus of her engineering major because Ivy University did not offer the type of engineering she was studying. Luc came in late to the program after study groups, cliques, and relationships with the faculty had been firmly established, and she always felt like an outsider, unwelcome and excluded from the “inner circle” of the program. Luc had little to say about identity issues, except that she felt very isolated. People often mistook her for Chinese and didn’t try to get to know her. She had no romantic relationship and was living at home with her parents, which she thoroughly enjoyed. Luc felt that the campus and her major were very stress producing, but hoped that her hard work would pay off in a job that she could enjoy and that would provide enough money to support her family.

ROBERTO. At the time of our first interview, Roberto was 19, a freshman with a double major in psychology and Spanish. He was thinking

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Graduating Class

about becoming a sex therapist. He talked about seeking passion and fun, and wanting to try new things with this college opportunity. Roberto was born in Jamaica and was raised there by an aunt after his parents divorced. His mother emigrated to the United States, but his father remained in Jamaica. When Roberto was 11, his father became concerned about his aunt’s abusive behavior. He convinced Roberto’s mother to have him join her in New York City. Roberto’s mother did not complete high school and worked part time as a nurse in a hospital. He was unsure of his father’s education, but knew that his father was coowner of a newspaper in Jamaica. In New York City, Roberto had three younger siblings for whom he provided after-school care. He commented that he was so busy watching over his sisters and brother that he had no time to be a teenager. English is the official language of Jamaica, so Roberto, unlike Luc, had no language barrier to cross when he entered school in the United States. In fact, he commented that his slight accent gained him positive attention from teachers and peers. He did so well on entry exams that he was advanced one year and ended up graduating from high school when he was 16. Roberto attributed some of his success in the New York City schools to the strict discipline and regimentation of his schools in Jamaica. To learn, teachers would keep students in line through physical and emotional punishment. Roberto made the distinction that in Jamaica this was expected and accepted, but in the United States it would be viewed as criminal abuse. Roberto had to defer his admission to college for two years while he waited to receive permanent residency status. He planned to attend a different university, but while he waited for residency, he ended up getting a better financial aid offer from Ivy University. He was quite concerned that the two-year hiatus might set him back academically and that his brain was “rusting.” However, there were several bright sides of this interim period. One was when Roberto’s high school college adviser brought him in to work with high school juniors on their college applications. The other was that Roberto’s dissatisfaction with his service job at a department store convinced him of the importance of going on to college and achieving something with his life. Roberto identified himself as Black, “not African American,” with some Cuban and White heritage. He made both White and Black friends on campus and observed that he seemed more serious academically than his White friends. Roberto found his female friends more understanding and equally serious about school, although he did not have a girlfriend. He commented that many of the male upperclassmen seemed fake.

Who Are You?

21

Characteristics of The Pleasers The students in this first group were all born in a country other than the United States. They immigrated to the United States at various ages during their elementary and secondary schooling years. Their perspectives on all aspects of their lives were filtered through a dual frame of reference: that of their country of birth and their country of residence (Ogbu, 1991; Suarez-Orozco, 1991). This advantage created a unique way of interacting with the social, political, economic, and educational systems of this country. Because they and their families had lived where these systems operated differently, and because they had chosen to leave their countries of birth in search of something better, they were often more tolerant of how things worked in the United States. They believed in the “American Dream” (Hochschild, 1995) and that working hard would lead to success. Initially, the Pleasers faced barriers often due to language and/or customs, but they were accepted into society more readily than either the Searchers or the Skeptics. Teachers found the students better behaved and more obedient (Suarez-Orozco, 1991), arriving as they did from some harsh, regimented, and demanding schools in their countries of birth. Because of the teacher perceptions, they were often provided more support and assistance with their education. In addition, Roberto’s parents were the only parents of this group of students who had divorced. There was more of a semblance of family stability within this group. Eventually, the Pleasers achieved well in their new school systems and were admitted into Ivy University’s HEOP class in greater numbers than either the Searchers or the Skeptics. One of the outstanding characteristics of the Pleasers is how determined they were to please their parents, themselves, their community, and their school, roughly in that order of importance. Their cultures taught respect and obedience for others, and their communities enforced these values and generally viewed the Pleasers as focused and well behaved. The strong cultural bonds they held led them not so much to conformity to society’s systems as to a strong desire to understand and work within these systems. Of the 23 students who participated in the 1998 study, 9 of them were Pleasers. Their countries of origin reveal the tremendous geographic and historical diversity within this group of first-generation immigrants: Vietnam, Thailand, Ghana, Guyana, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and Trinidad. Six of these Pleasers continued on in the 2002 follow-up study. They were Veronika from Ghana, Clarissa from Guyana, Panyos from Thailand, Tran from Vietnam, Roberto from Jamaica, and Luc from Vietnam. Although all of these students share to

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some degree the attributes listed previously as characteristic of Pleasers, they were all the more interesting because of their unique experiences that made them extraordinary individuals. Three of the original participants were first-generation immigrants from Vietnam who followed a different path of immigration. Their families arrived in the United States under refugee status and were subject to federal resettlement policies. New York City was considered an “immigrant magnet” and, as such, attracted significant concentrations of immigrants from around the globe. In an effort to lessen this “burden” on the resources that were already stretched too thin to meet the needs of many of the city’s residents, the government dispersed refugee populations in smaller clusters across the country. These resettlement patterns were designed to ease the transition of the refugee families and to lessen their impact on the host cities (Portes, 1988; Seller, 1988). The three families from Vietnam were relocated in large communities in upstate New York. Although the cities were considerably smaller than New York City, these students and their families took up residence in large urban areas.

THE SEARCHERS Their Profiles TIANA. When the first round of interviews began in 1998, Tiana was 18 years old, a first-year student planning on majoring in premed and becoming an obstetrician, who also mentioned she would enjoy a stint at being a barmaid. In college, she discovered an interest in English which she thought might influence her choice of majors. Tiana was born and grew up in the Bronx, New York, and her parents were both from Puerto Rico. They divorced, and she had problems living with her mother and younger sister and brother, so she moved in with her maternal grandmother in the “projects” (federally subsidized, low-income, high-rise apartment housing). She also had a half sister and a half brother through her father. Tiana’s mother completed two years of college and was working as a home attendant. Her father may have completed an associate’s degree and was a bus driver with the New York City transit system. Money was a real problem, as it had always been, but Tiana felt it more acutely on campus because she lacked funds for even the most basic needs such as making copies for classes or buying toiletries. She received nothing from home. School was pleasurable for Tiana, and because she was bright and curious, her mother sought out and enrolled her in some of the “better” New York City public schools. In high school, Tiana earned a place in a

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competitive transfer program for talented minority youths. She completed high school as a boarder at a highly rated public high school in a neighboring state. Living away from home in a dorm placed her in the middle of two worlds, that of the urban minority girls in her dorm and that of the upper-middle-class White girls from the suburban area surrounding the high school. Financially, she found she had to work long hours at a local shop, but, despite this and the distraction of her friendship groups, Tiana did well academically. Tiana had trouble defining herself racially and ethnically, and hovered between identifying herself as Puerto Rican, Hispanic, and Latin American. Eventually, she aligned herself more with a Puerto Rican identity. She found that she sought out anything Spanish on campus and was lonely, feeling herself a distinct minority. She had serious doubts about fitting in at Ivy University and was afraid that others would find out how ill prepared she felt. A number of gender issues surfaced in Tiana’s narrations. As friends, she found that males were more trustworthy than females, who gossiped and could be mean spirited. However, she stated that male students sometimes viewed first-year women as “fresh meat.” She had a relationship in New York City with a married man, separated with two children, and she felt guilty that she was cheating on him with her male friends at college.

JASON. Jason was 19 years old in 1998, a second-year student majoring in economics. His career aspirations were still in the formative stage, but he talked about the possibility of marketing, sales, or law. Born and raised on Long Island, New York, Jason lived with his mother and two older brothers. His parents divorced when he was in third grade, and the family moved around a lot after that, due to financial difficulties that frequently led to evictions. His mother completed some college in Taiwan and worked for the telephone company. His father attended community college and worked in a beverage store, owned by his brother. Jason did not cut a smooth path through the education system. He struggled to attain placement in “Track 1” classes and his mother had to intercede on his behalf with some of the placement decisions. For a number of reasons, Jason experienced highs and lows. He was bright and capable, but his family life, with moves and disruptions, did not provide much stability. His older brothers’ reputations often preceded him, doing more harm than good. And, in high school, Jason fell into drugs. By 11th grade, he had bottomed out and was rescued by a caring math teacher who helped him jump-start his academic goals and plans. Jason credits this teacher with turning him around and directing him toward Ivy University.

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Jason identified himself as racially mixed and felt that his father dominated the family with his White culture, leaving little room for the appreciation of his mother’s Taiwanese heritage. It took several years after the parental divorce for him to come to terms with the family dynamics that resulted from this one-sided life. Only at this point in college was he truly appreciating the significance of his Asian background and the character of his mother. Jason and his Asian friends on campus were trying to create an Asian fraternity. This exploration of his Asian side made him question his life and what he saw around him. At times, he was embarrassed by his heritage and the way he looked. Jason found himself unique within his friendship group because he looked White, and he described himself feeling pulled “both ways.” Jason had an on-again/off-again relationship with his girlfriend from his senior year in high school. It was mostly off as the semester progressed. He claimed to be frustrated by the female population on campus but recognized that he was very picky and confused.

Characteristics of The Searchers The Searchers were second-generation immigrant students, born in the United States to parents who immigrated from another country. These students had a “muted” dual frame of reference (Ogbu, 1991; SuarezOrozco, 1991). They felt some interest in and allegiance to the culture of their parents’ homelands, but they were born and raised in the United States and were strongly influenced by the cultural lures of the peer groups with which they’d grown up. In the eyes of their parents and teachers, this “Americanization” (Seller, 1988) influence was not necessarily all positive. In addition to their search for a cultural zone of comfort, they struggled between accepting this collective identity, created from the cultural groups with which they identified, and forging their individual identities, based on their unique talents and interests, distinct from any cultural context. The search for a balance between these two or more conflicting identity systems was a defining characteristic of the Searchers. Family relationships were often more complicated than those of the Pleasers. Divorce played a larger role in family configurations and tensions. Added to this was a tendency for parents to be stricter and more cautious with their children. They understood well the dangers of their neighborhoods, especially for girls. Parents also saw the Americanization of their children as a threat to their cultural values. They were not blind to the irony of coming to America to find better opportunities but also finding a peer culture they perceived as having negative effects on their children. Therefore, there was a tendency to regiment and overprotect the

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young. Michelle Fine and Lois Weis (1998) identified this repressive approach to parenting as “. . . strategic agoraphobia; mothers incubating babies and children within their apartments and homes much more intensively than in the past” (p. 197). This was somewhat evident in the parenting of the Pleasers, but a strong and consistent characteristic of the Searchers’ parenting styles, especially for the females of the family. Most of the Searchers had observed their parents working hard within the U.S. system for which they received little economic and professional gain. Therefore, they tended to be somewhat jaded about the American Dream. Through firsthand experience, they realized that hard work was not always enough to succeed in this system. They and their parents had been in the United States long enough to be more realistic in their expectations than the Pleasers. However, the parents continued to hold high hopes, but somewhat tempered expectations, about the benefits that a quality education might hold for their children’s success. Like the Pleasers, the Searchers showed tremendous diversity in terms of the countries of origin of their parents. In the 1998 study, seven of the students were second-generation immigrants whose parents’ homeland countries were El Salvador, Cuba, Grenada, Peru, Ecuador, Taiwan, and Puerto Rico. The strongest cultural influence within this group was Latino/a. I acknowledge the challenge that we all face when forcing people who are perceived to have common cultural backgrounds into a grouping with a label that masks the cultural diversity and historical origins of the groups. Ilan Stavans (1995) offers some help with the Hispanic/Latino terminology: “. . . I herewith suggest using Latinos to refer to those citizens from the Spanish-speaking world living in the United States and Hispanics to refer to those living elsewhere” (p. 27). So, in agreement with Stavans and others (Acosta-Belen & Santiago, 1998), instead of using the term Hispanic to refer to cultural groups of people with ties to Spanish-speaking countries, I adopt the term Latino/a, which becomes a bit more cumbersome but recognizes the females as well as the males within this group. Another interesting twist to the geographic genealogies of the Searchers is that Puerto Rico is a commonwealth, a protectorate of the United States. Technically, the families with origins in Puerto Rico are not immigrants to the United States. However, because their parents were born outside of the continental United States, the students were not exempt from oppressive and discriminatory attitudes and experiences similar to those endured by most immigrant groups. Other researchers have commented on the challenges that Puerto Ricans face in their battle to realize the benefits of being U.S. citizens and have noted how they are often blamed, along with other immigrants for “. . . poor urban conditions,

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soaring welfare rates, and the deteriorating national economy” (Darder & Torres, 1998, p. 15). The Puerto Rican students in this study experienced discrimination based on anti-immigrant sentiments similar to the experiences of the other Searchers. Four of the original Searchers participated in the 2002 project. These were Jason, whose parents were from Taiwan and Germany; Marie, with parents from Ecuador; Martine, whose parents immigrated from Cuba and El Salvador; and Tiana, with parents from Puerto Rico. With the exception of Jason, who did not identify with the cloistered childhood of many of the Searchers, these students’ narrations consistently included the defining characteristics that have been identified for the Searchers.

THE SKEPTICS Their Profiles STACEY. Stacey was an 18-year-old freshman at the time of our first interviews, majoring in psychology. She had planned on majoring in forensic science but decided that she preferred psychology after her college orientation. She had an intense interest in Japanese that she thought would be easier to pursue with this major. Stacey was born and raised in New York City, where she lived with her grandmother in the projects. Both of her parents had drug problems and eventually divorced, leaving her in the care of her grandmother along with her two younger sisters. A total of 10 family members lived with them in a small apartment, and Stacey assumed a great deal of responsibility for the care of her siblings and the preparation of meals for the family. At the time of the 1998 interviews, her parents had both been drug free for several years, although her mother’s health was poor and she was unable to work. Her father worked two jobs and was trying to go to community college between jobs. When her grandmother died in 1996, Stacey moved in with her father and her sisters moved in with her mother. For Stacey, school was a wonderful release from the cares of home life. Stacey loved reading from an early age and enjoyed school, even though she felt that she never “fit in.” She ended up attending a tough Black high school in Flatbush that required a lengthy bus commute, but she studied hard and did well. Stacey graduated in the top 10% of her class, although she saw the competition dwindle as students dropped out in increasing numbers over the years. She had several teachers who cared deeply about the education the students received, enough to buy materials out of their own pockets. However, for the most part, Stacey felt the teachers were apathetic. Contrary to many of the participants in this

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study, Stacey did not name a teacher who had significantly influenced her in a positive way. Instead, her role model was her grandmother, who was strong, patient, and “stood for something.” Stacey identified herself as African American and felt challenged by being the only African American in many of her college classes. She also saw Ivy University as being a “men’s college” because of the heavy influence of fraternities. She lived by herself in the dorm, frequently ate by herself in her room, and felt lonely on campus. Stacey had a boyfriend at a neighboring college; they talked on the phone daily and saw each other every weekend.

DAMON. In 1998, Damon was 18 years old, majoring in political science and aspiring to the presidency of the United States. He had positioned himself so well as an “activist” within his community, through his activities and social connections, that this became a serious goal, not just a “pie-in-the-sky” dream. Damon was born and raised in the town in which Ivy University is located; he virtually walked across the street to attend. His father held a master’s degree in religious studies and his mother had a bachelor’s in applied business. Together they ran a nonprofit organization that promoted the spiritual and cultural development of African American people. Damon spoke about his parents having sacrificed what could have been a more affluent life for one of service. He had three older siblings, all of whom had received at least one college degree and one who was pursuing a doctorate, as well as two younger sisters. Perhaps it was a traumatizing experience with his second grade teacher, whom Damon called an “equal opportunity hater,” who yelled at him that he’d never be a leader and would probably end up a janitor, that became part of the catalyst for his “overachievement,” as he calls it. Fortunately, his parents were actively involved in his education and intervened in this situation. Damon went on to thoroughly enjoy his years in public schools. Besides his parents, Damon credits his success in school to a teacher he had in seventh grade who recognized his potential and placed him in an accelerated achievement program. He excelled at a number of things, especially public relations. Damon made a point of connecting with virtually everyone with whom he came in contact, including neighbors, teachers, and classmates. He had a knack for helping other students resolve conflicts and was a school mediator from junior high through high school. Damon took pride in knowing every person in his graduating class well enough that he could tell a story about each one of them. Not surprisingly, he became homecoming king and was voted “most likely to succeed” by his classmates. He proudly proved his second grade teacher wrong.

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Damon described himself as Black or African American, and had a strong interest in understanding the “unadulterated” history of Blacks in America. He observed the small number of Black males on campus and had thoughtfully explored the reasons behind this. Damon had no girlfriend and commented on his lack of time to participate socially on campus, due to his community commitments and work.

Characteristics of The Skeptics The families of the Skeptics had been in the United States for generations, most of them significantly longer than the Searchers. Although they had been a part of the society for generations, they shared histories of marginalization from the economic, social, political, and cultural arenas of American life. The history of immigration to the United States has generally been one of assimilation, of various types, over time. As waves of immigrants arrived from various geographic origins, there was a generation or two of adjusting to the “new world,” but slowly new groups became accepted or at least found a place within the national fabric. This was the history of most of the European, White immigrant groups. The Pleasers and the Searchers may, in time, follow this pattern. A point of great significance about the possibility of assimilation is that these immigrants were all voluntary: their families made conscious and deliberate decisions to seek better opportunities in the United States. However, the families of the Skeptics were involuntary immigrants (Ogbu, 1991). They traced their ancestry back to slavery, and they had endured years of discrimination and exclusion, much of it forced subordination to the dominant White majority. With the civil rights movement and the mandated desegregation of schools came the possibility of more equal opportunity. In fact, HEOP was created during this time and was a result of the push to narrow the opportunity gap for a college education (Bureau of Higher Education Opportunity Program, 1998–1999; Gross, 1990). However, the reality was that newcomers, such as the Pleasers and the Searchers, often jumped through the societal hoops more quickly and were given opportunities that were still denied to the Skeptics. Years and generations of seeing their families shut out of the economic, political, and social arenas of the United States led to a heightened sense of pessimism about the possibilities for them in this society. They hold what John Ogbu identifies as a “negative dual frame of reference with respect to status mobility” (1991, p. 14). One of the defining characteristics of this group of students was the disillusionment and skepticism that they all voiced regarding the American Dream. Most of the Skeptics’ families were headed by a single mother. Damon’s family was the only one in which both parents were continu-

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ously married to each other. The strains of providing for families while needing to work became overwhelming for many of the mothers. The types of employment available, even with the high school diplomas that all of them held and the college degrees that many of them had completed, were usually low skilled with long hours, very similar to the jobs that the newly arrived immigrant parents found. Health problems, exacerbated by few or no health benefits, became insurmountable issues within these families. While all of the participants in this longitudinal study came from poor and working-class backgrounds, the Skeptics recounted greater financial challenges, including debt, eviction, shutting off of utilities, lack of child support, and no safety net of family or community resources to assist them in difficult times. Seven of the 23 students in the 1998 study were Skeptics, and all of them identified themselves as being either Black or African American. In the 2002 follow-up research, four of the students came from this group. Damon identified himself as African American, as did Stacey and Sybill. Nicole identified herself as Black. Some clarification of these terms that students used to identify their racial/ethnic identities is in order. Race and ethnicity are categories that are defined by society, and individuals do not always agree with the terminology that society chooses to define them (Waters, 1996a). So, an important part of ethnographic research is allowing the participants to express their own membership groups and the terminology they elect to identify them. The terminology that I have used and will continue to use throughout this text reflects this. A number of students defined themselves as Black and noted that they were not African or American. Therefore, I use the term Black to refer to those students who have identified themselves as Black, African, or African American because it is more inclusive, although perhaps not more descriptive. (See Tatum, 1997, for more discussion of this terminology.) For the same reason, I use the term White to refer to Anglo-Europeans or Caucasians. These terms of color hide the tremendous variations of cultures, histories, and origins of people within these groupings, but race and color continue to be issues of power and oppression in our society and need to be acknowledged in some way. I capitalize both Black and White to distinguish them as markers of cultural, social groupings distinct from common, uncapitalized words that are color designators.

CONCLUSION The brief biographical sketches of the six students who represent the Pleasers, the Searchers, and the Skeptics accentuate in bold strokes the heterogeneity of the students who are admitted to private universities with the support of compensatory programs like the Higher Education

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Opportunity Program. Their family genealogies, their primary and secondary educational experiences, and their personal dreams and goals set them on divergent trajectories as they enter Ivy University. By clustering the students in these three groups, I rely heavily on the theories of John Ogbu (1991) as he postulated significant differences between voluntary immigrant minorities and involuntary minorities. I find these concepts useful and applicable to the findings in this study, although there has been criticism (Foster, 2004) of Ogbu’s totalizing analysis of these groups, creating rather inflexible stereotypes of immigrant status. In addition, he limited his application of these theories to the explanation of academic failure within groups, rather than the achievement orientations that arise within these cultural positions. This theoretical departure will become more evident after a fuller understanding of the situated context of these students and their responses have been developed. The student participants were all achievers, but their career aspirations ran the gamut from chemical engineering to psychology to medicine to economics to foreign language to political science. All of them had felt the sting of discrimination by being viewed as a racial or ethnic minority and for being poor in a society that values material wealth. They were all keenly aware of the benefits that could be derived from receiving credentials from an elite private university like Ivy University. The students’ common goal was to finish strongly enough to reap the rewards either by nailing lucrative employment opportunities or through admittance into respected graduate programs. But first, they would have to focus their attention on learning and mastering the culture of an elite university.

Chapter 3 LIVING WITHIN THE CULTURE OF AN ELITE UNIVERSITY

The university is an institution dedicated to the search to know, the search to know of each member in her or his individual capacity. . . . While the university has no right to tell students who they should become, with what groups to associate or not to associate, university citizenship entails the obligation to accept every individual member of the community as a contributor to the search to know. . . . A university has a culture, an identity of its own. Its identity is tied to its work. Its work, as I said, consists of the search to know. —Gerhard Casper, president emeritus of Stanford University

Immersed in an academic community committed to achievement and excellence, not unlike that of Stanford University as described above by its former president, the students in this study strove to maximize this opportunity. Their success at Ivy University was defined to a great extent by the campus culture that enveloped them. The students’ abilities to become contributors to the work at hand correlated with their perceptions of their integration into this community of learners. Defining a college or university culture is a complicated task. Some of the terms that are used somewhat interchangeably to describe an academic culture include environment, milieu, climate, ethos, and tone. Aspects of all of these concepts are included in the broad definition that George Kuh and Elizabeth Whitt (1988) created in their study of culture in American colleges and universities where they defined culture as: . . . persistent patterns of norms, values, practices, beliefs, and assumptions that shape the behavior of individuals and groups

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in a college or university and provide a frame of reference within which to interpret the meaning of events and actions on and off the campus. (p. iv) Elite colleges and universities, those schools that are highly selective and “set the general standard for academic programs, campus environments, affirmative action, and financial aid” (Greene, 1998, p. xxiv), typically have lengthy histories with long-standing traditions that were built around privileging wealthy White students, usually males. Over the years, these institutions have broadened their student demographics and their overt cultures, but the culture and climate of many elite universities remain inhospitable to non-White students. Ernest Pascarella and Patrick Terenzini (1991) noted the persistence of “. . . conditions that are academically and socially uncongenial, if not downright hostile, to nonwhite students” (p. 644) and conclude that these conditions affect the educational experiences and outcomes for these students. Ivy University aspired to the ranks of the Ivy League schools and projected an atmosphere of elitism through its rigorous admissions policies, its seriousness of purpose and curricular challenge, and its many subtle, covert conditions that were perpetuated within this system. The culture of Ivy University has been described elsewhere in greater detail (see Goodwin, 2002), but this chapter focuses on the students’ perceptions of the subtleties of the climate and culture that they lived with day in and day out for the years during which they were enrolled. My intent in interviewing these students at the end of their undergraduate years was to hear their raw, unfiltered, and, perhaps, more honest impressions. On the brink of the graduation milestone they had not yet become romantically reflective, but their college experiences were fresh enough to elicit strong responses. It became evident that this was a time when the students faced tremendous anxiety about graduation and stepping into the abyss of the “real world” with all of its uncertainties. This chapter explores the students’ overall impressions of their experiences at Ivy University, with particular attention paid to the campus milieu, from the physical environment of the residence life to the affective environment generated by the social issues and levels of stress generated within a rigorous academic culture. I do not consider the university a divine entity, removed from any responsibility to participate in this acquisition of knowledge. Therefore, its role in accommodating the needs of its students and its willingness to change to reflect the dynamic nature of its student demographics is also considered.

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THE SUM OF ITS PARTS: HOW TO DESCRIBE THE COLLEGE EXPERIENCE Toward the beginning of each interview, I posed a very open-ended probing statement that was intended to generate responses that would be expanded on during the remainder of the interview. And, in fact, this question set the tone of much that followed. It ushered the students into a reflective state and allowed them to control the direction of the interview. The probe was simply, describe your college experience. After long pauses, diverted glances, and requests for limiting parameters around this question, most of the students picked up steam and set off on a critique of undergraduate education that emerged from their situated experiences. Responses covered the map of socio-pyscho-educational interests, but hovered around the words challenging, learning experience, and growth. The comments predominantly reflected personal outcomes of college, centered around four common themes: (1) the ups and downs of college; (2) challenges; (3) growth; and (4) connections. Within their overall critiques of campus life, the students talked about the residence life options at Ivy University. Classes consumed only a small fraction of the day. The students quickly found that where they lived made a great difference in how they related to and perceived the campus community. By 2002, all of the participants were happier with their living arrangements, with many of them living in private rooms of one type or another that gave them the space they so fervently desired in their earlier interviews.

The Pleasers From the outset, the Pleasers were very tentative in their assessment of Ivy University. They knew they were working hard, but they weren’t confident of the outcome. Luc had a dual frame of reference when it came to college. She compared Ivy University to her other university and found this campus colder and more difficult. However, many of them, like Roberto, didn’t know what to expect and were overwhelmed by aspects of the university. For the most part, the Pleasers were enjoying their early college experience. They felt lucky to be at Ivy University and expected the hard work. They found pleasure in the learning. LUC. Luc was just amazed that she had been able to graduate from an institution like Ivy University. She indicated that when she had driven past Ivy in the years before she enrolled, she always felt that Ivy University “. . . is something I could never touch. It’s just so out of my reach.

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And I ended up graduating from it!” In addition, she talked at great length about the isolation that she had felt: Most students already establish their relationship with all their friends. I came in. Nobody would . . . they think of me as a person who got lost. And sat in a corner. Nobody would show me anything. I didn’t even know where to pick up my paper, returned, the graded paper, and stuff like that. So, very frustrated . . . eventually I took it personally. Luc had only attended Ivy University for her senior year, but the climate that she painfully described was an extremely uncomfortable and inhospitable one, far different from what Roberto describes as we shall see. Luc certainly found more challenge than growth in this environment, as her comments illustrate: “They take studying and learning very seriously. That’s something totally opposite from [the other university I attended]. . . . Sometime I even wonder why am I here. What am I doing here? This is not my place. . . . Yeh, if you really want to study, [Ivy University] is a great place.” As a transfer student, she lacked the automatic bonding and support system that was born during the precollege summer program in which Roberto and the other HEOP students participated. In addition, Luc did have the challenge of not being a native English speaker, and her soft, quiet demeanor may have prevented her from receiving the attention she so sorely needed. During the earlier interviews in 1998, Luc lived off campus, at home with her family. By the 2002 interview, Luc was a newlywed, living in her own home with her husband and her parents. Her sister lived next door with her family, and their parents spent the day at her sister’s home caring for their grandchild. ROBERTO. When Roberto was asked to describe his college experience, he took a momentary pause before heading off in all directions at a brisk pace: Well, it was interesting. I mean, it was fun. It was a learning experience. Uhm, I don’t know. It was college. I don’t know how to describe it. I mean, it’s four years later and it seems like, uh, it went by so quickly. So, for me to sum up the four years . . . it’s gone so quickly in my head. So, I can really say it was a good experience. . . . The only word I can think of that would really describe my college experience, the only word is like growth. I grew so much, it’s crazy!

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The pace of college surprised him, and he agreed that it reflected positively on his experience that he found the four years quickly over. Roberto also recognized the tremendous growth and maturity that he had achieved in these pivotal years. He provided an interesting analogy to describe his induction into college: “It was just kind of like diving into a pool, not knowing whether it’s hot or cold. I just didn’t know what to expect. . . . I love it, actually. It’s a little boring sometimes, but. . . . Negatives? The frantic aspect of the school life.” Roberto, who was living in a dorm on the far edge of campus with apartment-like suites, was thankful that he had never had a roommate. He referred to the campus as “home” and described his suite with evident appreciation: “I love it a lot. You have your own space. It’s like you live in a big apartment building with your friends. Like, if I get bored from my room, I go downstairs to my friend’s room. . . . It’s just like a sitcom. Kramer comes into Jerry Seinfeld’s house. He goes to the fridge . . . stuff like that.” OTHER PLEASERS. All four of the themes are echoed in the narratives of the Pleasers. Veronika, from Ghana, talked about growing as a person and meeting many diverse people. She also felt the experience had been challenging, but rewarding. Panyos, from Thailand, described growth differently and included the ups and downs that freedom brought: Because freshman year, it was . . . this whole environment of college student, you know. Being so independent. Just so new to me. It just like the first time a baby learned to walk, I guess. You know, I get to go everywhere, do what I want. But, after a while, I kind of get used to it and it kind of, I don’t know, died out from there. Like a graph going down. Stay flat at the bottom. Now I’m just waiting for another kick to go on. Clarissa, from Guyana, found the college years “rocky” because she had been sick a great deal. However, one of the most pleasurable parts of the experience was the connections and friendships she’d developed while at school. The Pleasers were generally satisfied with the living arrangements that they worked out. Tran had moved home for his last year and found that, although there were too many people around, it was easier than the dorms. He preferred to live by himself and was looking forward to his independence after graduation. Clarissa and Veronika were living in the same complex as Roberto and concurred with him on the pleasure of having space to themselves. They were also highly appreciative of the

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privacy they never felt in their previous dorm accommodations or, for many of them, in their lives before college.

The Searchers The Searchers were somewhat concerned that their values didn’t match those of the majority of students on campus, and they had difficulty forging connections with others, which they found surprising. However, they were delighted to be away from home and were trying to adjust to the academic demands. TIANA. In terms of challenge, Tiana had experienced one of the most life-altering challenges one could have in college: she had a child during her second year and took a semester off. She came back with new determination and direction: Learned a lot. . . . I guess I think I see it [college] in a different perspective since I had my son. I don’t think if I wouldn’t have had him, I would have taken as much out of [Ivy University] as I did. You gain a different perspective. College isn’t just for—just ’cause it’s something you do outside. You know, you know it’s more of like what I’m going to do for my life and for my son. Tiana faced challenge, the daily ups and downs, and made tremendous personal growth during her college years. In 1998, she sounded confused: “And there’s nothing to keep me in check here. And I don’t like that. But I’m learning how to deal with that . . . I think I’m learning nothing academic at this point. I’m learning just life lessons, that’s what I’m learning.” And by 2002, it was clear that she took the lessons to heart. The value of education became more than the possible material and instrumental benefits of credentials from Ivy University. Education was now a personal challenge to herself to meet the responsibilities she felt for her son. Tiana, who had lived in a dorm during high school, was the only one in the earliest interviews who referred to the dorm space as her “house.” However, over the years, Tiana had found several places to live off campus. Right after the baby was born, she rented a house with her boyfriend, her mother, and her mother’s two children. That didn’t last long, and she moved on to a two-bedroom apartment where she and her baby lived until her boyfriend moved out. Tiana couldn’t afford the rent on her single income so she moved to her current apartment:

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It’s a one bedroom apartment. You know, me and [the baby] share the room. I’ve got a futon in the living room. That’s mommy’s space. I’ve got my bed and his bed in the bedroom. The computer is in the living room. I need that space. . . . I’m not ready to give that up. I’ve had my own house too long. It is nice. JASON. Jason felt challenged by the lack of time to do everything he wanted. However, he also emphasized the personal growth: I look back at my college experience with very fond memories. I think it was something that really, uhm, opened my mind to a lot of different things. I’m definitely a more well-rounded person. . . . College gave me the opportunity to extend myself; to challenge myself. . . . I mean, for lack of better words, college is this type of puzzle of the world and it’s a matter of you fitting yourself in there. And what you get out of it, things are definitely more structured. Jason’s dialogue in his earlier interviews in 1998 did not convey a “fondness” toward the college experience. His comments frequently returned to the rigor of this university: I guess, usually college is all like, you get to meet new people and everything. But then a lot of people are here that I just find I can’t relate to based upon past experience, based upon the type of person that I am, you know? And I just feel like I can’t really relate to some people. . . . Academic-wise, I guess it’s a good thing to go to school where they constantly give you a lot of work. It kind of gets on me after awhile, but it keeps you responsible, you know, and it keeps you very, very hardworking. It’s not like going to a state school where all you could do is go out every night because you have no work to do. That’s what I hear from a lot of my friends who go to state schools. They go out on like a Tuesday night, which is like unheard of for me. . . . I think [Ivy University] tries to, I don’t know, their whole goal and their values, I know one of the things I will get out of this is I’m a hard worker. This is definitely the school where you have to become a hard worker. During his undergraduate years, Jason had several “strange” roommates, but accepted the situation as a “learning experience.” However, by 2002, with graduation a year in his past, Jason was living back home

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near New York City, helping his family with the mortgage. In addition, he spent some time at his girlfriend’s apartment in the heart of the City. OTHER SEARCHERS. Connections were not emphasized by the Searchers as being as significant an outcome of college for them as the personal growth and development they experienced. Tiana and Jason’s description of college as challenge and growth was echoed in the voices of the other Searchers. Martine and Marie both found the adjustment to college a challenge, especially trying to loosen the protective embrace of their parents: MARTINE: Uhm, a lot of self discovery. Finding out who I am. I’ve grown an extreme amount during these four or five years. . . . Just an experience I think most people should experience. . . . I think it’s definitely an experience to grow. I think definitely that experience of living on campus and being away from home is an experience that no one else can ever explain to you or give to you. And, for everyone it will be different. But, I think the overall feeling is just, being away from your parents, being away from what you know, it’s one of the most uncomfortable yet liberating things you’ll ever feel. And you’ll learn so much about yourself through the process. . . . College is in many ways a sad experience, but it’s still a very good learning experience. MARIE: Well, at first, I think the first year especially was hard just like adjusting. Especially with my parents. I think it was hard because I didn’t have their full support. And I was really far away from home. I was the first one to go to college. Actually, the first one to go to college and just like go away. . . . But, I think by second year, it became easier for me. . . . It’s hard. It was definitely a challenge for me. These students found tremendous challenges at Ivy University, but academic challenge was not foremost in their minds. Far more significant was the personal growth they had made by being placed in an environment that forced them to grow in many directions. Martine’s description of “being away from what you know” as “one of the most uncomfortable yet liberating things you’ll ever feel” captured the essence of the search in which these students were engaged in order to re-create themselves in this foreign environment without the comfort of familiar faces and places. All of the Searchers had roommates or suite mates and seemed more content with their living arrangements than the Pleasers. However, Marie

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and Martine commented on being homesick. By 2002, Marie was living in the same dorm complex as the three Pleasers and also preferred this to her other campus housing situations. She liked feeling separate from campus and felt that the suite arrangement made it easier to connect with people and learn how to live with them. Martine lived across the bridge in an offcampus apartment and found the space and the savings welcome changes.

The Skeptics The Skeptics were notably silent about their global evaluation of Ivy University. The global experience seemed hard to nail down, and the responses revealed careful couching of their impressions. They had few comments about the college experience as a whole, but opened up considerably about specific aspects of campus life, most pointedly the racial/ethnic tensions that saturated their early experiences. This will be explored in greater depth later, but the significant thing is that the Skeptics narrated their experiences in an up-close, specific, and personal manner, not with a global overview of generalities. However, they were in agreement with just about all of the other students on one point: Ivy University focused on creating a rigorous academic climate and did little to foster an accepting, warm social environment. STACEY. Stacey briefly touched on the challenge and growth aspects of college in this response: “Challenging . . . like enjoyable. I’ve definitely enjoyed it as hard and crazy as it’s been. . . . Um, in some ways, it’s forced me to grow up.” When Stacey was a first-year student, she had a tenuous relationship with her assigned roommate in the college dorm. As she gained more confidence, she finessed a more compatible living arrangement. In 2002, she was living in the same dorm complex as the bulk of the Pleasers. Stacey explained her main reason for preferring this suite arrangement: “I like not having to share my bathroom with too many more people. Just me.” DAMON. Damon, who is rarely at a loss for words, expanded the most in his response: I thoroughly enjoyed my college experience. It’s had its ups and downs, but all in all, it’s been a good four years. Uhm, a quick four years . . . Exciting—uhm—fun. At times, disappointing. Up and down . . . I’ve made some long-lasting connections I’m sure will continue throughout my life and when I leave the university.

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Damon’s answer touched very quickly and lightly on only two of the four common themes: ups and downs and challenges. The deeper impact of these four years came out more slowly as he described the specifics of his integration into this community of learners. Damon found dorm life bearable perhaps because he was able to go home several times a week to visit his family who lived in the city surrounding Ivy University. By 2002, he was also living in the dorm complex to which most of the HEOP students gravitated, and he summed up everyone’s appreciation for this complex: “I love the change [away from the dorms] because, uh, I feel like I’m mature . . . you have your own little kitchen, you have your own bathroom. So, it’s, uhm, yeh, I like it. . . . It’s quiet; it’s peaceful.” OTHER SKEPTICS. The other Skeptics, all female, had even less to say in the opening dialogue. And, again, these women were not typically reluctant to speak. Their interviews were usually fast paced, animated discussions of life as they saw it. The brevity of Stacey’s description of four years at college was matched by the other two Skeptics: SYBILL: Uhm, a lot of confusion. I just . . . there were times when I just wasn’t sure what I was doing, where I was going, what was my purpose. I don’t know. It’s hard to describe. NICOLE: Wow! That’s such a broad question! It was definitely an experience. I, uhm, learned what I actually wanted to do. The brief responses may have reflected the overall dissatisfaction the students felt with the campus. They certainly spent as little time on campus as possible. In our earliest interviews, Nicole and Sybill were third-year students, older than the rest of the cohort. Nicole was already in an apartment in town and returned to it even between classes. Sybill lived in the dorm at the furthest edge of the campus and commuted home just about every weekend. In 2002, both of them had graduated several years earlier and were living on their own. Sybill was in Atlanta, employed and in her own apartment. Nicole was sharing an apartment on Staten Island with her boyfriend and working full time. She indicated that she enjoyed the slower pace of Staten Island compared to the brisk tempo of New York City, where she worked.

Common Threads Even though the responses between individuals and groups varied tremendously, there were common themes that the groups and individuals

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expressed. The first theme described the ups and downs of college. The path through four years of higher education did not run straight and smooth for most of these students. Their immediate responses to the opening probe often touched on the somewhat schizophrenic dimensions of the college experience, the extreme highs and lows. When the students attempted to clarify the ups and downs of their experiences, they began to voice some specific dimensions of the college experience that were challenging, which was the second theme. A number of the responses were tinged with regret as they looked back at the four years, regret that they had not made wiser decisions and accomplished more. College had been hard work. Despite the challenges and disappointments, it became clear that all of the students felt that they had grown personally, the third theme, through their college experiences. Learning was far more than just the academic portion of these four years. The internal growth and maturation that these students identified were voiced far more quickly and frequently than any academic gains. And, the fourth theme, long-lasting social connections was a part of the experience that most of the students valued highly; this will be discussed in some detail further on. I found it interesting that so many of the responses to my opening probe centered on the personal growth and connections that the students made while in college. This focus on the affective dimensions of the college experience was a remarkable switch from the student responses to a similar question when most of them were entering freshmen four years earlier. In 1998, during our first set of interviews, the responses were more frequently centered on the characteristics they observed about the campus environment. The immediate observations that the first-year students made about the college were full of hope for the potential of this institution to provide a stimulating and inviting academic and social environment. They sought to capture and define the identity of this university, but they weren’t always confident that Ivy University was the right choice. Hope quickly turned to disillusionment. In attempting to carve out a space away from home and a retreat from the stifling academic environment, the HEOP students found the residential conditions at Ivy University yet another challenge. All freshmen and sophomores were required to live on campus, and few of them had any say in whom their roommates might be. The students were in agreement in their expressions of dissatisfaction with the early dorm assignments. Even those who had been lucky enough to have their rooms to themselves were not comfortable with living in the freshmen and sophomore dorms. Noise, the communal bathrooms, “sleeping over” issues, and just the close proximity of other people in such a contained space all of the time were the major variations of the complaints that the students

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voiced about dorm life. They didn’t know what to expect when they arrived on campus, but they were not pleasantly surprised by what they found. Martine summed it up well: “Like, what a lot of people don’t understand when they don’t live in a dorm, they don’t understand how crazy it can be because there is no escape. Everything is right here and sometimes that’s not healthy.” None of the students mentioned or were aware of dorm programs that were designed to smooth out the potential difficulties of living with strangers, further complicated by the fact that the majority population in the dorms appeared to be homogeneously White with a smattering of assigned roommates from different racial/ethnic backgrounds. Fraternities and sororities did not provide living options for the HEOP students because the only residential Greek buildings were dedicated to White fraternities. So, the students stuck out some uncomfortable situations and made the best of less-than-satisfactory conditions, and that made them revel even more in the sweet relief of having more space and private accommodations in their later years of college.

The Significance of Place and Space In 1998, the students expressed the importance of carving out physical and psychological space that could be considered “survival space,” comfortable spaces that removed them from the daily stresses of campus life and the strain of conforming to a prescribed academic role. A number of researchers have taken up the importance of “space,” describing it as “free space” (Evans & Boyte, 1986), “safe spaces to retreat to and regroup” (Tatum, 1997), space for “recuperation and resistance” (Fine & Weis, 1998), “third space” (Homi Bhabha [1990] as cited in Darder, 1998), and “scaling down” space that provided some measure of “comfortability” (Richardson & Skinner, 1992). However it is described, space can be empowering for individuals and groups who feel they are constantly challenged and marginalized in an elite setting like Ivy University. In the earlier study, the students often took refuge in the library where they studied, socialized, and used the available computers to check their e-mail and do their assignments. Lacking personal computers and craving social connections, many of the HEOP students found the library one of their most comfortable spaces early on, far more comfortable than the confining spaces of the dorm. In the library space, they met up with other HEOP students and students who were also members of their identity groups. They could be themselves and not feel pressured to adapt to more constricting identities that were often narrowly defined by their dorm mates.

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In 2002, the students rarely mentioned the library at all in their interviews. We covered many topics, but this space had lost its relevance and had been nudged out by the apartment-like dorms that provided the privacy and escape from the restrictive campus that the students desired. The students who were living off campus also found that their living spaces were their refuges. In contrast to the earlier years, the graduating students were now calling their campus residence “home” and emphasizing the importance of their space and place in this academic environment. Tran was one of the students who couldn’t find a comfortable place on campus and ended up moving back home for his last year. He made a revealing comment about his reasons for doing this: “We have a quote in Vietnamese. The environment affects your feelings. So, when you’re sad, you can’t do anything happy.” I’m not sure that he was completely happy at home, but he certainly hadn’t found happiness in the dorms. The space for “recuperation and resistance” that Michelle Fine and Lois Weis (1998) identify resonates closely with the students’ descriptions of their living spaces on the margins of campus. This type of space became more critically important the longer the students resided on this campus. They needed space to recuperate from the daily strain of wearing what they perceived to be an appropriate academic mask in order to survive in this rigorous environment. They also needed the space and time to shore up their resistance to the press for conformity and assimilation into the social mores of Ivy University that they felt all around them. Maintaining their core identities was a struggle that many of the students voiced throughout both series of interviews, especially now that they were adrift without the support of their families. “Yeh, it’s good dorming, but it’s so far away from home. I miss the family.”

CLIMATE ISSUES Interspersed throughout the narrations of the HEOP students were their perceptions of the atmosphere at Ivy University. To some degree, these perceptions speak to the health of the climate in which these students learned and lived. A considerable amount of research has documented the importance of students integrating into the academic and social worlds of their colleges and universities in order for them to succeed in, and eventually graduate from, these institutions (see Bean, 1980; Cabrera, Castaneda, Nora, & Hengstler, 1992; Pascarella, Terenzini, & Wolfle, 1986; Tinto, 1982). Institutions are focused on the retention of their students to the point of graduation, and the likelihood of this happening increases when students perceive that a healthy environment, one that provides incentives and opportunities for their engagement, has been created. The concept of

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cultural capital is useful in this discussion because it enhances our understanding of how some cultural attributes, especially types of background, knowledge, attitudes, and skills, may be valued more highly in certain settings than others (Bourdieu, 1973/1977; Delpit, 1988). Specifically, within Ivy University, the HEOP students were often frustrated when they felt that their cultural capital was less respected than that of other students, like Roberto’s teaching experience that he describes in the next section. However, the students’ tendency to focus on the perceived value they derived by being part of a selective university like Ivy University and on their ability to draw on their resiliency, to survive and thrive in a somewhat hostile environment, often overshadowed the negative aspects of their experiences in the way that they chose to narrate them.

The Pleasers LUC. Luc (from Vietnam), who entered Ivy University with a high measure of excitement and awe, quickly found the climate of the school, and especially her department, downright discouraging. The cold shoulder that she received from her peers and professors (discussed earlier in this chapter) forced her to isolate herself and single-mindedly focus on just getting through: So, it was tough. I say, OK, I’m just going to sit here and I’ll read every book I can get my hand on and stuff on that, until I find a answer. Very hard. I work very hard. . . . [J]ust I tried to pass the class and eventually it became a personal problem with other students, even though they didn’t know [she laughs]. I just got pretty frustrated. Luc did not have as many years at Ivy University as the rest of the Pleasers, but her impressions of the rigor and the inhospitable nature of the academic life that were formed in one year were enough to leave a lasting impression. There was virtually no academic or social integration that took place for her during that year. To this day, she has bitter memories of her time spent on the campus and is determined to discourage anyone she knows from attending the university. ROBERTO. Roberto, as a first-generation immigrant from Jamaica and as a first-generation college student, was quite sensitive to the climate at Ivy University, and the change in that climate over the four years, as the following excerpts of his interview reveal:

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I think the most disappointing aspect was probably, like I guess, the minority population used to be so much richer when I first started. Now, it’s just like bland. The students that are here aren’t as interesting . . . where they’re all school oriented. I mean, being school oriented is good, but all they do is study and they don’t really come to any things. And it’s really sad that some of the organizations that are here to help them are really struggling right now because they’re not really participating. . . . So, I’m like, you know you’re studying so much, you’re still not doing that well. You could still come to our programs. . . . College is just like this jungle—survival of the fittest. And, you have to really prove yourself. And, in the midst of proving yourself academically, you slack off socially . . . for me to actually be successful academically, I have to have the social balance. The importance of academic and social integration and balance are well illustrated by Roberto’s experience. He had witnessed a decline in social involvement that corresponded to the increased rigor of Ivy University, a survival trade-off seen on many campuses today, as admissions requirements are tightened up and academic standards are pushed to new heights. Roberto’s story was interlaced with the positive and negative aspects that he distilled from his four years on campus. He valued diversity in the student population and in the course offerings, but was forgiving, in a somewhat schizophrenic way, when he found it lacking: . . . Although our school is not a hugely diverse school, there’s still a lot of diversity here, so I think it’s representative of the real world. . . . So, me being here for four years at a university with all these different cultures, I think has prepared me very well for what’s to come. . . . I think if there were more people that, not necessarily just looked like me, but we shared the same train of thought. . . . If we had more real life people at this school, I think it would have pushed me more to do. . . . Sometimes, like being a psychology major, just not having someone who looks like me in the class with me, sometimes can be distressing. I feel like I have to hold it down, hold down the fort for Black people. I have to watch what I say. I wish there were more like me.

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Roberto was also aware that he was often viewed from a biased perspective: [T]here are constant reminders and people saying to you, indirectly or directly, that you don’t belong here. You have to know you’re here for a reason, you know. And that’s why whenever I have conversations about affirmative action and people are like, “Oh, you’re only here because of affirmative action,” I’m like, “For me, it doesn’t matter if I’m here because of affirmative action. . . . I’m here and you’re here.” It’s all about results, and the process, as well—what you did to get where you are. . . . Just like what’s hindered me is not feeling like this school as itself, as an entity, is there for me. Like there are [certain professors], but I don’t feel like everyone’s rooting for me. But that can be a good thing, in a sense. Because you kind of like being the underdog and proving to them that you can do it. I’ve TA’d [been a teaching assistant] for a couple of classes and you don’t know how many times I’ve had kids try to embarrass me and make me look like I don’t know what I’m talking about. And, yeh, I don’t let them get to me. There was clearly a fatigue associated with being the sole Black representative in classes and in feeling that he had to justify his presence on the campus in the eyes of others, but in a characteristic fashion, Roberto accepted this challenge and used the negative aspects of the campus climate to propel his achievement. However, as he stated, if there had been more of a variety of people at school (“real-life people”), both students and faculty, Roberto felt that he might have been inspired to do even more. OTHER PLEASERS. The rest of the Pleasers, all first-generation immigrants using their dual frame of reference from which to examine this third culture, reflected a mixed impression of the campus culture and climate, isolating some positive aspects mixed with the negative. Veronika (from Ghana) found the diversity of people rewarding, although she identified a high level of hostility on campus that led to a number of racially motivated incidents. Panyos (from Thailand) felt that he had learned a lot from his White roommate who came from an upper-class family. He observed that they were from “two different worlds” and had different ways of interacting, his roommate’s being more manipulative and calculating, a way of “playing with people.” Panyos also observed that his Asian fraternity was somewhat isolating because they had only one White brother. Tran (from Vietnam) felt that he had to compete more at Ivy

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University simply because he was a minority. He was the student who had elected to move home rather than continue living in a dorm on campus. Many of the Pleasers found the opportunities for social integration minimal and chose to focus their energies on their academics and activities with friends from similar backgrounds.

The Searchers TIANA. Tiana found the climate of Ivy University stifling. The campus was relatively small, the minority population even smaller, and she found it difficult to trust anyone. Her first year had been challenging, just meeting the high academic standards of college and trying to get her social bearings. However, her second year was even more challenging when she took time off to have her baby. Amidst her academic and social angst, she felt targeted by gossip about her situation. She also felt that many of her “friends” deserted her at a time of great need. Lacking social support and not feeling strong academically, Tiana returned to Ivy University after her one semester away, determined to prove to herself and to others that she could make it through this college. But, she didn’t find it easy: “It’s really depressing here. The depression/anxiety rate in this town is ridiculous. Uhm, it’s not a healthy environment.” Even the people who attracted her to Ivy University when she visited in the spring “. . . turned out to be not as good people as I thought they were.” Tiana’s lack of integration into the culture of Ivy University led her to regret not choosing to attend another university, almost as prestigious, nearer to home. JASON. Jason’s experience was not as negatively tainted as Tiana’s, but even he expressed some frustration when he attempted to develop a cultural connection at Ivy University. He and several Asian friends tried to initiate an Asian fraternity on campus but: . . . when I looked into not only having the fraternity recognized, but also to create a bridge between the more, uh, dominant cultures versus the Asian cultures—tried to create a bridge—you know, a source of communication and things like that. And, you know, you could just view me as a pessimist for saying this, but it’s something that, it’s not . . . relevance is the wrong word. It’s not the relevance in modern society. It’s the difficulties of doing something.

Jason apologized for having difficulty articulating his experiences, but he clearly had found the campus unreceptive to his efforts to enhance the

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cultural climate. He indicated that he was met with an attitude of apathy and reluctance to assist in the creation of an organization designed around the needs of a minority group on campus. Eventually the fraternity was recognized at Ivy University, but Jason’s participation declined when the mission of the group veered from cultural education for the entire campus to more of a social function, similar to the White fraternities already in existence. OTHER SEARCHERS. Martine and Marie expressed the dichotomy of feelings that were evident in the stories the Pleasers told. While the climate at the university may not have always been to their liking, they both valued aspects of their experiences. Martine found it intimidating to be the only Latina in some of her classes. She described it as “awkward” and “weird.” However, she forced herself to engage to the point of making herself heard in class and found that it made a tremendous difference: And in terms of just as an individual, I feel I learned so much from professors, from myself, through other students, that I had never even dreamed about. Even though I came from NYC, I had never really been around so many Blacks, African Americans or Caucasians. . . . It was a very big experience. I’ve learned a lot about myself from that process where I don’t feel that different anymore. You know, the opportunities I’ve received here, it’s far from other people my age around my neighborhood. They don’t go to colleges like this. Marie found that by distancing herself from other HEOP students and forging relationships with students from different backgrounds, she grew both academically and socially. She appreciated their difference and felt that these relationships had enriched her experience at Ivy University, especially because her background, like Martine’s, had been from a very narrow slice of cultures.

The Skeptics Of the three groups, the Skeptics offered the greatest critique of the academic and social climates that constantly surrounded the HEOP students at Ivy University. Both Stacey and Damon identified themselves as African American and came from families who had a long history of interacting with dominant White societies. Part of their disappointment came with the realization that Ivy University was a smaller social unit that reflected the ethos, good and bad, of the society at large. Stacey and

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Damon, who both became active in groups on campus, spoke about the racial tension that they felt on the campus. STACEY. Stacey identified an anthropology class as one of her favorites, but discussed the downside of the class at some length: And then there were two Black people in the class, me and Teresa. And then everyone else was White except one Indian girl. So, of course, when race came up, there was this guy who sat right across from me at this conference table, and he’d sit there and taunt me into getting into arguments with him, every class. And I would just sit there and look at him, “I’m not arguing with you. You have to get over this.” I would look at him, “I’m not going to respond to your remarks that I think are beneath me.” And I’d just go on with the rest of the class. But he’d do the readings with the hope of finding something that would make me upset or react in, I don’t know what he was actually trying to get. But, I’d just look at him like, “I have better stuff to do with my life.” But, it was a good class in that I was able to speak to some people who might have remained fiercely ignorant of certain things. Stacey ended up becoming good friends with a White woman who had been very angry with Stacey during class, but who had ended up with a more informed understanding of Stacey’s position after discussing “things” with her in class. In addition to this class, Stacey mentioned another professor whom she had found quite offensive when he indicated that a “C” should be good enough for her. “I just sat there and looked at him like, ‘That’s not OK for me. You can’t tell me what’s acceptable for me.’” She also brought up some recent incidents on campus that she found very upsetting, and even more troublesome because the local press had chosen to not report these racial incidents: They don’t tell you that . . . these guys were yelling out of [a dorm] to freshman minority students, “You Black niggers!” Screaming at them from their dorm window as they’re walking across campus minding their own business. . . . For the two weeks before spring break, we had three incidents. Someone went into [a class building], into one of the classrooms and took all the chairs and flipped them upside down and drew a swastika on the floor. “Die niggers” and all this stuff. . . . And

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the thing is, we’re not able to find these people. This school has no campus safety. Security never finds anyone. . . . Do people realize how this is making people feel? How it’s making minorities and stuff? People should not have to walk around campus scared. . . . I guess I’m more cynical now than I was before I started all of this. I don’t believe that everyone’s out for the common good and all that anymore. . . . I know people who don’t even want to bother to report things when it happens. Like, what good is it going to do, you know?. . . This is just the political situation right now. I mean, as for being a part of it, I suppose it helps you to learn a little from it. I mean, if that wasn’t part of the climate here, things would just go on. DAMON. Damon also referred to the recent racial incidents in his discussion of social issues and concerns that he had about Ivy University: I would say the most disappointing aspect has been the countless racial incidents that we’ve seen on campus. It breaks my heart that racism is still so pervasive on this campus. Uhm, and a sense that people are so racist on this campus. And it’s something that I have been, uhm, has really been a pull down. But then, I think about that but then I think about these other things, and the good definitely outweighs the bad. I found it interesting that Damon and Stacey’s feelings ran so parallel in their high concern about the racial situations, but, despite them, they were able to identify outcomes that were both finally positive. However, I was surprised that there had been little publicity about the racial tension on campus. Damon responded, “The university has an image to uphold and they don’t want to tarnish that image. But, at the same time, it’s something that, uhm, the vast majority of students just don’t care about if it just doesn’t affect them. And they see it, only a minority concern.”

INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE Christine Cress and Linda Sax (1998), in their synthesis of 30 years of national freshman data, conclude that a “split climate” is created by traditional college cultures that were developed for students from far different backgrounds than those of HEOP students. The embedded histories, traditions, and policies of elite institutions promote a virtual class system of those “. . . in the know, . . . who have an increased proclivity for

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becoming actively engaged in their environments,” and those “. . . out of the know, . . . [who] may find themselves in a climate that seems foreign and overwhelming” (p. 66). The researchers conclude that this gap or split in college climates makes it increasingly important that our institutions of higher education adapt their curricula and programs to include “. . . interventions and support services that may be necessary for helping entering students acclimate to their new surroundings” (p. 66). This chapter has underscored the reality of this split climate for the HEOP students who shared their experiences and impressions while at Ivy University. There were times for all of these students when they truly felt “out of the know” in this environment and found the services of the university unable to meet their needs. I was curious to find out if the students had witnessed any positive changes within the university during their tenure. Overwhelmingly the responses indicated that, although they had observed some visible efforts to alter the status quo of the bifurcated system of “insiders” and “outsiders,” most of the change appeared strictly cosmetic and not meaningful to them in any terms of substantial change or reform. During my earlier rounds of interviews with the students in 1998 and 1999, there was a rising level of concern over the administration’s apparent disregard for the students’ complaints about the lack of diversity. For a period of time, the campus newspaper carried a back-and-forth volley of articles written by minority student group leaders and members of the administration. The primary issues raised by the students had to do with a lack of attention to minority groups and issues in the curricula, in programming, and in the allocation of resources, as well as a discriminatory campus security system. The tension culminated in a student sit-in during the spring quarter, what I identified as a “flash point” for student unity and action. I borrowed this label from a rather discouraging observation about higher education made by Philip Altbach (1993): [T]here is a kind of struggle going on for the soul of the university in the United States. Although there is no flash point of political crisis, as was the case in the 1960s, the American university is profoundly divided. Undergraduate students are bifurcated into increasingly separate ethnic and racial enclaves. A not insignificant proportion of white students resent perceived “special opportunities” for underrepresented minority students and fear undue competition from highachieving Asian-American students. With many students working while studying and most more concerned with private concerns than with community issues, there is no center to campus life. (p. 219)

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Although this was written 10 years ago, it resonated with the student experiences at Ivy University. The difference that I see is that the students are not content to countenance apathy around these issues. The participants in my study were actively engaged in holding the university accountable for its actions or lack of actions. Many of the HEOP participants were involved in this highly publicized sit-in—and this was only their first year in college. Among the Pleasers and Skeptics, and not so much with the Searchers, there was an inclination toward becoming engaged and proactive with elements of diversity on the campus, something that they found personally important. Because the students often felt marginalized and “not in the know,” they pushed inward from the margins and forced the administration to take more responsibility for the state of the university. The sit-in was an overt and organized thrust by the minority students in dealing with the administration. Representatives from all of the minority groups on campus helped organize and then participated in this event. In speaking with the HEOP students four years later, they identified several changes precipitated by this flash point. First, the office that dealt with minority student affairs was relocated from the basement of one of the academic buildings and moved to the ground floor, to more spacious offices that actually had windows overlooking the main quadrangle of the campus, as well as an open area where students and staff could congregate, just to sit and talk. Next, a roundtable was established that brought together, by invitation, students with diverse interests, faculty, and administrators. The group met on a regular basis and worked toward implementing some of the changes that were highlighted during the sit-in. Damon sat on the roundtable and had this to say: “The roundtable . . . has taken the lead on assuring that the campus climate is comfortable and acceptable to all students, regardless of their backgrounds. So, those things are heartening.” Third, an institute dedicated to focusing on African and African American issues and curricula was dusted off and reinstated. A few years before, during a time of strategic planning when Ivy University decreased its size and increased its selectivity and rigor, this had been one program that was downsized and then eliminated. In its reincarnation, a major in African and African American studies was being developed, and diverse faculty and staff were being hired into the institute. A subtle change was noted by several students toward more diverse programming of events and even the university’s recognition of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, which became an official campus holiday with no classes during the students’ last year on campus. As promising as these changes sounded, the students were still not satisfied with the progress toward developing a more equitable campus

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climate. They found the change slow and difficult to even notice at the pace with which it was implemented. Several students noted that the spirit, morale, and participation of minority students had decreased over time. Roberto’s earlier comments alluded to the younger students spending more time on their studies and less time participating in clubs, organizations, and activities designed specifically for them. He blamed it on the increasing rigor of the university, but also on the “. . . whole freshman housing thing, like, that puts them all in this one place. And, like, they’re secluded from everyone. And, also, they said that upperclassmen don’t extend themselves to them. . . . [I]t’s a two-way street. Like, they both need to find a common ground.” Clarissa was also a member of the roundtable and agreed that the attitude of the administration had changed in subtle and positive ways, but the numbers of minority students admitted to, and faculty hired by, the university had not shown an increase. In addition, the administration was faulted for not taking more action on the recent racial incidents. The students felt that offenders should be suspended and not just given minor and inconsistent “slaps on the hand” while allowed to continue at the university. The HEOP students had a number of specific actions they wanted to see enacted by the administration. The university needed to demonstrate that it took the student concerns seriously and that it was willing to assume responsibility for creating a campus culture and identity that would allow each student the freedom and acceptance to become a full contributor within the academic community, exactly what Gerhard Casper, in the opening of this chapter, delineated as the work of a university. The following are the student suggestions to the power brokers of the university: • • • • •

Zero tolerance for racial offenders. Opportunities for open discussion about issues of diversity. Mandated courses that center around cultural understanding. Diversity training during freshman orientation. Dorm space that is heterogeneously populated, by level in school as well as diverse racial/ethnic affiliations. • Active recruitment of first-year students to clubs and organizations that would assist them in striking an academic and social balance. • A sincere interest on the part of faculty and administration when they are participating in planning groups with students. (The students had observed and commented on all of these behaviors: arriving late to meetings, working on other things during meetings, not following through on commitments in a timely and thoughtful fashion, demonstrating little respect for students

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•

and/or their ideas as indicated by body language or through quickly dismissing ideas when students proposed them, and not extending the same common courtesies that they would expect from students and other professionals.) Honesty from the point of recruitment on through to graduation.

With regard to the last point, several students indicated that they felt betrayed once they began attending Ivy University by statements and “promises” made during recruitment: VERONIKA: Well, for [Ivy University] it’s all like just, I think they mainly do that [say they want to become more diverse in population] to attract more people. But, as soon as they get them in, that’s the end. They don’t really care what you do, what programs you bring on campus or whatever. It’s just like they’re more just trying to get you here and once you’re here, that’s it. They don’t bother. . . . SYBILL: Yeh, you have to be a certain type of person to go here. Uhm, definitely. . . . This university looks at how they can make money. So, they’re concerned with incoming students and alumni and how can they bring money into this university. . . . I mean, they don’t want to offend their trustees, their alumni who have a lot of old-school values. . . . It doesn’t have a very large minority population and it tries to portray that it does. I think it needs to be more honest in its representation. When you’re applying and they send you minority information and you get to campus and it’s not what it looks like, I think that’s a let down. . . . This school needs to be more honest and say, “We really don’t have much of a minority population.” It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but something to be aware of. . . . I think if you’re not used to a certain culture, this school would be very hard to get used to. These HEOP students were critical of the university’s sincerity, but they were committed to assisting the university in its work toward becoming a more accepting community, even after graduation. Damon, a political science major, was particularly vocal about his ongoing support: I mean, I’m always pessimistic when it comes to things like that because I can look back at the [Ivy University] archives and, you know, 1968, you were having the same problem.

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1992, 2002, 10-year span, the same problems still persist and are pervasive. So, uhm, the lip service is there but there needs to be action to back up that lip service, and we’ll see if that happens. But, I’m encouraged by a lot of students who have stepped forward. Hopefully, they’ll be able to carry that torch after I’m gone. But, as an alum, you’ll wield even more influence. And I’ll definitely be on top of the university as an alum and as a citizen of [the local community] to make sure they’ll be doing what they need to be doing.

CONCLUSION Textbooks define university culture and climate entirely differently from those who are intimate members of an academic community, living in the culture and climate day and night. The HEOP participants clearly found their years at Ivy University to have many positive outcomes for them, and they had few regrets about attending this university. Roberto offered an interesting slant on assessing a campus climate: And like, Dr. [Smith], my mentor, he’s in the Department of Community Medicine, he told me, when you go to a school, this is how you decide if it’s a good school for you to be at. If you walk down the hall and no one speaks to the janitor, that’s not a good thing. Or the cleaning staff or anyone who works in the dining halls. Or if you’re in an elevator and no one says hello. That’s somewhere you don’t want to be. That’s the opposite here. Like, everyone says “hi” to the workers [in the dining halls]. However, invariably, some issues made the campus uncomfortable and frustrating for the students, and not just the rigorous academics that they had fully expected to be a part of their college experience. Far more challenging were those aspects of college life where the students felt they were marginalized, the outsiders, “out of the know.” The HEOP students expressed concern about many of the “uncongenial conditions” to which Ernest Pascarella and Patrick Terenzini (1991) referred. Among these were low numbers of minority faculty and staff, financial aid, social organizations, and condescending faculty and staff attitudes. Pascarella and Terenzini urge campuses to do more than just recognize and eliminate these negative conditions. They need to consider that “[g]ood educational practice, as well as fundamental fairness, also calls for the development of

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new policies, programs, and conditions that will create campuswide and specific learning environments and an institutional ‘tone’ that is congenial to all students . . . ” (p. 645). Despite the negative points that the students voiced, they pulled on their resiliency to get them over the humps and onto the graduation rolls. Damon summed up this determination perfectly: “As long as anyone is not doing anything physical to you, there’s no excuse why you cannot succeed. We know there’s racism. We know there’s sexism. There’s homophobia. There’s bigots. Being that we know that, we can’t let that get in our way.” With attitudes like this, and with universities willing to meet their students halfway and adapt to their changing needs, everyone should win with a campus climate that fosters participation, growth, and learning. However, there is an elephant in the room that needs to be acknowledged at this point. And that is: what incentives are provided to universities to make their campuses more congenial to students from underrepresented groups? Other than some vocal pressure from advocates for social justice and equity and from various groups of students like the HEOP students, universities may not feel inclined to undergo major cultural and climate change. Retention is not really much of an issue, especially for Ivy League elite universities. Numbers of applicants are up and affirmative action mandates are down, so the status quo of higher education is easier, cheaper, and more guaranteed in predicable outcomes than undergoing risky programmatic change that may or may not pacify this relatively small group of students. Even students from the more traditional White, middle- and upper-class backgrounds, who often advocate for social justice, are so stressed and overwhelmed with their academic worlds, that they haven’t been a visible presence in these discussions. Returning to the opening definition of culture (Kuh & Whitt, 1988), the “norms, values, beliefs, and assumptions that shape the behavior of individuals and groups ” who live and work within a campus environment are so persistent that even if change were undertaken it may occur in increments too small to be noted by students within the four years of their attendance. On a somewhat lighter note, but with very serious undertones, a favorite quote of mine comes from Woodrow Wilson when he was president of Princeton: “Changing a university is like moving a cemetery.”

Chapter 4 LESSONS LEARNED The Academics of College

Though personality attributes and prior experience matter, they have less to do with departure, given entry, than do the quality of individual academic and social experiences within the college with other members of the institution, faculty, staff, and student. —Vincent Tinto, “Student Success and the Building of Involving Educational Communities”

The unfolding of the academic experience for each of the students in this study was a primary interest that drove this research. How did the students make it through their four years on an elite campus? What were their experiences with classes and professors? How did they feel about their choice of majors? A large body of research, including that of Vincent Tinto who is quoted in the opening passage, has centered on the concept of “academic integration,” defined as one’s ability to find membership and belonging in the academic life of the learning community as a critical element in student persistence at any college or university (Bean, 1980; Cabrera, Castenada, Nora, & Hengstler, 1992; Pascarella, Terenzini, & Wolfle, 1986; Tinto, 1987; among others). Another term often used to describe this phenomenon is “institutional fit” (Bean, 1980), the level of congeniality between the institution and the student. The premise is that the stronger the fit, the more likely the student will persist and achieve his or her academic goals. However, as another researcher, Greg Tanaka (2002), points out, integration, if viewed as implying assimilation to the dominant norms of the campus, may misdirect our attention toward the necessity of students accepting the status quo of the power structures of universities. Instead, we should level our critical lens at the institutions of higher education and pose the uncomfortable questions that ask how they are changing to accommodate the needs of their students.

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On the surface, the group of students in this study appears to be a mismatch for an institution like Ivy University; their personal and academic backgrounds are inconsistent with those of the majority of students who attend this university. So, how do they persist to graduation? In listening to the narrations of the students’ academic experiences, it is clear to me that they are, in fact, integrating into the campus environment in two distinctly different, yet strategic ways through (1) their compliance with and accommodations to the long-embedded structure of classes, majors, and predominantly White professors, contrasted with (2) their affiliations with campus groups, organizations, and students that reflect their personal cultures and interests. All along, these students have used their positions of marginality on this campus to create their own methods of surviving and even excelling on this campus, what might be called “strategic resistance.” They resist assimilation into the status quo systems and strategically, through their alliances and accommodations, turn their locations at the margins of campus life into places of strength. These choices were often at the conscious level, but not always, as they will explain. Through the stories of the six members of the profile group, this chapter will focus on how each of these students from disadvantaged backgrounds strategically came to terms with the academic world of an elite university. Each student’s story will touch on the strategies employed that enhanced academic success, favorite and least favorite courses and professors, experiences with academic advising, choices and changes of majors, and memberships in institutionally sanctioned groups. Of interest are the different approaches that are employed by these students and how each leads to success. No two stories sound the same, although they all contribute some valuable lessons to be learned by faculty, staff, administrators, and others concerned about higher education. They force us to ask better questions about how institutions are serving their rapidly changing student populations.

THE PLEASERS: FIRST-GENERATION IMMIGRANT STUDENTS LUC (VIETNAM) Because she transferred to Ivy University in her senior year of college, Luc spent the least amount of time at the university of the students interviewed. Despite that, or because of that, Luc’s experience had, for the most part, been a negative one. She identified her hard work as the only strategy that got her through her last year. For her, there were few signs

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of any academic integration. Her previous comments have described the social and academic ostracism she felt within her major. Luc keenly wished that others had been more willing to offer her assistance when she desperately needed some. And so, her words of wisdom to incoming HEOP students included: “Of course, pay back. You’re working for nothing, definitely. You definitely get what you work for. I really believe that . . . working hard and helping each other out.” The ability to connect with others has been identified as one of the critical factors in student persistence (most notably by Tinto, 1987). It was fortunate for Luc that she needed only one year at Ivy University to complete her degree because, for her, human connections were a scarce commodity on this campus. Luc’s sense of isolation stemmed from the unwillingness of others to make any effort to relate to her, but was heightened by her inability to connect in meaningful ways with academically focused university groups. When asked about her affiliation with campus groups, Luc responded: “I joined the Vietnamese student association. I wasn’t very active. Uhm, that’s pretty much it. I was a little more active at [my previous university].” And her assumption of positions of leadership at the university was similarly minimal: “No [positions of leadership]. I was very shy and very low socially. I’m a lot more confident now.” Luc found that once she graduated and landed an attractive, local job at a major international company her ability to extend herself and accept the “burdens” of leadership continued to challenge her, despite her developing confidence: “Well, I tend to pull myself back. I say, you’re not good enough. You can’t do that yet. But they push me, especially my boss and my team leader.” Luc’s election of chemical engineering as a major was by default. She had majored in paper science and engineering at her previous school and entered chemical engineering because it was the area most similar to paper and would take the least amount of time to complete. However, it was ironic that even as a young child, chemical engineering was an area that intrigued her. When I was younger, you see life as a grand world, so I said, I want to be a college professor when I was about second grade. I want to be a college professor in an engineering degree. . . . In a chemical engineering discipline. . . . Uh, so when I went to school, I say I can’t afford to go to [Ivy University]. So, I go to paper instead because they paid my tuition. . . . I didn’t know what to study. . . . I’m pretty good at science. It doesn’t require a lot of language in science. You know, the numbers are the same.

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The faculty member who advised her to complete her degree in chemical engineering became her academic adviser once she enrolled in Ivy University. However, even this connection was not a strong one, and he was the chair of the department. I asked her how often they met: “Not often. He was a very busy person. Uhm, but then he was the one I talked to when I was selecting between [another university] and [Ivy University]. He said, ‘You have very good GPA [grade point average] and you only have a year left. You could certainly do it.’ He made it sound pretty . . . he was the only person I talked to at [Ivy University].” Partial information and limited academic advising placed Luc at a distinct disadvantage academically. In addition, Luc found little to commend the professors with whom she worked: “I didn’t find them as sincere. I don’t find them that they helped as much as professors at [my previous university]. Maybe because I didn’t stay long enough. But they tend to be a little bit colder.” Even though her academic integration was minimal at Ivy University, Luc succeeded in graduating with a high GPA and was hired in a full-time engineering position even before she graduated. However, the bottom line was that, because of her negative experience with academics, Luc indicated that she would discourage anyone she knew from attending Ivy University.

ROBERTO (JAMAICA) The contrast between Luc’s and Roberto’s experiences are like night and day. Where Luc was unable to forge significant academic connections, Roberto thrived in the challenging environment of rigorous courses and staid professors. I asked about his strategies and what words of advice he would pass on to incoming students. Simple strategies like, “And I’d always sit in the front where the professor can see me. And I’m very outspoken in class. Like, if a teacher asks a question, I’ll speak up, so that’s how I got to know [the professors],” made a difference. However, his lengthier response gave a glimpse of what really lay behind his success: If there’s something that’s not going well, I don’t let it consume me. You know, I’m just like, “OK, this is happening for a reason. What am I supposed to learn from this? How is this supposed to make me stronger?” And I’ll move on from there. . . . I think it was Mother Teresa, she said, it was something along the lines of: “When you’re nice and you do good to others, people say you have ulterior motives.” And then it was just a series of phrases like that, and then it said, in the end to be good anyway, because in the end it wasn’t between

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you and them, it’s between you and God. So, you know, just do it for you, not for anyone else. Genuinely be nice. Genuinely be caring. Genuinely make yourself available to people, because in the end, it’s not about them, it’s about you and Him (or Her). . . . And never, ever doubt your abilities. You’re here because you have proven already. You have nothing else to prove. You’re here. The only thing you have to prove is to yourself. Believe in your ability. When it gets hard, and it will get hard, you just have to know that you deserve to be here. Just push through. Put all—you’ve got to put the past behind you, the good and the bad, and just push on. Roberto acknowledged the adverse conditions that are a part of most academic endeavors, yet viewed them as temporary and something over which he had some control—if only in his mind. These attitudes exemplified academic resiliency (Reivich & Shatté, 2002) and enabled him to thrive in what Luc found to be a less-than-hospitable environment. Roberto was more active in university-sanctioned groups than Luc, and he valued the contributions these groups made to his college experience. He rattled off a list of memberships that would become familiar names when speaking to the other students: Uhm, a few . . . I don’t know. BSU [Black Student Union], I was on NSBE board, the National Society of Black Engineers. Uhm, I’m in Psych I, honor society for psychology. Uhm, McNair, the undergraduate research program. Uhm, oh gosh, just regular stuff. . . . That’s why it’s kind of sad to see the organizations becoming not as effective as they used to be. Because I know they made a big impact on me when I came here and like, they made me feel comfortable. Like, those organizations like BSU and SALSA [Spanish and Latino Students’ Association] made me feel like I had this home within my home. Like college is my home and I had another home within it, so, yeh, they’ve been great. Even though the college organizations engendered a sense of belonging on this campus, Roberto chose to minimize his leadership roles: I never wanted to run for president or anything like that. I kind of like being in the cornerstone of things, throwing ideas out here and there. I never wanted to be like president, ’cause I know how my schedule is and how much work I have to do

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for school. And I’d like to be involved, so I take on a role where I’m able to manage the workload from school, the workload from these organizations. . . . As long as I help out. Balance in all things helped Roberto get through: “. . . And I have to have the balance between my academic and my social life. I need to have fun. Like, if I know I’m stressed out, I need to have fun to get my mind off the stress.” He participated when and where he could, but definitely on his terms. The enthusiasm Roberto brought to his learning and to both of his majors were palpable and I had the feeling when talking with him that he found school an exhilarating opportunity. He admitted that being a double major in psychology and health and society, plus minoring in Spanish, was “. . . hard . . . crazy . . . [and] I can remember I was in tears a couple of times because I was taking like 24 credits and I was working,” but he wouldn’t have done it any other way. “If I could go back, in one sense, I wouldn’t have done it any other way. But, if I had time, I would have added like, I would have been an econ[omics] major as well. So, no, like I really love my major. I’ll sit in [the computer center where students congregate] and preach health and society like to the freshmen. I’m always going on. I’m always trying to sell what I’m interested in. . . . It’s a really good combination.” When Roberto entered Ivy University, he had his sights set on a major in optics, a field that would combine his strengths in math and science. However, he quickly decided this field was not nearly as interesting to him as some of the other areas in which he was taking introductory classes. Over the summer, during the precollege program that was mandated by HEOP, Roberto had received his introduction to health and society, and he was intrigued. Then, in the fall, he enrolled in an introductory psychology class that opened his eyes to an entirely fresh way of looking at life and learning, topics that he had never been able to explore in his high school. These two courses, and the two outstanding professors who taught them, were pivotal in Roberto’s change of majors. Again, unlike Luc, Roberto was extremely fortunate to be exposed to two master and impassioned professors right at the beginning of his college experience. And once he was convinced that his choice of major was more appropriate for him, he found other professors who, through their obvious love of their disciplines, enhanced Roberto’s excitement about learning: I think if every teacher, professor could somehow convey or project that sense of like personal attention, like just, I don’t know. . . . If you have a professor who is passionate about

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what he does, he’s teaching it to you, his passion is going to come through to the students in the class. . . . I mean, you went to school for so many years for this, so this should be something you’re excited about. So, if you come up in front of the class and you’re like excited and, yeah, . . . this man enjoys what he does. He’s not just getting up there to get paid. And so, that helps you to really learn the material and be more engaged in the topics of discussion. Passion helped, but Roberto indicated that his favorite professor was also his most challenging professor because he challenged him to look at things from different perspectives. Roberto expected to work hard and was not overwhelmed by high expectations when he found the class and professor motivating. However, his biggest motivational turnoff was an arrogant professor in a required course who just made learning “boring.” Roberto’s good fortune continued when one of these impassioned professors became his adviser. Even though he, like most HEOP students, took little advantage of academic advising, he did visit occasionally when he had questions about his major. Other than that, he advised himself: “I looked at what people before me did. . . . Like my peers are very much a guidance counselor, you might say, as my professors were.”

THE SEARCHERS: SECOND-GENERATION IMMIGRANT STUDENTS TIANA (PARENTS FROM PUERTO RICO) It was no secret that Tiana had faced a number of adverse situations during the early years of college. Her first year was a harsh academic awakening, and her second year began with a semester away from school with her newborn son. I asked her what challenges she faced: TIANA: I’d have to say my constant badgering of myself. Nothing’s just quite right. Nothing’s just quite good enough. . . . L. G.: Are you a perfectionist? TIANA: Yeh, you could say that. I’m too much of a procrastinator to be a perfectionist. They sort of go together—procrastinator and perfectionist. But I just feel like I’m not cut out. All my goals and stuff. . . . I think if my self-esteem, my confidence was a little better, I could have the world. Yeh, I’d like to have that attitude and still be humble.

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In addition, she felt that she had received poor advice her first semester when the HEOP advisers had placed her in a number of challenging introductory courses, heavy on the science and math. “It’s easy for the [HEOP] people to say these are the classes that will get you well on your way for premed. Yeh, they will, but they’ll also make you very sad, stressed, and discouraged.” Her advice to incoming first-year students was to thoroughly investigate the best combination of classes and, “Be patient. Your best is enough, even if it’s not an A or a B.” Tiana’s academic struggles were not buffered by engagement in organizations on campus. From day one she had distanced herself from extracurricular activities. “None. That’s my vice. That’s the only thing . . . I took on a third full-time job. And, uh, there is not room. . . . I haven’t done anything.” With her son, it became more difficult to rationalize time spent on activities that were extraneous to classes. So, she ended up with no club, group, or leadership involvement which concerned Tiana, especially with the prospect of filling out graduate school applications and having nothing to list under these areas. She hoped to be accepted for an internship before graduation that might enrich her résumé and compensate somewhat for these gaps. Like many first-year students, Tiana aspired to become a doctor and to specialize in obstetrics. However, she quickly ran into a stumbling block with her introductory science classes and realized that she needed to consider other options: I realize that those classes weren’t my knack. Biology is not what . . . I had a really hard time with the first two medicine courses, the primary ones you have to take and I decided, no. I went a different route. Uhm, my major’s health and society. So, medicine is an issue of interest for me, but I decided that being a clinician is not for me. . . . And I decided that I’d take a different twist on medicine. I’d stay right in medicine. I’d just take a different angle. Tiana began as a biology major but made a judicious switch after experiencing her least favorite class, biology! She discussed her difficulty with this class and, in doing so, identified a major academic issue faced by women and minority students: I’d have to say biology is my least favorite. I did good in chem, couldn’t do bio. The professor for the first cluster of classes you have to take just wasn’t my cup of tea. The learning, his teaching style, was not, did not, coincide with my learning

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style. Three tests, that was your grade. I think I did better in chem because the professor was better—for me it was better— and we had labs. . . . I was failing the classes because of the exams. Terrible anxiety, unbelievable. Claude Steele (2003), in attempting to better understand the achievement gap between Black and White students, conducted a research study that revealed what he has called “stereotype threat . . . the concrete, real-time threat of being judged and treated poorly in settings where a negative stereotype about one’s group applies” (p. 112). In his study, Steele discovered that students performed poorly on tests as part of a self-fulfilling prophecy based on a threatening situation where they believed they were expected to perform poorly. Steele had previously demonstrated this effect with female math students. This research, coupled with Tiana’s previous comments about her lack of confidence, place her experiences with the introductory courses squarely within the realm of stereotype threat. One important step that professors can take to disarm stereotype threat for their students is to develop a climate of trust within the classroom. Such steps as setting high expectations and overtly conveying a belief in each student’s ability to learn and achieve these expectations have been shown to go a long way toward eliminating the threat that some students feel in a classroom. The environment created in Tiana’s English and religion classes made these her favorite courses, despite the heavy reading and writing requirements. Tiana credited these professors, especially in her religion classes, for allaying the anxiety threat by setting a personal tone in their classes. This was her description of her favorite professor: He’s brilliant. At the end of the last class, he gave us the class period to ask him anything we wanted. Like anything—personal, whatever. . . . You know, he was really understanding. You know, I’ve got a child, I’ve got things, you know, circumstances. Miss Extension Queen, you know. Professors are just used to me. You know, “I need more help,” and “I need an extension.” And he was just wonderful. Gave great advice with the class, you know. Wonderful person, that professor. . . . Yeh, and I came across one in the four years that really stuck with me like that. It’s terrible, horrible! . . . He draws on those experiences and he’s just, he’s cultured. He’s well-rounded. . . . Do you know how many classes I’ve taken? You should come out with at least one more, you know? I can say that professors were really nice . . . but. . . .

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If too few professors made the effort to extend themselves, academic advising fared no better. Tiana’s negative experience with being automatically placed in too many challenging classes her first semester made her resistant to seeking help from assigned advisers. Her strategy for getting through was much like the other HEOP students—she relied on word of mouth and trusted that she was following the course requirements mapped out on the Web site that listed the sequence of courses for each major. Tiana had difficulty with trust, and her early experiences made her even more distrustful of the academic advising system.

JASON (MOTHER FROM TAIWAN, FATHER FROM GERMANY) In contrast to Tiana’s brief advice to incoming students, Jason listed a lengthy list of tips based on his experience: The advocacy . . . the students create their own community. Yeh. That, come to think of it, was fairly helpful. Talking with other students. Students are just very helpful . . . take that class. . . . College is many things, but one thing it is not is a continuation of high school. Regardless of your major, there are few things/facts you will learn in college which you will immediately be able to apply in your future career. Instead, college is a chance to develop a mental skill set that will aid you throughout your career and life. Expose yourself to new ideas, new culture, and new hobbies. The undergraduate experience, at its best, prepares you to become a well-rounded person with a well-developed sense of responsibility to society. Thus, it is very important that you become involved. Take on a part-time job. Do an internship. Do some volunteering. Do not let your experience occur in a vacuum. See the world and all that is right and wrong with it; you can learn a lot. Also, remember that the habits and lifestyle that you choose in college is an indication of your life after college. Think of the person you want to become and model yourself after that. Above all, challenge yourself to try new things and reach new heights. There is no better place to slip and fall than in college. When we spoke, Jason had been out of college for a year and had obviously had time to become reflective about the value of college and about what had been meaningful for him. In addition, he had taken advantage of many opportunities to connect with the academic community while on campus. He was instrumental in starting up an Asian fraternity, and he also was the student editor for the minority student newspaper, a

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task he thoroughly enjoyed: “That was a great experience. You know, you had the whole pressure of the deadlines. . . . I tried to write a lot of my own articles, doing interviews. That was great.” But, even more impressive for Jason was the time he spent in London: “I went abroad, my first semester of my senior year. And going abroad really opened up my mind. That was my first time outside the country. . . . And it’s something that, there I really set my goals on law school.” Even though Jason was not involved in a large number of activities, he assumed a level of leadership with each organization. When I asked him if he enjoyed leadership, this was his response: Yeh, that’s something I enjoy. I’m not sure if I, if I want to lead. It’s very challenging. I think that I’m the type of person that I’m willing to accept the responsibility. And I trust myself that I can do a fairly good job, and that I could use any position of power that I may have later on in life, I could use it responsibly. . . . As far as leading people, sometimes I’m a little bit impatient. I think that was one thing that I encountered with the fraternity. That I had certain vision, that I had certain goals. And that’s the challenge of leadership. You should bring people along and get them on the same page. One of Jason’s disappointments in college was the direction the fraternity took after the first few years. He cared deeply about the fraternity and the community service it should provide, but he found that the central purpose of the fraternity slowly changed from that of education to a more social and, in Jason’s eyes, negative context. He left the fraternity shortly after returning from England. When Jason entered college, he planned on majoring in economics. However, he was interested in history and took a number of classes in the discipline. During that time, he enrolled in two law classes and found he enjoyed them. As he became more interested in a law career, he decided that history would be an appropriate major: “And a history major is just very relevant to law school—the reading, the writing skills.” As influential as the law courses had been to Jason’s decision to pursue law as a career, he gave the most credit to one of his professors, who became his most significant adviser, especially when he found his history adviser less than helpful: I guess you could call him my adviser because he was someone I worked on an independent study for my junior year. . . . He’s a former lawyer. He was a semiretired professor at [Ivy University]. My experience with him . . . was fantastic. . . . Because

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what happened, he would just terrify me. And I always looked at that as my initial training as a lawyer. You know, that exactness. You know, paying attention to all those many details. It’s something that he had the ability to do that I’d never encountered before. My God, this gentleman, how his mind works. It’s just amazing. And I have the utmost respect for him. . . . Most professors would let that go [less than perfect writing]. But not him. He would never let anything go. And I had so much respect for that. . . . We talked about law school. He told me things you need to know. You have to be so, you have to pay attention to all these . . . he was very forceful about these things. And I took all of his advice, and it was all great advice. It was something that, I really look at him as being a role model for me. . . . Uhm, other professors didn’t really challenge me the way he did. . . . I loved the fact that every time I would walk into his office for a meeting, I knew I would be corrected for my incorrect use of language, my grammar, my lack of logical ideas. . . . I loved that. . . . That really helped me learn a lot of things about myself and my writing. Jason’s comments reinforce the value that students placed on high standards. The HEOP students in this study were not afraid of hard work—they expected it. Tough evaluation standards were valued as long as the professor couched them in fairness and caring concern. When students, like Jason, found the professor accessible and knowledgeable, they were willing to accept without question the rigors of an elite university. If students found this in their academic advisers, it proved even more helpful, but this seemed to be an exception rather than a rule. Jason’s comments about his adviser were representative of many of the HEOP students: “He didn’t seem to be a very . . . welcoming person, to say the least. So, I didn’t have much interaction with him. . . . I couldn’t go up to my history adviser, or lack of history adviser, and speak about these problems.” Lacking an approachable adviser, Jason was extremely fortunate to make this connection with a faculty member.

THE SKEPTICS: MULTIGENERATIONAL IMMIGRANT STUDENTS STACEY Like Tiana, Stacey found the first-semester course load trying. Her recommendations for incoming students included:

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I know that I’ll advise anyone coming in, don’t take five or six classes your first semester, 22 credits the first semester. . . . Utilize the system already in place. Never be afraid to ask questions or to ask for help. [HEOP] is there to help you. Be brave. Be bold. Take risks and always challenge yourself. That is the only way you will grow. Most important to Stacey was to challenge herself and to access resources, like HEOP, that were designed to assist students. After her first year, Stacey had made an impressive effort to integrate herself on the college campus. She was one of the most active students in my research group. Her list of organizations was lengthy and here she speaks about the most significant: MSAB [Minority Students Advisery Board] . . . and there was no one left to pick up the reins. And so, I became chief coordinator my junior year. I’ve been doing that two years. . . . I got talked into doing so much stuff for that [minority student weekend]. Just dragged . . . they were like, “We’re putting your name down and we know you’ll show up.” “I don’t want to do this. No.” And they put me down and ordered the programs and then I had to do it. But I was able to do it and have fun doing it. It turned out to be really good. . . . Got to meet so many people. . . . I’m a part of the CDR [College Diversity Roundtable], so I try to help plan whatever goes on, and there’s still a really big gap. . . . I’ve done “20 Pearls” which is a mentoring program at a local high school. I did that all three years, just not this year. . . . BSU [Black Student Union]. . . . When we first spoke, during her first year, Stacey was soft-spoken and seemingly shy, something she admits herself. So, it was a remarkable transformation to see her emerge as a leader among her peers on campus. However, this did not come easily and it was not something she sought: “I used to hate speaking in public. I still . . . it’s not my favorite thing but I can do it and I know I can get through and do all that stuff.” When the leaders of the Minority Student Advisery Board graduated or left and there was no one in line to replace them, Stacey rose to the occasion: “So, I’m like, who is going to be president? Not me . . . avoid eye contact. So, I was just, ‘I’ll do it.’ So, I just got up and started in.” Like so many of the incoming HEOP students, Stacey had been prepared for a major that emphasized science and math. Her story sounded

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vaguely familiar, and her commentary revealed her inner dialogue as she reasoned her way through her choice of majors: Microbio’s where I wanted to go and I decided to do it a little differently and start with the biochem sequence sophomore year. “I’m going to try something fun, something I don’t think I’ll ever take again, freshman year: Japanese and stuff.” And then I couldn’t cut it with the chemistry. I had to reconcile myself to that; without a lot of tutoring I just wasn’t going to be able to make it through that class the way that it was being taught. So, I’m like, “I did it in high school, a lot of the same stuff. I was able to get through it and do great. Why can’t I do it here?” I was just so frustrated. I was going to tutoring; I was going to everything. It just wasn’t clicking for me. . . . Uhm, I didn’t know what I was going to be, but I liked health and society because it was different. It had all these different classes and things. “Well, I can be something else. I’ll figure it out.” I went through so many possible occupations within those two semesters. . . . I think that’s why, I don’t know, I only decided to add the anthropology major first semester junior year, just because I realized I had like free time because I was almost done with my health and society stuff. I had my senior seminar left. . . . It was so interesting even though it was a lot of numbers. It was the study of vital events . . . lot of population information and statistical stuff. Like Tiana, Stacey had to reroute herself when she crashed into chemistry, and she ended up double majoring in health and society and anthropology. She realized the combination was unusual, “I feel they’re completely two different things,” but she valued the skills that she was acquiring from them both. They were social sciences, but the health and society major threw in a healthy dose of science because it was concerned with public health issues. The science skills in the health and society major were valuable, but two of Stacey’s favorite courses came from her other major, anthropology. One course entitled “Theories and Debates in Anthropology” intrigued her because the subtitle was “Race, Ethnicity and Caste.” She found the debates very enlightening and learned as much from her classmates as she did from her professor or texts. The other favorite was “Forensic Anthropology”: “Absolutely wonderful! . . . So, that was one place where it all came together, that class, because you use the mental techniques to analyze the things that you find taking place.” One of her first classes, Japanese, completely unrelated to her majors, was something

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she had always wanted to study, and Stacey regretted not being able to continue on with it: “I was taking Japanese and that was wonderful. I loved it. But, I had to stop sophomore year. . . . And I was starting, at the time, biochemistry. There’s no way Japanese is going to fit in with that; it takes so much time.” Stacey had two professors whom she considered her favorites, one in each of her major areas. Their enthusiasm for their disciplines was infectious: “[O]ne makes me think a lot. He’s one of my anthropology professors and he gives me clear statements after I ramble on for awhile. . . . He gets it kind of straightened out for me. He just makes me so into what he teaches. It’s good to see a person that excited about what they’re here to do.” Her other favorite, a health and society professor, was popular with many of the students who I interviewed. I had visited some of his classes and knew exactly what Stacey was talking about: “Actually, I think I remember those lectures the most. Did he jump on the table yet? It gets them every time. And everyone remembers that one thing he was talking about.” High energy from the faculty was a real draw. Conversely, “boring” was the word Stacey used to describe her least favorite professors. To the list of negative descriptors, Stacey added “pompous.” I had heard students describe some professors in similar fashion, often substituting the word “arrogant.” Stacey gave an example to illustrate: “I think he really felt that he was doing something really good for all of us. . . . If you go to seek out his help with the topics that he teaches, uhm, he’ll refer you to one of the grad students. ‘Well, guess what? I tried that with him and it didn’t work out well for me, so I’m coming to you.’” Students were quick to discern when a professor was trying to brush them off, and the professor plummeted to their negative list. Stacey also resented the patronizing attitude that some professors conveyed when talking with her, implying that she should be satisfied with grades that she felt were beneath her ability. She described one of these professors: “Definitely an older guy. He’s been teaching here for a while. He has quite a few complaints about his teaching. He has quite a few, and he’s still here teaching.” Advising was another weak area for Stacey. She rarely used her assigned adviser and relied on the registrar’s forms that were sent to her each year listing completed courses and requirements for graduation.

DAMON Damon spent a considerable amount of time and energy strategizing his academic experience. He had a lengthy list of recommendations that had worked for him that he was eager to share with incoming students:

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I always do my homework before I take a class. I probably ask two or three people who have taken the class. Uhm, I get previous syllabi on the Web. I don’t just go into any class. I pick classes very carefully. . . . And usually, I’ve taken so many classes with professors I’ve already had because I knew how they were. And there were classes that I dropped just because the professors were horrible. So, I usually take great care picking professors for a class. . . . It’s just like picking a wife. . . . Don’t depend on academic advising. Use them as a sounding board. Find out what it is you need to do, but don’t depend on them for academic advising. . . . Believe in yourself as you believe in sunrise. Know every morning that the sun’s going to rise. If it doesn’t rise, there will be something terribly wrong with the universe. But you know every morning, that sun is going to rise. So, believe in yourself as much as you believe that sun will rise. If you don’t—you have to believe in yourself because, if you don’t, who’s going to believe in you? You have to believe in yourself. Damon was realistic about the difficulty of working with the academic system but always optimistic about his ability to control aspects of his education. He urged students to take control and not let the system just sweep them along. Involvement and leadership had been hallmarks of Damon’s high school experience, and it was no different at Ivy University. He dove into activities and became involved from the beginning. He would attribute his successful integration on this campus to his ability to maintain high levels of involvement. When I asked him about the highlight of his academic years, he couldn’t stop at one. Just about everything that he had found worth his time became a high point for him: I would say one of the highlights was being selected Student Association treasurer. I held that position two years. I started out on the appropriations committee and I moved up to treasurer. . . . Overseeing over half a million dollars of student budget. And that was, uh, gave me so much education outside of class. That was definitely a highlight. . . . It was so much fun, so it didn’t seem like it was that much work. I enjoyed it, so, it wasn’t really work. . . . Recently, uhm—in senior honor society, which is an honor society that [Ivy University] has, been around since 1924, something like that. It’s supposed to be, as they say, the “crème de la crème” of the university and the goal is to have these people come back and serve on the

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Board of Trustees and be benefactors of the university. I’m president of that senior honor society. I’m involved in that, plus the College Diversity Roundtable. Uhm, I’ve been in student government. . . . Uhm, I was in the McNair Program. That program kind of got me thinking about graduate school and my future, and what it exactly was that you wanted to do, because you don’t just walk into politics and become president. You don’t just walk into a company and become CEO. . . . And, uhm, I worked with a mentor on a project, on the Black Wall Street that existed. . . . I did a research paper on that. That helped with success. Damon was not content to just involve himself with the college activities. He maintained an active commitment to the community, one that began long before he entered the college: And a lot of this stuff, you know, outside of school. With the mayor . . . I’m a commissioner of the mayor’s commission on race and ethnicity. Uhm, still on the national board for the Center for Youth and Resources. . . . Yeh, well, I always try to keep my hand in something. . . . It’s very rewarding, very rewarding. Actually, I’m surprised at how well I’ve been able to balance my time. Along with this high level of involvement on many fronts came many opportunities for leadership, something that Damon never shirked. He found this a natural and eagerly anticipated outgrowth of his years of effort. He shared some of his thoughts about being a leader: Sometimes I like to sit back and let other people take the reins. . . . Dr. King talked about the “drum major instinct.” Everyone has that drum major instinct where they want to be out front, wants to be in charge. But, at the same time, that drum major instinct can go unchecked and lead to egotism, which can be very detrimental. . . . So, I like being a leader, but I think, uhm, you should be called upon. It should be something that people see in you, not that you just take upon yourself because you think that you want to be in charge, be on top. That’s self gratification. It should be something you genuinely think that you have the skills to lead an organization or the group to the next level, not because you want to be on top. . . . Everyone likes to be recognized, but there are certain

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people who like to be out front. And I guess I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was one of those people who like to be out front. I’ve always had a big mouth. I like to be out front. . . . So, I pick very carefully the organizations I would choose to be a leader in. Others recognized Damon’s leadership abilities, and he received a number of honors related to them. The local newspaper voted him one of the 10 most promising young adults, someone to watch for in the coming years. He was also invited to speak at the White House at the first White House Conference on Philanthropy in 1999. On campus, Damon was chosen as a marshal for graduation, an honor that would place him in the “drum major” position for his class, leading them into graduation, a most appropriate culmination of his years at Ivy University. Given Damon’s level of academic integration, it was not surprising that he had a number of favorite classes and professors. “I pretty much liked all my professors because they treated me with respect. I’m trying to think of a professor I didn’t like. I can’t really think of a professor who I just really did not like.” The qualities that he valued most in his professors included accessibility, approachability, respect for students, and fairness. Remarkably, he felt that all of his professors met those criteria. His careful work in choosing professors seemed to pay off. Damon was equally positive about the courses that he had taken. He was hard-pressed to come up with any courses that he had not enjoyed. Even though he resisted taking science classes, this is what he had to say about the two that he was required to complete: “Probably, physics or astronomy. . . . I had to take something, but I still can’t say astronomy. Maybe just physics, but, I even enjoyed those. . . . At first, I was like, this class is way too much work, I’m going to drop it. But I ended up loving it in the end. . . . I like the professor because she gave us way too much work.” It was hard to discourage Damon! The courses in which he had a true passion were those most closely related to political science: politics, mass media, party system, freedom of expression, public speaking. They had a practical edge and many of them connected with history by explaining how things came to be the way they are.

WHAT MADE A DIFFERENCE I began this chapter by questioning the traditional theory of academic and social integration as the means through which students persist in college. While integration into an existing collegiate system may be desirable for some, Luc and Tiana demonstrate that it is not a prerequisite

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for student success. In examining the factors that enhance student retention, Linda Lau (2003) indicated that students have a “. . . social and academic responsibility to participate actively in the learning process, and to adapt to their new learning environment.” However, she also concluded that “. . . acceptance by their peers and faculty members also help validate and affirm their capabilities in the learning process, and support their academic endeavors and social adjustment” (p. 6). For Tiana and Luc, neither their peers nor the faculty gave them much validation or affirmation. However, they were resilient enough to succeed despite this void. While Roberto, Jason, Stacey, and Damon appeared to have more success in connecting with peers and faculty, it was their strategic affiliation with culturally and ethnically oriented groups that truly allowed the type of integration that they found most rewarding during their college experience. Classes and “book” learning were important, but all of these students involved themselves in the academic life outside of the class and did it on their terms, not that of the institution. Stacey, Damon, and, to a lesser amount, Jason chose to be very active in a variety of organizations and even assumed leadership positions, while Roberto found memberships meaningful but not to the point where he was driven to lead. And Jason and Stacey took great interest in teaching aspects of their culture to other students: in Stacey’s case, in her classes; and for Jason, through the fraternity. Their integration was more on the cultural level than the academic. What we can learn from these students’ experiences are some of the factors that help a student decide to persist through the difficult task of four or five years of rigorous course work in order to achieve a college diploma. The three groups who share responsibility for embedding these factors into the college experience are defined by Linda Lau (2003) when she writes that “. . . institutional administrators, faculty, and students must redefine their individual roles and responsibilities, and work together as a unit to produce a meaningful and healthy academic community” (p. 7). The following are the most salient pieces of advice that the students had for each of the three groups: Students • Ask other students for advice when choosing professors, classes, and majors. • Be a support/resource for other students. • Find a community of students with whom to work. • Choose professors carefully and develop a relationship with them by allowing them to get to know you.

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• Remember your goals and principles, and do whatever you must to be true to them. • Discipline yourself to work and study hard. • Seek assistance, use resources, and ask questions before you fall behind. • Balance time and tasks between social and academic activities, but be involved. Consider part-time work, an internship, volunteer work, or study abroad. • Expect to slip and fall. Learning involves success and failure. • Develop a positive attitude and • believe in yourself; • be brave—be bold—take risks—challenge yourself; • never doubt your abilities; • do it for you, no one else. Faculty • Maintain high expectations but with support. Many students like structure and standards. • Show the application for the information included in your courses. • Be passionate and make course material come alive. • Respect students. • Expand the boundaries of your students’ minds and experiences. • Make learning as interactive as possible. Discussion is often preferred to lecture. Give students an opportunity to be heard. • Develop the students’ skills in the areas of giving presentations, problem solving, working with a group, and the communication of ideas. • Assess learning often enough to have a fair measure of achievement and to reduce anxiety. • Get to know students and show a personal interest. • Be accessible and approachable. • Be a role model. Institutional Administrators • Create flexible programs and majors. Students need to have options and to have the opportunity to change and grow during the college years. • Provide appropriate resources for your student body and make them accessible.

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• Provide opportunities for group memberships and leadership. • Provide academic advising—and then make sure it works. • Maintain reasonably small class sizes in order to optimize teaching and learning. • Hire capable and caring educators who are diverse enough to reflect all elements of the student population. Each of the students in this study crossed the academic bridge over the deep waters of higher education in their own way. Their success occurred through the interaction of the roles played by the institutional administrators, the faculty, and the students themselves. The students were able to take control of some aspects of their learning, but other aspects were clearly out of their control. How they dealt with both of these paradigms made a significant difference in their experiences as they reflected back on them. Taking control and accepting responsibility when faced with adversity are important factors of resiliency (Stoltz, 2000) that these students demonstrated, which allowed them to push through roadblocks that inevitably sprang up along the way. Even though these students were resilient and capable, the faculty and institutional administrators at all institutions of higher education must share the responsibility with the students for ensuring that all students are provided with optimal learning opportunities. With the hard work and intense effort that these students invested in their struggles to reach graduation, they all deserve to have positive memories of these critical years.

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Chapter 5 “ALL WORK AND NO PLAY” The Social Relevance of College

I tend to think that sometimes, when you have friends, they come into your life to teach you something about life and yourself. So, even if I were to graduate today or tomorrow and I never saw these people again, our friendship is still there because they taught me so much about myself and about life and about what friendship is. —Roberto, first-generation immigrant from Jamaica

A common misperception that is fostered by movies in the Animal House vein and other “cultural fiction” is that college is one constant party punctuated by brief intermissions of academic work. However, that’s far from true in today’s selective colleges. When I first interviewed this group of HEOP students in 1998, few were actively involved in social activities. And in 2002, when I visited with them again, there was even less social engagement in organized college activities. Students were involved at some level in activities of their own choosing, when possible, but one of the major tasks of getting through the undergraduate years seemed to be learning how to strike a balance between the academic work demands and the desire for personal time and social connections.

ALL STRESSED OUT During a recent family gathering in Kansas City, I came across a front-page article in a local newspaper about the dramatic increase of stress among college students (Carroll, 2003). After reading the piece, my brother-in-law turned to me and asked if this was really the case on most campuses, and, based on my experience, I quickly replied, “Yes!” The article provided comprehensive coverage of college student stress and concurred with what I see on my campus, as well as what I found with the HEOP students in this 79

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study. The article began by observing that “. . . counselors are noticing an emerging phenomenon: More students are pushing themselves to unhealthy limits as they struggle to succeed in today’s competitive society.” What my brother-in-law found surprising was that in one year, from 2002 to 2003, 82% of counseling center directors found their caseloads were heavier and that they were dealing with more complex problems. While relationship issues used to be the norm, the most frequent issues that the students now reported were related to stress and anxiety. Over the years between 1988 and 2001, depression and suicide related problems had doubled within the student population seeking help, and one can only wonder how many don’t seek help. While the article reported that 9% of college students nationwide seek counseling, the number is much higher at Ivy League and other selective schools (Young, 2003). A number of factors contribute to these changing and escalating figures, among them the competitive nature of our global society where working longer and pushing harder are considered the norm. The stress of suiting up for daily competition is compounded by the high expectations and perfectionistic attitudes with which students live, exemplified by the belief, “My grades equal my self worth.” When they achieve less than expected—be it by themselves, their families, or their professors— and the demands continue to become even greater, students are overwhelmed and view themselves as failures, even when they achieve at high levels that most people would consider successful. Also woven into this emotional dilemma are the families’ expectations and amount of support, and the financial burdens that have radically changed in very short spans of time. Financial aid debt and holding down paying jobs in order to remain in school are becoming commonplace challenges that hang over the heads of many college students. At Ivy University, the students spoke about a variety of stressors, and the most frequently repeated factors had to do with concerns about their futures. The students were at the point of graduation, and employment, graduate school, and the current state of the economy weighed heavy on their minds. The following comments provide the flavor of often-repeated sentiments: ROBERTO: I kill myself. I don’t know. . . . I need to have fun. Like, if I know I’m stressed out, I need to have fun to get my mind off the stress. TRAN: [F]or quite a while, I thought I didn’t want to go here. That’s because . . . it’s mostly because of the things that I do and the grade that I’m having. So, uhm, it’s a lot of downside

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of stress around that. . . . It is bad. That’s why I’m so stressed. Since the job thing is so low and many people competing. So, I feel stressed about that, that’s why. MARIE: At one point, I felt like pressured, like I couldn’t do as well at college like everyone. But then, I was like, “Oh, I don’t think I can ever do this.” But, uhm, other things have hindered me, probably—I don’t know—also my parents. They just like, the pressure, the family has always been a huge pressure on me, always. That always hinders. TIANA: It’s really depressing here. The depression/anxiety rate in this town is ridiculous. Everyone’s on medication. Uhm, it’s not a healthy environment. MARTINE: I’m taking things at a slower pace. So, I find time now to do things. . . . I feel I’ve done my time in terms of being involved on campus. Now it’s really time to just focus on myself. STACEY [referring to a conversation she had with some of her friends]: And then we started talking—I don’t know how we got on that subject one day—about depression. And that a couple of them had actually gone so far as like using university mental services because they got really depressed freshman year. I was like, “So was I!” But I never took that help. I was like, “How is it that we were all here, all going through the same thing at the same time, and none of us ever thought to reach out to each other?” I was just, “Aarrgh! All these depressed people running around!” DAMON: I just get butterflies knowing what’s going to happen because I’m anxious, very anxious, because I want to leave an impact and have goals to achieve. With the current state of stress and anxiety that is running rampant on college campuses, means of relieving some of this stress become even more important than they may have been for past generations of students. The six profiled students allow a glimpse into the social coping strategies that the students engaged. Through their experiences with extracurricular activities of choice, which often included friends and romantic partners, and through their constant negotiations with familial relationships, we see a tenuous tango of acquiescing to external demands and stresses while maintaining a sense of self and choice.

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THE PLEASERS: FIRST-GENERATION IMMIGRANT STUDENTS LUC Not surprisingly, Luc was as uninvolved in the social side of Ivy University as she was in the academically related activities. She went home when classes were done and she had finished studying in the library, and she was grateful for the refuge. She had no friends at the university, but maintained some friendships by mail with her Vietnamese childhood friends, and she kept in contact with friends she had made at her previous university. In addition to the absence of friends, Luc had no romantic experiences during college. She had one male friend at her former university, but it was nothing more than a friendship. Luc’s one personal activity that she identified was her connection to her Buddhist temple, although she did not become active with it until after graduation, when the academic pressure was off. Family life was extraordinarily important for Luc, and, in fact, it was the reason why she had left her previous university and enrolled at Ivy University for her last year. Luc was thankful for the support her family had given her and she wanted to be at home to help her family during a health crisis. However, her parents were so proud of her achievements that she felt compelled to find a way to graduate. Her parents could not afford college tuition, and Luc relied on the HEOP financial aid for most of her college expenses. Her older sister supported the family while Luc was in school. In Vietnam, Luc’s father had been imprisoned by the government after the Vietnam War, so she was raised by her mother and her aunts and had close feelings for her extended family. When her father was released from prison and they emigrated to the United States toward the end of Luc’s high school years, her contact with her aunts was maintained through a lively chain of letter writing. Her recent wedding was made even more joyful by one of her aunt’s visit to the United States to see her get married. In addition, her friends from Vietnam and from her previous university were able to attend. It was deeply moving for Luc. In keeping with the close relationship that her family shares, Luc and her husband bought a house next door to her sister’s family. She beamed when speaking of how convenient it is for her parents to go between the homes, caring for her sister’s children during the day when everyone is at work, and returning to Luc’s home in the evening for dinner and sleep. Their quality of life is something for which they are all grateful. Luc credited the support she had from her family for the good fortune she experienced after graduation: “I am where I am now probably 70% from my family. Education I think is about 15%.”

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ROBERTO In contrast to Luc, Roberto considered himself a very social person. He found few interesting organized social activities at Ivy University, but maintained a lively personal life that didn’t revolve around the campus. I asked him what he did to get away from all of the stress that he had identified. His response: “My friends and I, we just hang out and watch movies and, you know, we’ll go out to eat. I love to eat. . . . You’re in the gym all the time. There isn’t much to do here, so you just hang out and talk and, just watch movies.” It was clear that Roberto had developed some very deep and longlasting friendships while at Ivy University. He spoke of the value they added to his life: “I’m a very social person. Everyone’s my friend. . . . I know I’ve met some really phenomenal people at this school and I’ve been fortunate to have them as friends.” Many of his friendships developed from the precollege summer program in which all of the HEOP students had participated. Roberto qualified 10 of his many friendships as close. The friends had to hold some deep convictions in common in order to be counted among this inner circle, convictions that Roberto eloquently identified: I definitely have to say we have a common goal. Like we all, I know this sounds cliché, want to make a difference. We all want to make a difference and see if, you know, the impact it has on people. We just all want to do well. We know we’re here for a reason and we’re very hardworking. We’re very grateful for all the opportunities we’ve had. So, I think that’s some of the things I have in common with my friends. They value all the things that come into their lives, all the good and the bad things that come into their lives. And I think that’s just phenomenal. I have adopted some of their ways of thinking and I think that’s helped me over the four years that I’ve been here. Lucky the individuals who were part of this friendship group! This expression of appreciation for the opportunity to attend a university like Ivy and the desire to make a difference were themes that were repeated over a number of the conversations I held with these HEOP students over the years. As connected as Roberto was to a number of friends of both sexes, romance was never mentioned in our interviews. In fact, the romance file was one of the slimmest of the many files I kept that sorted the students’ answers by category. A number of the HEOP students did not find, and often did not seek, meaningful romantic relationships while in college. Several students

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mentioned that they were not mature enough to handle a relationship of this magnitude, and others indicated that the opportunities just never presented themselves, or they didn’t have the time and energy. This was a relatively small campus with a captive population. Rich friendships evolved for most of the students, but romance was not always a priority. One of the highlights of Roberto’s four years of college was his study-abroad experience that took him to London. There he met, for the first time, some brothers and sisters that he hadn’t known about before his trip. This extended family was a marvelous surprise, and he planned to visit them again after graduation. His parents were divorced, and his mother lived in New York City while his father remained in Jamaica. From both of them, Roberto received parental interest in his education but felt no pressure to achieve for them. Several times he stated that he worked for himself. Both parents, plus aunts and uncles, planned to attend Roberto’s graduation, but he explained his relationship to them this way: “Him [his father] being there in a limited capacity over the years is just like icing on the cake. It’s nothing like he’s half the cake, she’s half the cake. My mother’s the cake, and he’s just icing on it.” While he loved his family, he indicated that his college friends had been his family for four years, and he hoped that this relationship would last.

Other Pleasers Music, television, movies, and talking to friends seemed to dominate the social world of the Pleasers. There were few parties, and time and finances limited their range of social activities. Sometimes students held the perception that this lack of an active social life set them apart from other college students, as Panyos illustrates in these comments: [C]ollege student activities, I didn’t participate much in it because, I don’t know. I seem like, by the time I’m a junior student, I feel like I’m kind of too old for this school. I don’t go to party that much. I don’t know. I seem to be all by myself most of the time. Which, I don’t know, I think a lot of my friends are doing that. . . . I mean, the good thing, I seem like I’m more mature and, you know, have more time to think about my future, what I want to do. But, in a sense, after I graduate, I have all the time I need to think about my future. I don’t know why I spend so much time thinking about it before. I should enjoy my life as I’m in college. But it seem like I can’t really just enjoy it.

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Veronika indicated that she did have fun—parties the first few years on campus that died down to quieter activities with friends, but she concurred with Panyos, that she should have enjoyed her college years more: “I should have given myself some more leverage to have fun.” There were a few different social outlets that some of the Pleasers found. Tran participated in dance: “Yeh, that’s the most fun. And I feel closer to my inner work. I love that a lot. And my needs will be fulfilled when I do something like that.” And Clarissa was one of the few students who found value in a sorority. She had been instrumental in bringing a chapter to Ivy University, so it was a small group but focused on community service, not just social gatherings. However, it did fill a gap that she observed, as evidenced by her response to my question about the social life on campus: “I don’t think there’s much. There isn’t much. You kind of have to have your group of friends and do things.” Most of the Pleasers had small friendship groups composed of fellow HEOP students that they had met during the precollege summer program. Clarissa and Veronika’s friends had been with them throughout their college experience. Panyos had gathered a small number of friends from various experiences over the years, many of them Asian. However, his roommate was an eye-opener because he came from an affluent family. These were some of Panyo’s observations: “My roommate, he’s like, when people ask him something, he like two steps ahead of them. I’m like, wow, I’m like two steps behind them. . . . But then, I think, maybe that’s what set upper-class people and middle-class and lower-class people apart, because so many upper-class people like my roommate. . . . Have to be quick with people, seeing if they’re tricking you and stuff.” Panyos was learning many lessons outside of the classroom, picking up on the social and cultural capital differential (Bourdieu, 1973/1977) between him and his roommate. Tran, like Luc, found friends hard to come by at Ivy University. He spoke of his friends more as acquaintances than real friends: Especially when you’re into the university environment and, uh, you kind of struggle through it. I think it’s not about friendship that I’m looking for, but the problem here, or the struggle here, the challenge here is, uh, I need something that I haven’t found yet. Friendship is not fully satisfying and it’s, actually friendship is so temporary. It’s not permanent. So, I don’t trust friendship. The issue of trust was raised a number of times in my conversations with these students over the years. They were leery of putting their friendship in the hands of someone who might turn on them in this

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contained environment. A number of them had disappointing experiences when they felt they had been betrayed by people who seemed to be friendly. Most of the HEOP students were reminded of their “outsider” status in many subtle and overt ways every day. They either sought meaningful relationships with students from very similar backgrounds, who were more inclined to become trustworthy friends, or they trod very lightly and suspiciously around students from worlds with which they could not identify. Romantic relationships were equally puzzling for the Pleasers. Veronika broke up with her boyfriend from New York City soon after arriving at Ivy University, partly because he felt she was changing while she was away at college. She indicated that she had few opportunities at Ivy University to forge a meaningful relationship and that she was not actively looking for one. Clarissa, from a strong West Indian family, had not dated. Panyos had also struck out with romance on campus: “Maybe I’m just too involved in myself. . . . In a relationship, I want to be ready for it too. . . . It’s not my priority yet.” Interestingly, Tran, who had few friends, had been involved in two special relationships. He met his current girlfriend at church when she was a fairly recent immigrant from Vietnam. In fact, Tran indicated that he could see himself and his experiences reflected in her: “I look in her as my image when I first came.” She was planning to attend a local community college in the near future. I reminded Tran that in 1998, our first interview, he had informed me that Asians didn’t date. He responded: “It’s nice and amazing, and different experience!” The dynamics of family relationships for the Pleasers ran the gamut from Panyos being overprotected by his brother who attended Ivy University at the same time (“In a sense, I’ve been babysit.”) to a high level of disinterest in his graduation by Tran’s family (“You know, they just say, it’s good for you, not for us.”). Tran asked no one in his family to attend graduation. Veronika and Clarissa held deep attachments for their families, even though family members could not fully understand and appreciate the difficulties that these young women faced in attending Ivy University. But they would be attending graduation in full force—brothers, sisters, parents, and friends.

THE SEARCHERS: SECOND-GENERATION IMMIGRANT STUDENTS TIANA After the birth of her son during her second year in college, Tiana had no time for, and little interest in, an active social life. She explained that she

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could go out, if she so desired, because she had some reliable babysitters, but she was fully occupied with her son, work, and school. Without sounding bitter, Tiana acknowledged that her friends had changed during the college years. She identified two solid friendships that she had maintained throughout the four years: one from the HEOP precollege summer program and the other a suite mate from her first year. During her last year, she had connected and formed a meaningful friendship with another young woman from the summer program: “. . . it just clicked.” With the two friends from HEOP, Tiana identified some of their commonalities in terms of background, although she felt that they might be more stubborn and tenacious. Her suite mate was from a private school background in Brooklyn. Their relationship was based on difference rather than commonality: “She’s just that other side that I don’t have. And I’m different. I’m the ghetto thug friend from home that she doesn’t have here.” Although Tiana felt she had gotten past some difficulties in these friendships, she said it had been hard right after the birth of her son: “They weren’t there. It was a difficult time for me and I didn’t talk to them very much. . . . And you work through it. I’m not one to hold a grudge. They’re great people. I love them and I’m sure they had things going on.” In addition to her friends on campus, Tiana continued friendships from home: the Bronx. She described them as her two best friends. These friends also had babies, and they became a “young mothers’ club.” For almost a year after her son’s birth, Tiana lived with her son’s father in a nice two-bedroom apartment off campus. Her boyfriend had been a student at Ivy University but couldn’t keep up with the financial burden. He moved out when “. . . stuff got rocky with us. . . . He downgraded me when I wanted to do anything.” Tiana was dealing with a lot and described that period of time: “Too much stuff going on. . . . Great person, but he did nothing. . . . I did schoolwork, secured my son, and went to work. Day in, day out, day in. I lost it . . . a little mental breakdown. And we, uh, broke up.” Tiana’s boyfriend moved to California but remained on good terms with her. In fact, he tried to convince her to move to California with their son. Certain that was not going to happen, Tiana still flew her son out to California to spend several weeks a year with his father. Family was obviously central to Tiana’s college experience. In fact, when I asked what the highlight of college had been, Tiana replied, “I’m having a hard time differentiating between not putting my son into the equation. Uhm, I’d have to say it is—my pregnancy through birth. I think I, uh, learned a lot.” The birth of her son put everything in a different perspective for Tiana: “I put my son’s needs before mine.” Listening to her, I

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had to admire all of the adversity that Tiana had to overcome in order to complete her college education. She was a young woman from an urban New York City background who could not afford to attend Ivy University. HEOP was her financial ticket in and, after only one semester, she became pregnant and had to decide how to deal with this situation. She had little support from the elite university system of which she was a part. She decided to take some time off, “. . . because I was really getting big and, uh, gossip on this campus is gross and, uh, I was happy about my son. And I didn’t want to have anybody, you know, knock it down.” In addition, her relationship with her mother was not close: “. . . me and my mother are not best friends.” Her mother did move up from New York City with her two children and shared a house with Tiana for a short period of time. “That didn’t work for long. My mother is a difficult person.” The significant family figures in Tiana’s life were her son and her grandmother: “When I speak about ‘my family,’ when I make references to them, I’m talking about my grandmother (my grandmother in Florida), not my mother, not my father at all. Maybe some of my aunts and uncles. Those are really who I would say are ‘my family.’” Even though she dearly loved her grandmother, Tiana indicated that her grandmother had no idea what it meant to attend and graduate from Ivy University. It was evident that Tiana’s success in college had been all of her own doing.

JASON While attending Ivy University, Jason found the social life somewhat lacking. “Sometimes there’s not much to do. That’s the whole problem with the social life here.” The Asian fraternity that he helped organize was the center of his social activities on campus. Here were his close friends who he felt he could “. . . trust with my money, trust with my girlfriend, trust with a lot of things.” This was saying a lot because Jason admitted that from past experience he had trouble trusting anyone. He found this group of students worthy of friendship because they had a number of interests in common, such as their hobbies, their taste in music, their senses of humor, as well as their similar beginnings in the New York City area. “It’s like most of the Asians I hang out with, we do our studying, we get good grades, but, at the same time, we know how to have fun. . . . But I’m probably the most original character.” Jason’s comments touched on the myth of Asians being the “model minority,” high achieving and self disciplined (Chan & Wang, 1991). He was somewhat bothered by this “. . . because then a lot is expected and a lot of people just look at you in a certain way.” He found his friendships with Asian students rewarding but he freely admitted that he had friend-

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ships across many cultural groups. One of his most poignant college experiences was his break with the fraternity during his senior year, after he returned from his semester abroad in England. Jason felt that the fraternity had started to go in the wrong direction: [W]ell, what you consider to be the typical type of fraternity, I thought things were developing, uh, that way. . . . I’ve always looked at the pledging process as being very rewarding, a way of educating people; you’re preparing people to take an active role in the fraternity. . . . And that was deteriorating in my mind, where people were not making it a priority, were teaching people the wrong things. It was a difficult choice for Jason, but he continued to stay in touch with the fraternity friends who were important to him “. . . [b]ecause the quality people I did meet there, I still care for.” On the romance front, Jason could only express frustration with his experiences: “I’m very frustrated about the females here, the female population. It’s not what I expected college to be like. . . .” He had not had much luck in connecting with any of the young women and he attributed this to the type of women on campus. His perception was that many of them came from a significantly different world from his, one with wealthy families and lots of travel and other mind-expanding opportunities. Jason had an on-again/off-again relationship with a young woman from back home, but found the long-distance nature of the relationship difficult. The good news was that, once out of college, Jason met someone special through a co-worker on his first job. At the time of our follow-up interview, they’d been together for almost a year and Jason sounded very content with their relationship. During his years in college, Jason worried a lot about his family and his mother’s financial health. His two brothers led very different lives from Jason, and his mother had trouble keeping up with the financial obligations of the family. They had moved around a lot and suffered the pains of eviction. However, right after graduation, when he moved back to New York City and decided to live with his family, they were able to buy a house. Jason was enjoying the stability of the home environment, even the addition of a family dog: “Once we got Winston [the dog], that really was the cement that said, ‘This is our home!’” Jason spoke at length about his family, and it was clear that he placed great value on family life. Even though his family did not speak much about their feelings, he knew that they were proud of his achievements: “So, she [his mother] never really mentioned that she was proud

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of me or my accomplishments. I never really needed that because that’s something you just know. No, she’s always been proud.”

Other Searchers The other Searchers took similar issue with Ivy University’s social opportunities. Even if they were available, the students found little interest in them and felt like they were captives on campus if they lacked cars, which was the case for most of the HEOP students. When I asked what she did for fun and relaxation, Martine responded: “I don’t think I ever really relaxed. I think the most relaxation I ever had, I was sleeping in late. But with that came a level of guilt.” While Marie indicated that she found her art activities very relaxing (“It’s more like I do it because it relaxes me and I enjoy it a lot.”), these outlets were more isolating than social. However, she was one of the rare HEOP students who did volunteer work. She participated in the community service network on campus for a few years, but found it too time-consuming. But she maintained her service work through donating what little money or other appropriate contributions she could dig up to provide necessary supplies to other countries, like Ecuador and Puerto Rico. Marie’s social world included an active club life now that she was 21 and had older friends who would accompany her. Her friends included some students from the HEOP precollege summer program, but she had expanded her circle to include a number of Eastern Indian students, and she was perplexed by the negative reaction she received from some of her earlier friends. “I’m not going to lie. Many of the [HEOP] people used to be like, ‘Uh! You think you’re too cool to be with us.’. . . used to get stuff like that.” Even though a number of her friendships were rewarding, Marie identified only one that was extraordinary: “But the one person I could say I really grew close to is [Sheila], my roommate. She’s the only person I can say, yes, I grew close to and I can trust, no matter what.” The issue of trust runs through Martine’s discussion of friendship also, but it again comes back to shared backgrounds that allowed a certain level of comfort. The only friendship she had maintained all through college was with Tiana. She said that through their own “trials and tribulations,” they found that they complemented each other. Even though Martine wished that she had worked a bit harder on friendships, she had learned: “I don’t really necessarily need them. I’d rather have 3 or 4 good friends than 20 not-so-good friends.” One of Martine’s longer friendships was a boyfriend whom she had met within two months of attending Ivy University. They had just broken up at the time of our last interview, four years later. They were still good

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friends but they “. . . decided to take some time off.” He was a year older than Martine and already graduated and employed in another state, which contributed to their cooling off. Marie also had some romance in college and identified two relationships, one that had lasted a year and a half with an older student at another college. Again, the distance made it difficult and, in addition, it was Marie’s first relationship. She also dated a student who was a year younger, but when he wanted a serious relationship, Marie ratcheted their involvement back down to friendship. Social relationships had their challenges for the Searchers, but family made life far more complicated. Both Martine and Marie knew that their parents were confused by Ivy University and not happy that they had gone so far from home to attend college. However, neither of the young women regretted this decision. Martine stated that she came from a “restricted household” that had not prepared her for leaving home. Her parents saw her changing and didn’t know how to react. Martine’s family would definitely attend graduation, and she was looking forward to going home for awhile, even though she had some reservations: “I think my parents understand me differently now and I understand them. But, to a degree, they still look at me like a little girl and they need to protect me. . . . It’ll be all right.” Like Martine, Marie recognized this tenuous dynamic with her parents. They hadn’t fully supported her decision to go so far away to college, and they continued to fear for her safety. “They’re afraid. . . . They just are afraid where I’m going to go next.” Her parents had pressured her to transfer to a college in New York City because “[t]hey’re very overprotective. They don’t like the family separated. They always want the family united. . . . They’re very traditional.” Marie was the oldest child and the first one in the family to attend college, and, while her parents were proud of her achievements, they didn’t understand her desire to be independent. Marie appreciated the sacrifices her parents had made all the way through her life to ensure that she could have and do the things that were most important to her, and she was respectfully delicate in how she planned to approach her parents with her plans for graduate school and world travel.

THE SKEPTICS: MULTIGENERATIONAL IMMIGRANT STUDENTS STACEY Toward graduation, Stacey’s social life sounded on par with most of the other HEOP students. She spent time with her friends hanging out in her

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suite, watching movies and chatting. She looked forward to the infrequent trips back to New York City where there was a theater life that she could take in occasionally. However, this was not always the case. In fact, her first year of college sounded a lot like Luc’s, where they lived in virtual social isolation: “I didn’t really have a lot of friends freshman year. I had friends, but we didn’t . . . but I didn’t feel like I had friends. I just really felt alone. But, I have plenty of friends now.” A number of her friends were young women who had gone through the precollege summer program with her, but they had only really connected toward the end of her third year. From the opening comments about stress (see page 81), we have already seen that one of the things that Stacey had in common with this group was their depression. When they found out that they had all gone through this experience, it was a major factor that pulled them closer together. One thing that amazed Stacey about some of these friends was that they had not gone on a date while they were in college. “I’m waiting to see some of them have, you know, first boyfriends. I’m like, ‘How did you make it all the way through college and you haven’t been on one date? You have to go on a date.’ It’s . . . part of it is the culture that they come from. They’re from the West Indies, born and raised there.” However, this had not been the case for Stacey. During her second semester, she acquired a boyfriend who attended a neighboring college. They had just formally broken up during her senior year. At the time, they weren’t really dating anymore, but they had been “very, very close friends.” Stacey tried to describe their relationship: We broke up after going out for just about three months because we had communication problems that we needed to work out. And so we spent the last three years working on that until a little while ago. And it’s been—it was a weird relationship because it was like we were boyfriend and girlfriend, but we weren’t. It was just crazy. Interestingly, it was about this same time that she rekindled a romance with her ex-boyfriend from high school. He remained behind in New York City, and they broke up just before she left for Ivy University, primarily because they believed it would be too difficult to maintain a long-distance relationship. Stacey admitted that it had been “stupid” to break up when they did, when she still had feelings for him. And she couldn’t believe that she’d wasted so much time trying to make this college romance work, when she never really felt free to express herself around him. Stacey explained that she had “slipped back in [to

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the] same groove” with her “back home” romance, and that “I walk around smiling now!” Over the years, Stacey had reunited with her parents who had left her in the care of her grandmother for most of her precollege years. She maintained formal residence with her father and called her mother frequently. Both parents were planning to attend graduation. Stacey had experienced some major health problems during her last years at college and, at one point, considered taking some time off. But, as she explained: I always ask myself this question, do I want to stop and just let it [a health problem] be taken care of, one way or the other, and then just come back? But I keep thinking of my mom and my dad, and they just never ended up finishing. My mom, one semester short. One semester short! And I’m like, “Ma, why don’t you go back now?” Because she’s permanently disabled, she’s never going to be able to work. I’m like, “Why don’t you go back now, finish it up? You’re as smart as. . . .” “Well, I haven’t been in it for so many years.” I’m like, “Mom, you’re 39 years old. You’re not 50.” Stacey’s family had endured many hardships over the years, but Stacey had learned priceless lessons by watching her parents and other family members. A great deal of her determination came from her understanding of the barriers that prevented her parents from achieving their goals. High up on the list of issues for the families of HEOP students was the health situation. Many of the parents had marginal jobs that provided few or no health benefits. Because of this, the families experienced rapid descents on the economic ladder when one or both parents became ill or disabled and could no longer work. Deteriorating health, limited access to adequate health care, and loss of stable income only added to the stress of urban life that many families lived with day in and day out. (For excellent discussions of deteriorating urban health environments, see Jonathon Kozol’s books Amazing Grace [1995] and Savage Inequalities [1991].) In the face of these issues, Stacey forged ahead and always kept her goals of college graduation, graduate school, and promising career prospects at the forefront. She could confidently say “I believe that I have met all the expectations that my family has had for me.”

DAMON Movies were Damon’s favorite pastime, but, oddly enough, poker was another. None of the other students mentioned card playing, that old

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stand-by, at all. Both of these activities were shared with friends just “shooting the breeze.” However, Damon admitted, almost apologetically: And, you know, I’ve never gotten wild. That’s one thing I can say. I’m not going to have stories about getting wild and drunk and throwing up all over the place and doing . . . I won’t have any stories like that . . . I mean I’ve had a lot of fun laughing and joking, but I’ve never gotten drunk on campus. . . . I have fun stories to tell, but not wild stories. Like many of the other HEOP students, friendships were extremely valuable for Damon. He started a Black Men’s Forum, a social support group, with one of his older friends, and they maintained their friendship even after the friend’s graduation. Damon had numerous friends from the community surrounding Ivy University in which he had grown up. Through his activities outside of campus, he was in constant contact with many of them. However, two of his good friends were in the summer precollege program with him. Damon identified their common goal orientation and sense of humor as important elements in their friendships. He also indicated that they were “. . . compassionate in mutual respects, to ourselves and to others.” When I first spoke with Damon in 1998, he stated that one of his long-range goals was to become president of the United States. We only half joked about the realities of achieving such a lofty aspiration because Damon was positioning himself well for a life in politics. When we got around to the topic of romantic relationships, Damon joked that finding a “first lady” was a daunting challenge. So, when we returned to this topic four years later and I inquired about his search for the first lady, it was a pleasant surprise to hear that he had been seeing someone for over a year, a younger woman who also attended Ivy University and was a psychology major. He was making no predictions about the future, but was visibly happy with the current relationship. I asked all students about their involvement in volunteer activities. As first-year students, a number of them were involved with various volunteer groups. However, by their last year in college, most students discovered that they had little time and energy to devote to these activities. While Damon was supportive of work that served the common good, he did not participate in volunteer work, per se. In fact, he commented on how long it had taken him to convince his parents that they didn’t have to do everything for free: “And there’s one thing I learned: You don’t go to school for all that time to struggle. You can still help people at the

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same time and get what’s due to you. You know, I finally got my father to understand that after me being . . . for years, me telling him. He finally understood.” Damon had learned a lot from observing his parents and the service work in which they had always been involved. Damon indicated that they had given up profitable careers in order to serve their community and to be true to their beliefs. Damon’s respect for his parents and his older siblings was as evident in our earlier conversations as it was on the eve of his graduation. He had tremendous respect for his parents and appreciated their confidence in his abilities. “There’s two things my parents always said that they would never tell me how to do: what job to take and who to marry. And those are the two things that no one should tell people what to do.” His family was excited about his graduation, and even more so because he would be the class marshal and march at the head of the procession (harkening back to the drum major metaphor). He expected a lot of family to be in attendance, including his younger sister who had just completed her first year at Ivy University. His older brothers and sisters were eagerly encouraging him to continue on to graduate school. “They say that, don’t settle for anything. Just keep going. Do what you’ve got to do.”

Other Skeptics Nicole and Sybill had both graduated from Ivy University several years before the last interviews took place. In retrospect, their social lives had been fairly full, even though their activities did not revolve around campus. Nicole had been one of the few HEOP students engaged in volunteer work. She enjoyed helping at a local hospital and participated in an after-school program for youth that involved spending time with them each week. The young women’s friendships had been made early in college and, amazingly, were still intact several years out. Even though they had moved apart, Nicole’s seven friends reunited every year at a different location. Several of these were friendships that Nicole had made way back during the summer precollege program. And Sybill attributed getting through college to the close relationships she had with her five enduring friends. Because they were separated by jobs and many miles, Sybill had found e-mail one of the best ways to remain connected. Like Stacey and Damon, Nicole and Sybill had romantic lives while in college. Nicole began dating a young man, “my pride and joy,” who attended Ivy University for graduate school. At the time of the interview, they were living together in New York City. Sybill’s ongoing romance with her high school sweetheart from “back home” (an hour

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away) culminated in a marriage proposal at the end of college. However, Sybill broke it off when she realized they were too young: “I just realized . . . I am not ready for marriage. And neither is he. . . . I don’t want to be a divorcée by 25.” My question about how their families had felt about their college experience seemed to catch both of these women off guard. Sybill responded with “Good question! I don’t know.” And Nicole stated, “That is another story. Uhm, I just feel that they don’t really understand what I went through.” After talking about it for a few minutes, Sybill ended up feeling that because both of her parents were college graduates, they had understood how hard it was and that they were happy and proud. However, even though her family was obviously proud of her, Nicole wasn’t convinced that her family could appreciate the challenges she had faced: “But, you know, I don’t think they see that I really worked hard, and it was really a stressful time. I don’t think they understand.”

CONCLUSION Hearing these voices sharing their rather unexciting social lives while at college, I was reminded of a book that Helen Horowitz wrote back in 1987, appropriately named Campus Life. In it, she discussed the undergraduate cultures that had evolved from the 18th century to the end of the 20th century. Even though the students in her book and the HEOP students in this study do not speak in unified voices, many points of comparison lend an interesting perspective toward the understanding of the situation in which present-day students find themselves. In reference to the rather tame social lives the HEOP students have described, Horowitz found that as early as the 1970s, college students were having no fun. Formal dating was on the decline, being replaced by more informal gatherings. “When undergraduates stopped hanging out together in the 1970s in quite the same mass way, many young people found themselves studying on Saturday night. College rituals ceased or became dé classé, but appropriate new forms did not take their place” (p. 260). The phenomenon that gave rise to this change in behavior was an increased focus on career and individual goals. The realization that material well-being was not assured simply through completion of four years of college, but more through four quality years of college achievement ushered in a new sense of conservatism that Horowitz attributes to creating “. . . the harsh college world that today’s students inherit” (p. 262). She goes on to explain the “grim professionalism” that held sway over students on the nation’s campuses right up to the point that her book was

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published, and that is echoed in the narrations of the HEOP students at the turn of this century: Their four years are less a special time than a continuation of past study and a preparation for professional school. They know that the four years are crucial ones. . . . Academic achievement in college has been a significant path of social mobility throughout the twentieth century. . . . Collegians who want to minimize risk rightly see engineering, medicine, and law as assuring them position and income. Admission to professional schools has become more highly competitive and qualification depends less on your face or your father than on standardized test scores and grades. (pp. 264–265) The situation has not changed dramatically in the almost 20 years since Horowitz wrote those words. If anything, it has intensified as selective institutions have become even more select, and the competition is even more rigorous for admission to professional programs. The HEOP students describe a life that places them at the margins of the dominant groups on campus. They elect to live on the far edges of campus and not join the mainstream organizations and activities. Their friends are often chosen from a select group in whom they place their hard-earned trust, most often students from comparable backgrounds. Horowitz called the students she observed who described their campus lives this way the “Outsiders.” The definition for this group in the 1980s was expanded a bit from its origin back in the 19th century: “Outsiders today comprise a wide range of students—from commuters who work and go to college part-time to blacks seeking social mobility to returning women who need credentials. In addition, into their ranks have come a new group, the economically privileged in elite institutions” (p. 265). Horowitz called this group the “New Outsiders” to include students from affluent backgrounds who feared downward social mobility if they were not serious enough about college. The end game was and is grades, and an extraordinarily competitive and serious attitude pervaded and continues to pervade elite campuses. This has also primed the litigious contention over college admissions standards, especially as it relates to affirmative action. Horowitz was not the only researcher who noted the seriousness of contemporary college life. Howard Greene (1998) examined 20 select universities across the nation and wrote about many cultural aspects of elite college life. He quoted one young woman from Princeton, as she described the campus milieu: “ I dislike the fact that people

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are so self-absorbed. At times academics are too intense and people do nothing but study. We need more balanced people who can relax more and enjoy one another’s company” (p. 102). She could have been speaking for a number of the HEOP students. Beyond the narrow friendships that were based on trust and common experiences, the HEOP students ventured into romantic relationships in a rather scattershot way. The Pleasers, the first-generation immigrant students, had very little college romance. Tran was the only student from this group who spoke of significant relationships. The Searchers, the secondgeneration immigrant students, had slightly more success in forging significant romantic partnerships. In fact, for Marie and Martine, this was their first real opportunity to be away from home and free to make these kinds of connections—and they both enjoyed this freedom. Tiana had become a mother and maintained a long-distance friendship with her son’s father, although she had no romantic partner at the time we spoke. Jason did not find the Ivy University women very approachable and was disappointed that he had not had a girlfriend on campus. Of the three groups, the Skeptics had the most college romance. Several years after graduation, Nicole was still living with her college boyfriend. Sybill became engaged to the young man she had dated all through college, even though she eventually broke this off. Stacey worked with her “weird” romantic liaison most of her college years, and then slipped back into a relationship with her high school boyfriend at the end of college. And Damon had found a special young woman in his last few years of college, someone who might have “first lady” potential. Ironically, the Skeptics came from families that had the fewest stable marriages of the three groups. Only Damon’s parents were an intact couple. In contrast, of the Pleasers, Roberto and Clarissa were the only students whose parents had divorced. However, families held considerable importance in the lives of the students. Even though most of the HEOP students were far from home, they maintained ties with their families that became even stronger for many of them. Family support, placed on a spectrum, ranged from virtually no support for Tran to overprotective “babysitting” for Panyos, Marie, and Martine. Most of the students were treading that fine line between establishing clear independence and demonstrating respectful appreciation for their parents that involved some acquiescing to parental expectations. Upon graduation, many of the students would be living back home, at least temporarily, and were mulling over how this would work. Two of them, Stacey and Damon, held their parents up as role models, although for very different reasons. Damon saw how his parents devoted their lives to service to others and the sacrifices they had made to do this. He admired their dedication to service and plotted a life that

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would incorporate service as a core effort, but he intended to not sacrifice financial comfort along the way. Stacey’s parents had led very difficult lives that included divorce, drug addiction, and family tragedies. Through all of this, she saw them survive and attempt to create better lives. Even though success was hard to come by, she respected their efforts. All of the HEOP students, with the exception of Tran, looked forward to their families attending their graduations and knew that they were proud. They knew they had achieved something that would have a lasting impact on their families, either directly or indirectly.

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Chapter 6 STORMING THE BRIDGE Surviving the Challenges of College

I’ve met many people and I’ve learned from them. It’s like I’m not afraid to voice how I feel, how I want things. . . . Like, I remember freshman year, like of course, I was always shy and timid. I used to be afraid to like speak to the professor, you know. And to even like get help or aid from someone, it was like a mission. And now, I’m just like, if I really want it, I want to get it done. I don’t care. I’ll go to anyone. Anyone who has answers. That’s like one of my biggest highlights. —Marie, second-generation immigrant from Ecuador

When the HEOP students arrived at Ivy University, they had already been placed at a distinct disadvantage by the lack of quality and quantity of resources that had been available to them in their communities compared to the students from wealthier backgrounds. They had led lives that were filled with adversity of one type or another. Many of their families struggled at the center and edges of poverty and experienced numerous challenges and hardships that accompany economic disadvantage in this society. Some of these students, the Pleasers, began life in countries far from places like the inner city of New York (to which many of their families immigrated) and survived severe childhoods. Other students, the Searchers, were born in the United States but into families who were just getting started in this country and who were fighting to achieve minimal levels of survival. All the while, they believed that this country held vastly improved opportunities over the countries they had fled. The remaining students, the Skeptics, were members of families with generations of experience living in a society that did not openly accept or provide opportunities for them, primarily due to their racial heritage. These students of African heritage found their schools and

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neighborhoods every bit as limiting as did the students from immigrant families. Opportunities that were available in these poorer school systems and neighborhoods were not equal to, or even close to, those routinely provided in more affluent areas of the same city. This chapter explores the resiliency that the HEOP students demonstrated in the face of a history of societal adversity that was perpetuated, albeit in different guises, at the university level. They had escaped their neighborhoods but found other challenges at Ivy University that forced them to exercise and further develop what were already well-honed resiliency skills. This environment provided them with an overabundance of opportunities to employ resiliency, just not exclusively those that they came to college seeking or expecting. Educational resiliency of the type these students exemplify can be defined as the ability to persist and succeed in an academic setting despite the presence of adverse conditions (Waxman, Gray, & Padron, 2003). The concept and application of resiliency has been underexplored at the level of higher education. However, a theory of how resiliency is shaped at this level can be extrapolated by borrowing from a variety of research studies that explore resiliency at the earlier grade levels of school. Specifically, three factors (sometimes called “protective factors”) emerge from these studies that have been identified as enhancing the likelihood that student resiliency will surface, in some shape or form. Taking some liberty with the descriptive language used in these studies, the factors are (1) providing caring connections, (2) building educational competence, and (3) creating opportunities for participation and contribution (Benard, 1998; Krovetz, 1999; McMillan & Reed, 1994; O’Connor, 2002; Waxman et al., 2003). To these factors that come from educational research, the fields of psychology and human communication contribute a vocabulary with which to address student effectiveness when dealing with adversity, their “Response Ability” (Reivich & Shatté, 2002). Paul Stoltz (2000) identified CORE skill dimensions that determine the quality of response to adversity: control of one’s response to adversity, ownership or accountability for improving the situation, reach of adversity into other areas of one’s life, and the endurance of the difficulty. In the sections that follow, the students first identify the adverse situations they encountered while attending Ivy University and then discuss the factors that enhanced their resiliency and success despite these diverse challenges. To their narrations, the resiliency factors and response skills will be overlaid to develop a theory of academic resiliency at the level of higher education.

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ADVERSITY COMES IN BIG AND SMALL PACKAGES I posed three questions that probed the adverse aspects of college: 1. What challenges have you faced at Ivy University? 2. What were the most disappointing aspects of college? 3. What has hindered your success? These elicited the variety of adverse situations that the students share in their narrations that follow. Some of these situations had minimal impact on the students, but others led to more critical outcomes in the forms of stress, anxiety, discomfort, and general dislike of the university.

The Pleasers LUC. As a fourth-year transfer student who was still working on fluency with the English language, Luc faced many challenges trying to figure out the new college system and how to achieve to the level that she was accustomed. Her family was going through some difficult times, and she could easily have been distracted by her personal situation that was peripheral to her education. In fact, she felt more challenged than ever before in making this transition. To put her comments in a proper context, Luc’s family had endured countless and unimaginable hardships in Vietnam while her father was imprisoned for 10 years, followed by a grueling immigration to the United States under refugee status that resulted in their placement in western New York State, unable to speak the language and comprehend the culture, and without the skills to adapt to a climate vastly different from that of their tropical home. This is how Luc responded to my question about the challenges she experienced at Ivy University: Uhm, so, I felt when I went to [Ivy University] was the lowest point in my life. Because, transfer to a new school during my senior year. Changed my major and all that during senior year. And I survived [Ivy University]. That’s the biggest challenge. Because, uhm, financially I didn’t have enough but then I had to get a degree. I had to stay at home. . . . But, at the time, I was frustrated. I was very desperate. So, I didn’t really think if I could pass the class or not. How difficult it be. I wanted to quit school. I didn’t want to go back to school.

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Luc indicated that she only finished school for her family. She found her professors less than sincere and helpful—“colder” was the word she used to describe them. “Because of that, if I go back to school, I don’t want to go to [Ivy University].” Luc hoped to eventually go on to graduate school, but it would be at a different university. When her husband was looking at graduate schools, she warned him that Ivy University was a “very tough school.” In addition to these issues that Luc faced at Ivy University, we have already heard her discuss her virtual shunning by her classmates. Ivy University may have a fine reputation around the country and the world, but in Luc’s eyes, studying here was the worst experience of her life.

ROBERTO. Roberto, also a first-generation immigrant but from Jamaica, found Ivy University a less contentious place in which to study. Even though his adjustment was far smoother than Luc’s, he was fully able to respond to my questions about the negative aspects of this campus. Having four years of experience on this campus on which to reflect, contrasted to Luc’s one year, provided Roberto with more in-depth perspectives on some of the challenges. His main concern centered around the issue of diversity as he discussed on page 45. The perceived lack of involvement by minority students on campus was part of Roberto’s disappointment with his college experience. However, another aspect of being part of an underrepresented group on this campus also bothered him. In his chosen major of psychology, Roberto was one of a few minority students. What he experienced has been called the “fatigue of representation” (Goodwin, 2002), the feeling that one must always represent and speak for an entire group when the numbers of persons representing that particular group are so low that one becomes a token. Beyond the issue of minority representation and engagement, Roberto found himself working many hours each week just to support his existence on campus. He had managed to whittle his living expenses down to a minimal amount, but even then, he had no financial support from home, so he worked in various health care facilities during his years at Ivy University: Believe it or not, I work 30 hours a week sometimes. . . . But, yeh, I’ve worked two jobs. I don’t know how I do it, I just do it. ’Cause, at the same time, I don’t want to bother. . . . I know my mother has my brother and sister to take care of and I don’t really want to bother her and stuff. If anything, if she needed something, I want to be able to say that I have like 50 cents, or whatever I have, to give to my mother. So, I work those many hours.

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On top of a rigorous academic schedule, 30 hours of paid work is almost the equivalent of having two full-time jobs. However, in his own inimitable style, Roberto justified this as a price he gladly paid, with no complaints. He believed that leaving the university at the end of his four years owing only about $16,000 for an education that he valued at $120,000 was a great deal.

OTHER PLEASERS. The other Pleasers were able to contribute their own lists of adverse conditions with which they lived while in college. Veronika felt she had wasted some time and should really have had more fun instead of always approaching college so seriously. The rigor was oppressive and manifested itself physically at times: “I study until my head hurts, and I’m just like, ‘Whoa, I can’t wait until this is over.’ So, yeh, this is definitely hard.” Clarissa agreed that she had not always used her time wisely, but in applying herself to her course work, not to having more fun. She also felt challenged by her lack of skills, especially in the science and writing areas. Panyos found it hard to discipline himself and discovered toward the end of his college years that he was no longer interested in his engineering major. He felt a bit like Veronika when he discovered that engineering was “no fun,” but he admitted that he had chosen the major partly because it required little writing. For him, like Clarissa, meeting college-level writing expectations was a struggle. Tran voiced the most diverse list of challenges that he had tried to deal with, ranging from basic stress, to confusion about why he struggled academically after his first year (which had gone well), to not feeling comfortable with the campus environment, to family illness that had forced him to borrow money in order to afford a trip to Vietnam to visit his sick father. The college experience was filled with adversity for these first-generation immigrant students.

The Searchers TIANA. Tiana’s challenges were unique among this group of students due to her pregnancy, the birth of her son, and single motherhood. Despite the challenges inherent in this situation, her greatest complaint concerned other students. Toward the end of her pregnancy, she decided to take a semester off and she explained why: These [Ivy University] students are in a bubble. And now I’ve realized I can’t live with the gossip. I can’t blame them for it. They’ve got nothing else to do but to talk about people. They’ll learn. They’ll figure out that that’s not OK. I’ve had to deal with things that they’ve not had to deal with for years. So, you know what? I’ve learned to ignore those people who’ve got loose lips.

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Tiana was fairly open in her self-reflection and realized that she could be her own worst enemy because of her low self-confidence. This was evident in her fear of judgment by others, her lack of trust in other people, and her doubt about her ability to be successful, even though she had experienced significant academic success in a rigorous high school. On different turf, at a selective university, doubts continued to creep in: I’m going to say there are a lot of smart people at this school, obviously. But I realized that there’s people that are suited for those classes. I realize that those classes weren’t my knack. . . . I’m just starting to realize that I’ve learned a lot here. And more so that it’s really competitive. I’ve learned that out there, it’s really competitive. . . . But I just feel like I’m not cut out. All my goals and stuff. I have some nerve [applying to] grad school. I’m not like some of these kids here. . . . I think that’s what hinders me. I think if my self-esteem, my confidence was a little better, I could have the world. . . . Tiana was disappointed to realize that she would not be graduating cum laude from Ivy University, and she feared that this would negatively affect her ability to be admitted to a prestigious graduate school. She admitted that her courses had been more difficult than she had anticipated and, “I think I didn’t realize how dedicated you really need to be on your schoolwork. And, uh, how much more time I had before.” She found that the professors had high expectations, and she would get so frustrated when writing papers that she would cry and hit her head against the wall, “. . . but it’s going to get done.” Like Roberto, Tiana worked paid jobs for long hours each week just to keep herself and her son at a survival level of existence. She also worked in health care facilities and was more grateful than bitter about this situation: This is a better time. I go through better and worse. This is a little better time just because it’s TAP [Tuition Assistance Program] season. It’s TAP month. We get TAP back. . . . I don’t know if TAP really knows how much it helps us. When we get that money back, it helps us eat and live, even the people on campus. . . . I’m not going to be making money for a little while, and I’ve come to terms with that. . . . I’ve been broke this far. I mean, uh, I still keep myself. Even when the months get rough, I still eat. . . . Thank God for HEOP! My financing

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my education is a worry I feel very grateful for not having. . . . My intelligence and the institution acknowledging my intelligence has helped me get my financial aid. Tiana had also calculated the value of her aid and figured that her final loans would amount to about $15,000 for a $33,000-a-year education, a figure she could live with.

JASON. On the other side of the college bridge, out in the working world for a year, Jason looked back at his college years and also saw little to complain about. All the way through, his family had financial worries, and he wished that he had been able to assist them: “So, I mean, while I was in college, that’s when the financial situation was a little more difficult. My contributions could have definitely been more meaningful than they are right now.” In addition, he found aspects of the social climate that did not match his expectations. The fraternity that he had helped found on campus became more of a disappointment than a measure of pride, and his friendships were limited. However, he always returned to the positive: “In college, [Ivy University] gave me a great opportunity, not just academically and socially, but financially. And it’s something that, I didn’t have an opportunity at other schools, not to that extent.” Jason’s overall experience was much smoother than the other Searchers, as the narrations that follow will illustrate. OTHER SEARCHERS. Martine had struggled with the rigors of her classes and was aware that she lacked background in some basic areas like computer skills. She had discovered that Ivy University offered no true introductory classes, that the professors assumed that students came with a background knowledge for each class. When her grades didn’t meet her expectations and potential, she was disappointed and sought academic counseling on campus. The experience discouraged her even further: [I]f you’re doing something like counseling, your job is slowly to get to know me. Or even if you’re going by what you see on paper, there’s a face behind that name. There’s a student, for whatever reason. There’s not that many students. . . . I just feel it shouldn’t be just about a name. Even if they have no clue who you are, they should, I don’t know, take you for face value and see that you are trying. Even if they notice your grades are dropping, you know, crazy. . . . I think they should support you as opposed to saying, “Maybe you should take some time off. Or maybe you should do this.” Why would I

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listen to you in terms of your advice? You’re not stopping to ask me what’s really going on. At the time we spoke, near the point of graduation, Martine was on her third go-round with an economics course, with no support other than her faith that the third time would be the charm. As with all of the HEOP students, finances were a challenge, and Martine was also grateful for the support she had received. She felt guilty that she had let people down with her grades: And then I feel, it’s just kind of like, this country or just in terms of the way the system works, someone along the line, someone gets help. Whether it’s your great-grandparents, or your grandparents, or it’s me right now. But my kids aren’t going to be receiving a lot of financial aid. It’s just not going to happen. . . . I have that regret where I feel I didn’t perform. Because a lot of it is the fact that I felt I let the government down because they invested so much money in me and I wasn’t performing to the degree I should have. Among the challenges that another Searcher, Marie, listed was the lack of support and understanding from her family. She was still negotiating her relationship with her parents at the end of the four years. Other situations of a more academic nature had been trying, especially her attempt to create a major that would truly fit her interests and skills. The university encouraged students to create hybrid majors, but she had no luck in getting hers approved, even after receiving assistance in writing her proposal. In addition, she had difficulty working with some of her professors and tutors and decided that she was just too independent to work well collaboratively.

The Skeptics STACEY. Stacey indicated that one of her earliest challenges was learning to navigate the college system while dealing with the increased academic rigor: “The first year was definitely an eye-opener for me. I had always been the person at the top. I think I got lost in not having that additional pressure to do everything great.” That additional pressure had been her mother who constantly checked on her schoolwork and chided her for less-than-perfect work. Her mother was far away in New York City and had little comprehension of Stacey’s challenges on a campus like Ivy University.

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Increased rigor was to be expected, and Stacey slowly found ways to cope and succeed in this competitive environment. What she was not prepared to deal with were the myriad health issues that sprang up like barriers in her path all the way through her college years. Here is her description of this experience: But my studies have been kind of good, some bad. Uhm, I’ve just been on and off sick. Like every year, something else pops up. There was my back, sophomore year. Turned out that I have like chronic back spasms, so my back can lock, or go in and out at any point in time. I spent half of last year, it was like three weeks, with a pinched nerve in my spine. But I didn’t want to have the muscle relaxants because I wouldn’t be able to move. And I have too much stuff to do. And I don’t want to leave school. And then, after dealing with that and finishing that year, I’ve been having abnormal pap smears for eight months. I’m like, “OK, we have to do some tests.” And they did. And they found cervical cancer. After two sets of cryo surgery, Stacey’s regular checkups had been clear. However, her numerous commutes to her doctor in New York City devastated her credit card. And her health issues didn’t stop with the cancer surgeries. “I have migraines and I take medication for it like every day now. But before we were able to set up this medication regimen for me, . . . it had gotten so bad. I had one that lasted for three weeks, a continuous headache.” Stacey was put on codeine at the university health center and “sat like a zombie” in class. Her grades reflected her inability to function at 100%. The stress of coping with the physical issues and the ensuing economic repercussions had Stacey in a quandary: “Every year, whenever what health problem comes up, I always ask myself the question, do I want to stop?” In addition to the transition to college issues and the health dilemmas, Stacey found the incidents of racism on the campus too frequent and unresolved. The most current incidents, during her last semester on campus involved racial epitaphs such as, “‘Die niggers’ and all this stuff. Yeh. And the thing is, we’re not able to find these people. This school has no campus safety. Security never finds anyone.” With her health concerns allayed for a period of time, Stacey mentioned a few other challenges. Her college loans looked manageable and she calculated they would be less than $10,000. However, she wanted to continue on to graduate school and was concerned about paying for it. She also indicated that fear held her back: “My fear of

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the unknown. I let this fear keep me from trying things that I now wish I had, like study abroad.”

DAMON. The Skeptics voiced more criticism about social issues, particularly racism, than students in the other two groups. Damon shared Stacey’s concerns about racism and expanded on this issue: I would say the most disappointing aspect has been the countless racial incidents that we’ve seen on campus. It breaks my heart that racism is still so pervasive on this campus. Uhm, and a sense that people are so racist on this campus. And it’s been something that I have been, uhm, has been a really pull down. But then, I think about that, but then I think about these other things, and the good definitely outweigh the bad. . . . And the good outweighed the bad enough that Damon, later in the interview when talking about things that might have hindered his success, raised racism again, but not as an issue that overwhelmed him: You know, I don’t know any outright impediments that have been put up. I’m sure they have been, but I believe in working so hard, taking it up to the next level, that I probably overcame them. Who knows? I’m sure I’ve been discriminated against. I’ve experienced racism, but not in the sense where I let it get in my way. ’Cause if you do that, they win, so. . . . You’re only hindered if you allow it. Only you can stop yourself, period. No one else can stop you. As long as anyone is not doing anything physical to you, there’s no excuse as to why you cannot succeed. We know there’s racism. We know there’s sexism. There’s homophobia. There’s bigots. Being that we know that, we can’t let that get in our way. Racism, coupled with a lack of student unity on campus, were the most surprising elements of college life for Damon at Ivy University. “You know, you see TV shows and you think everyone has a lot of school spirit. I don’t really see that as pervasive and prevalent on this campus.” Economically, Damon was in fairly good shape due to the jobs that he had worked all through college despite the aid that HEOP provided. Uhm, I mean I work two part-time jobs now, but you know, if HEOP was not there, I would probably have to work twice as hard to get money, try to pay for that. . . . [M]y sophomore year, I gave speeches and I probably made about $5,000 for

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giving speeches around the country, but I haven’t done that of late because of these other jobs. Damon estimated that his loans would amount to between $10,000 and $15,000 at the end of college, but thought he was getting off much easier than some of his friends who would be leaving college owing up to $50,000. “So, it really isn’t that bad compared to other people. But it still is a significant amount—it’s a car!”

OTHER SKEPTICS. Nicole and Sybill agreed that the most disappointing aspects of college had to do with their academic performance in college and, as a result, their eventual changes of major. Nicole’s response to the question about her greatest disappointment showed her surprise at learning the level of student talent on this campus: “Uhm, I guess when you find out you’re not the smartest. Which, unfortunately, I started to find that out after freshman year. And that was really disappointing. I just felt, was I doing something wrong?. . . And that was really kind of hard to feel, I think, for a student starting school.” She eventually decided to change her major from math to the health sciences in response to her frustration. Sybill also changed her major from premed to health and society and looked back at that with some regret: “Part of it was my maturity level. I just wasn’t ready for the demands that were placed on my time. . . . So, that’s my biggest regret. I really wish I would have completed that program.” However, this level of rigor did have its payoffs, which Nicole discovered when she took courses at a New York City college one summer: “And the course seemed much easier. Much easier! Sort of like, ah, [Ivy University] has paid off. It definitely makes you work harder. So, I appreciate that, I do. I wouldn’t want to skate through college and come out not really knowing anything.” On the other hand, in order to stay in school, both of these young women worked at paid jobs most of the way through college. Sybill talked about working every year except her first: “I did sacrifice a lot. You know, I worked a lot and so, uh, it was hard. Friends would say, ‘Let’s go party,’ or ‘Let’s go do this,’ and I couldn’t always do it. . . . I’ve got to work or study.” Nicole also found herself employed more than she would have liked: “Things were really tight. And, I mean, they were so expensive. I had like three jobs. You know, and that I wish I could have avoided. But, uhm, I think after your first year, you know, when your financial aid decreases, things started to get harder. Then with family trouble also, you know. It’s like, you know, if your parents can’t help you, they can’t help you. You have to just do it yourself then. So, [Ivy University] definitely taught me how to be independent, provide for myself.”

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Both of these young women would be paying off their college loans for a number of years after graduation.

PERSISTENCE: “WHAT DOESN’T KILL YOU MAKES YOU STRONGER!” So far in this chapter, we have heard about the wide range of adverse situations that the students experienced at Ivy University. It is the rare college freshman who experiences no trials or tribulations during the transition period to college. However, these HEOP students had more than the “normal” share of challenges with which to deal. In their own words, they described their frustrations and adverse experiences. In my interviews with this remarkable group, I was struck a number of times by their refusal to let these situations overwhelm them to the point of giving up or shutting down. In fact, in their narrations of these challenges, a number of them have talked about their most disappointing experiences and have immediately followed up with a means to turn this adversity into a positive learning experience. This is persistence to the point of resiliency and demonstrates the application of CORE response skills (Stoltz, 2000) that were introduced at the beginning of this chapter. Several questions pointedly explored how these students were able to frame negative situations in such a way that they ended up growing through them. I interrogated the support systems these students utilized, including the role of HEOP, the factors that the students implicated in their success, and the significant events that they identified as highlights. Their responses were far from uniform and predictable.

The Pleasers LUC. For the brief period that Luc attended Ivy University, she did find support from the HEOP office: “[T]hey gave me confidence. They helped to push me a little bit. Not to back out of school. . . . [An adviser], uh, I came to her. I’m not sure I told you everything I went through at the time, but I remember I had some of the confidence from her. She pushed me. And she made it [finishing school] sound to be very doable.” In addition, Luc credited HEOP for providing the financial assistance that allowed her to complete her degree at Ivy. She also made liberal use of the library and found the Career Center marginally helpful. While she felt that graduating from Ivy University with a high grade point average was a measure of success, Luc credited no one else for this success: “Because I worked very hard for it. It was all my work. You know, I had nobody to help.” In revealing the highlight of college, Luc

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had little to draw from other than her graduation that freed her from school: “Most important—my main goal of going to college, to have a better life, that’s all. Which is what happened right now.”

ROBERTO. Roberto was grateful to HEOP for the opportunity it provided: “Uhm, just see, the funny thing is, I don’t really go to [HEOP] that often. But the function that it serves for me is just knowing that it’s there. . . . It makes me want to do well because I know that it’s all about showing that the program works. . . . I have to say I owe a lot to HEOP.” Having said that, Roberto echoed Luc in crediting his own hard work for his success: I’d have to say what helped me succeed first, is ... doing it for me, not having to feel my mother wants me to be a doctor or, you know, what have you. Or, “Oh my God, I have so much pressure from my parents to do this.” That’s the first thing. The second thing is you have to have the drive to want to succeed and I think that that’s something I have. I have the drive to want to feel satisfied at the end of the day, when I come home. At the end of the day, which is the four years that I’ve been here, to look back and say I’m satisfied with everything that I’ve done. In addition to believing in himself and appreciating the support he received from HEOP, Roberto looked to his friends to help him achieve a balance that would promote success. He, and many other HEOP students, realized the importance of the balance between their academic and social lives. He also played off the achievement of his friends: “In the sense that I look at them and I look at their achievements and I look at their failures and say, ‘OK, well if my friend didn’t do well on the test, well, uhm, I can’t let it get to me.’ Like seeing them struggle makes me want to do better. And when they do well, that makes me want to do even better myself.” In an interesting twist, Roberto credited a broad group of employees who had influenced him at Ivy University for his success academically: . . . the workers that work in the dining halls from [the city] who work here. I think, I don’t know, I can’t really define how they’ve affected my success, but they definitely brighten my day. I know they’re not really students here, but just to see them, you know, a lot of people of color. Even though they’re working in the dining hall, I think that that really does something for me. And then to see how other students, even students of color, how they interact with them.

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Roberto made connections to most of the people with whom he had contact, be it friends, professors, or campus employees. This skill, which has aptly been called a “cycle of positive reciprocity” (McMillan & Reed, 1994), enabled him to elicit a mutually supportive response from people around him that furthered his likelihood to succeed and feel satisfied, even when faced with adversity. He identified some of this ability to turn adverse situations back on themselves: “Just like what’s hindered me is not feeling like this school as itself as an entity is there for me . . . but I don’t feel like everyone’s rooting for me. But, that can be a good thing, in a sense, because you kind of like being the underdog and proving to them that you can do it.” Similarly, he indicated that he was quite apprehensive about starting college after a two-year hiatus between high school and his first year. It was harder than he expected, “. . . but I was just like, whatever comes my way. You don’t get more than you can handle.” With this attitude, it’s not surprising that Roberto persisted, achieved well, and ended up identifying several highlights of his college years. One happened during his freshman year when he participated in the successful protest that the minority students organized in order to have the campus administrators address their concerns. He also found his two study-abroad experiences, to London and to Mexico, extraordinary opportunities. And then, like Luc, just graduating was a peak experience.

OTHER PLEASERS. In terms of HEOP support, the remaining Pleasers pointedly viewed the program as a major provider of financial opportunity. If it were not for HEOP, none of them would have been able to attend Ivy University. For some, it enabled them to rely on minimal levels of loans relative to the high cost of tuition. For Clarissa, it provided the aid for her to remain an extra semester to complete her studies. And just about all of the Pleasers acknowledged the value of the program for connecting them with lasting friendships. However, Panyos perceived that HEOP was visible during their first year, but after that “. . . I go there, it seem like, I kind of lose connection with a lot of people there, because they’re more and more with the new student.” He rarely went back to visit, but he admitted that he did seek out his HEOP adviser when he had problems because “I have no one else to turn to.” Tran also talked about taking minimal advantage of HEOP as a resource: “I feel guilty about that, too. Uh, because, you know what? When I don’t . . . when I’m not satisfied about myself, I don’t go to see other people or tell things about myself. Like, you know, academic. If I don’t do well, I stop see[ing] her.” Tran also indicated that he didn’t feel very close to his adviser, even though she was “a very nice person.” He invited her a number of times to events at his church, but she never attended, so he stopped asking.

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Among the few alternate resources the Pleasers identified as providing support were the writing support center and the library. In addition, Tran stated that his physics teaching assistant, who became his mentor, was his major support on campus. Highlights also varied. Like Roberto, Veronika had studied abroad and considered these experiences the most memorable. Clarissa immediately indicated that her highlight: “It’s not going to be academic. It would have to be that I joined a sorority.” I found this remarkable because Clarissa had been one of the students most opposed to Greek organizations when I interviewed her during her first year. The fact that she was instrumental in establishing the sorority on the Ivy University campus, in addition to it being a community-service-based organization instead of socially oriented, made a significant difference. Tran also found a leadership role to be his highlight, although in the Vietnamese Student Association and not a Greek organization. For Panyos, the independence of the first year was his highlight. Unfortunately, it came early in his college experience and “. . . died out from there. Like a graph going down.” Panyos sounded like he had “peaked too early” and ended up enduring a dull and painful three years in an engineering major for which he had no passion. Still, he recognized the value of the credential and completed the degree, partly for his family and partly for himself.

The Searchers TIANA. The importance of the financial assistance provided by HEOP was underscored by Tiana’s gratitude for the program: “Thank God for HEOP! My financing my education is a worry I feel very grateful for not having. Because I don’t have it! And, uhm, I’ve got enough problems!” She also appreciated the support of the counselors: And the people in HEOP . . . were great. You know, they’re really cool. [The counselor] has stayed with me since freshman year, you know. I visit her as often and she doesn’t mind. I definitely feel if they weren’t here, if the program wasn’t good, or if HEOP . . . wasn’t here, it’d be different. Because I think HEOP does a lot to get minority students to come to college. If HEOP wasn’t around, there’d be 3 of us. Granted, there’s only 10 now [laughs], but there’d be only 3. When all combined—the financial aid, the relationship with the counselor, and two of her three college friendships initiated in the summer precollege program—the support of HEOP was central to Tiana’s success under very stressful conditions.

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Tiana was also quite skilled at maintaining her high school friendships in New York City, “[m]y long distance support system,” as she called it. Her phone bills were outrageous, but worth it. Because she felt her self-esteem was a problem, she relied on her friends to bolster her spirits when her belief in herself lagged: “My friends, they love me just the same. . . . Uh, to keep me remembering that I’ve done this so far. You know, they keep reminding me of things I don’t believe. That I’m strong; I can do this. Not everyone does. Stuff I’ve got to keep reminding myself of.” And as difficult as the pregnancy and birth of her son had been when it came so early in her college tenure, the true highlight for Tiana was this entire period. She learned far more than just what classes and textbooks would have offered. And she remained optimistic that she would graduate, although not in as high standing as she would have liked, and continue on to a respectable graduate school.

JASON. When other services on campus were not responsive to Jason’s needs, he found HEOP to be there for him: [I]t wasn’t just a matter of the actual finances, but the support system that was behind that. You know, that support system you can’t beat. That was definitely something that helped, yeh. . . . Having that support system there. Being able to talk to someone when things weren’t going so well. . . . She [the counselor] had me put things in perspective. That comes, that’s something you wouldn’t have necessarily. I couldn’t go up to my history adviser, or lack of history adviser, and speak about those problems. So, those things are very important. And, also, having not only that support system, there are still some students to this day, probably three or four from that program that I still keep in touch with. Having people that come from the same perspective as you. May have gone through some of the same experiences. That’s very important to have. That’s your support system right there. And you need a support system at college. Jason also voiced his appreciation for the financial aid component of the program. As for highlights, Jason identified “a laundry list of highlights.” His travel abroad experience topped the list, joined by his fraternity experience, his opportunity to write and edit for the HEOP newsletter, and his experiences as a history major. On a more philosophical slant, Jason

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ended with “It’s a very long list, but in the great context of myself, the highlight was becoming more open-minded, becoming willing to experiment. Extending myself to things that, without college, I would have never had the experience to do so.”

OTHER SEARCHERS. Tiana and Jason relied more on HEOP for support than any of the Pleasers. However, other Searchers appreciated HEOP but made less use of it. Both Martine and Marie felt that they had underutilized the services of the program because they were not ready to hear what the counselors had to tell them. As Martine indicated, she had to “. . . hit rock bottom in order for me to pull myself out of the situation and realize for myself.” Both of these young women were occupied in establishing their individual identities, separate from the strong familial roles that had been strictly reinforced at home. Frequently, Latinas are culturally consigned the role of marianismo, which has been described as a family-centered ideal, with the Virgin Mary as “. . . the model of chasteness, fruitfulness, and faithfulness” (Carrasquillo & Sanchez-Korrol, 1996, p. 106). Young women are expected to conform to traditional, dependent female roles. To move away from this model, while not openly rebelling against their families, was a daunting task. But the Latinas in this study, by virtue of their distance away from their families, were developing strong and independent identities. The challenges of this struggle for an independent self came through in the narrations of Marie, in the introduction to this chapter, and Martine, in the following: It’s been tough, though . . . like I couldn’t really speak up in class. I felt just like I was intimidated. [I transferred to public university for a year] and I was sitting in some political science courses, and they didn’t assume necessarily that you knew. So I found, all of a sudden I found that I had a voice. I felt I can participate. And I learned certain things I was missing over here. And I came back. It makes more sense now. Within smaller classes and with opportunities for discussion, these young women found the proving ground for their emerging vision of themselves, as independent and strong. Marie commented that in college she had learned to become more open-minded and confident in the stands that she takes: “My final decision, I do it myself and I like, analyze things different. I try to like criticize the bad, the good, the consequences, the advantages.” Martine also felt that her ability to appreciate different

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perspectives had improved and enhanced her ability to make her point: “OK, I see why you may feel this way, but let me explain why I feel this way. Now I think it through and keep myself more calm, as opposed to crying and being really passionate, where my argument loses value.” These opportunities for growth and maturity were the college highlights for these young women. However, one of the most poignant and saddest expressions of a highlight that I heard came from Martine when she was discussing comments she made in a class during her last semester: And I said something and he [the professor] was like, “Great. Excellent point.” And I think that was the highlight. I think it was all the years of college, that’s what I wanted, for a professor to say, “That’s an excellent point,” in front of the class after other students have said certain things and maybe he wasn’t looking for that. And it took four years in order to reach that. . . .

The Skeptics STACEY. Frustration often drove students to visit the HEOP office. Stacey felt that she tried to utilize a variety of support services, including tutoring, but would end up talking with a HEOP counselor when nothing else seemed to help. HEOP played an important role in her success at college: “It provided that support structure that was there to help even when I wouldn’t necessarily admit that I needed help.” Stacey stated that in her last years at Ivy University, she stopped into the HEOP office several times a week, sometimes just to say “Hi!” All of her “true” friends were students she met in the summer precollege program. Stacey credited the support of her friends, family, and HEOP for her success. When I first interviewed Stacey, back during her freshman year, she was the most soft-spoken and demure student I interviewed. As a graduating senior, she presented a vastly different face to the world. Through her growing level of activity and composure in front of groups, Stacey had become a leader in a number of campus organizations. This level of engagement and visibility landed her the privilege of having dinner with Julian Bond when he spoke on the campus. She described this as the highlight of her college experience: “And I was kind of proud that I didn’t stutter or anything, or just start laughing like uncontrollably. . . . That whole program turned out really well. And that I was able to just get through it and not let my fear of public things keep me from actually going through with

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everything I had to do.” Even though Stacey still described herself as a frightened young woman inside, she assumed a level of responsibility and a posture of assurance that made others rely on her for leadership.

DAMON. Friendship and financial assistance were the things that Damon found most beneficial about HEOP. “Well, I would say it helped offset the cost, period. That’s been very important. Uhm, I mean I work two part-time jobs now, but, you know, if HEOP was not there, I would probably have to work twice as hard to get money, try to pay for that.” Two close friends were HEOP students with whom Damon expected to stay in contact. Damon did not use HEOP as a source of support on campus, but he indicated that he already had a strong support system. Besides family, friends, and God, he identified a list of heroes that included Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Earl Graves. Damon was one of the few students who identified heroes. Most students found role models within their inner circle of relationships, friends, and family members, and sometimes an academic professional. Like Stacey, Damon had been actively involved in a number of organizations and activities. Therefore, his list of highlights was lengthy. It far outstripped his list of negative experiences at Ivy University. Leadership positions, community jobs and activities, speaking at the White House, introducing Julian Bond as a speaker, and the honor of being the marshal who led his graduating class during the graduation ceremony were the most significant events that Damon identified. Damon exuded a confidence that most things were possible, even becoming the president of the United States, if you seriously wanted them. OTHER SKEPTICS. Nicole and Sybill valued HEOP, but in different ways. Nicole had several long-lasting friendships with HEOP students, and she developed a strong relationship with her HEOP counselor: “He’s wonderful! My roommate and I, we’ve always joked, “‘You know, he’s like a father figure.’” He’s really genuine and sincere. . . . If I had problems, I always go to him. And, you know, he made you feel like he had that open-door policy.” Sybill found the precollege summer program so valuable that she became a peer assistant for the program the next summer. However, her affiliation with HEOP was quite unlike Nicole’s description that follows: That’s funny. I never considered myself a HEOP student. I mean, not consider myself, but HEOP wasn’t a driving force

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besides the summer program, which I think was great. Even if I wasn’t a HEOP student, I would have liked to have attended. . . . I can’t really say that HEOP was a force in my life. They provided some financial assistance and that was great. . . . I think HEOP is geared toward getting you through that first hump, that first semester of freshman year. And once that’s done, you’re kind of on your own. Leadership was at the top of Nicole’s list of highlights at college. Even though it was a lot of work, her year as president of a Black student organization provided her with many benefits: “I got a lot of exposure, uhm, public-speaking skills, being comfortable talking in large groups, to large groups, putting together programs. . . . [T]hat experience I think I took on to my job.” After thinking for a few minutes, Sybill identified her acceptance into graduate school as her proudest moment because “. . . it was an accumulation of everything I worked for.” In addition, Sybill indicated that her friendships had been invaluable and that she wouldn’t have made it through college without them.

ACADEMIC RESILIENCE To nudge along the theory building around academic resiliency in higher education, this section will tie the pieces of the students’ experiences and narrations together into a framework, a cycle of resiliency, that helps explain the likelihood that students will meet adversity with resilience. What we have seen and heard through these students’ eyes and voices expand the limited understanding we have about how college students engage in the praxis (Freire, 1970/1995) of resilience, that is, the transformative action that is evident in their responses. They don’t just talk about adversity or “bounce back” from challenges; they move through it and use it to propel them to higher levels of achievement. The cycle of resiliency developed from a convergence of numerous theories of human identity development. In discussing the components, I weave together four strands: (1) the narrated experiences of the HEOP students; (2) theories of resiliency coming from the disciplines of psychology and social work, exemplified by Glenn Richardson’s (2002) metatheory of resiliency; (3) frameworks from pop psychology, aimed at general public accessibility, and specifically found in the work of Karen Reivich and Andrew Shatté (2002) and Paul Stoltz (2000); and (4) sociological theory, including fruitful work from Carol Lee, Margaret Spencer, and Vinay Harpalani (2003) that explored the cultural strengths of marginalized youth groups, Carla O’Connor (1997) in her case analysis of

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the struggle of African American high school students, and Paolo Freire (1970/1995) in his classic text on emancipatory education. Each strand contributes valuable perspectives to this dynamic concept of resiliency. Most simply, the cycle of resiliency that evolved from this work looks like this: (1) Adversity → (2) Climate → (3) Awareness → (4) Response → (5) Resiliency Each of these pieces is a critical part of the cycle that leads to a resilient response. The entire cycle may be over in a matter of seconds, or it may take the better part of a lifetime to resolve, depending on the nature of the adversity. What follows is an elaboration of each of these parts of the process with examples from the HEOP participants.

(1) Adversity Without an adverse event, there would be no need for a resilient response. However, as the HEOP students talked, it became clear that they had ample examples of adversity to deal with at Ivy University, and these were thoroughly identified in the preceding chapters. Adversity can be external, such as issues around classes, professors, financial aid, or relationships. It can also be internal, driven by worry and perceptions of stress or other negative thoughts. Not all adverse situations are equally serious, and the quantity of adverse events that need to be dealt with at any time also fluctuates. Also, the perception of adversity depends on one’s situational context. What became issues for Latina students in dealing with family expectations, were nonissues for some of the other students who distanced themselves more readily from family expectations.

(2) Climate The climate that is developed within the learning environment depends greatly on the presence of the three protective factors that were identified at the beginning of the chapter. The more evident these factors are, the more likely the students can engage the needed level of resiliency to deal with adversity. Examples of each of these factors follow.

PROVIDING CARING CONNECTIONS. The HEOP students responded most favorably to those academic professionals who were able to provide some type of caring connection, be it in the classroom

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or in an advising capacity. What they looked for, and what is also identified in the research literature (Benard, 1998; McMillan & Reed, 1994; Waxman et al., 2003), were people who showed these attributes: support, respect, compassion, the willingness and ability to listen, validation of the student, the ability to refrain from judging, and the capacity to be a role model for resiliency. When the HEOP adviser didn’t respond to Tran’s numerous invitations to special activities at his church, he doubted her sincerity and was less inclined to consider her a supportive resource even when he needed assistance. However, Tiana found a friendly ear when she dropped in on her adviser, which was frequently, and viewed this relationship as a significant support during her extraordinarily challenging times.

BUILDING EDUCATIONAL COMPETENCE. Becoming more competent as a student was a central theme in these students’ narrations. They valued the social opportunities that college provided, but they sought a cuttingedge education that would position them well in their future pursuits. Nicole appreciated that Ivy University had been rigorous enough in its academic demands that she had become a capable and competent graduate, already employed and with a promising future. The students held high expectations for themselves and believed in their innate abilities to learn and excel. What they required were professors who also believed in them and could challenge them as well as provide support for their academic efforts. Professors who structured learning environments that focused on the students’ strengths and provided opportunities for students to challenge themselves and others were well received. Jason relished the critiquing of his work by an esteemed professor who constantly pressured him to perform at higher levels. This professor gave of his time and clearly communicated his interest. These students did not seek a watered-down curriculum and lowered expectations. They wanted to be in the center of the educational fray, but with the resources and support, including positive feedback from professors, that would ensure their success. CREATING OPPORTUNITIES FOR PARTICIPATION AND CONTRIBUTION. During their college years, the HEOP students appreciated the classes and activities that allowed them to interact with others and to develop a critical consciousness (Freire’s “conscientização,” 1970/1995, p. 17). Several of the students spoke of finding their voices, being able to express their opinions and to be heard and valued. The professors who provided immediate and frequent feedback enabled these students to learn and grow at faster rates, with grades used as a reality check to monitor how their learning was being received. Poor grades were viewed

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as temporary setbacks, and through these types of adverse situations, the HEOP students became more determined and more resilient. In addition, “required helpfulness” (Benard & Marshall, 1997; McMillan & Reed, 1994, Waxman et al., 2003) had been a part of these students’ upbringing. They had been expected to provide care for family members, to complete chores, and to work while attending school. These were students who had a strong sense of responsibility and of the importance of giving back. Opportunities at college to help others and to become engaged in the larger purposes of life were generally embraced. Only a few of the students chose not to participate in organizations and leadership positions. And the organizations that provided some type of recognizable service were the most attractive. Clarissa and Jason detested the Greek organizations on campus until they initiated a sorority and a fraternity, both service based. Stacey and Damon gravitated to numerous activities and organizations that allowed them to feel like they were making a substantial contribution to their fellow students. The more the learning environment contains these three factors and the more frequently the students experience them, the more likely they will progress to the third part of the resiliency process.

(3) Awareness At this point, students become keenly aware of structural limits within the institutional setting that conspire to restrict their ability to move forward, be it unfair treatment, covert disrespect, or overt harassment. The students penetrate (Willis, 1977) the significance of the source and severity of the adversity and accept the need for change—within themselves, the system, or both. When Roberto’s credibility as a teaching assistant was called into question by students in the class, he understood that it came from their assumptions about the ability of Black students in general and not their personal knowlege of his ability. This perception that many White students assumed that all Black students on campus came in through affirmative action and were less able scholars was reiterated by Stacey when she spoke of her annoyance with a White male classmate who took pleasure in taunting her in class, putting her on the spot as the sole representative of the Black female perspective, and then finding that perspective lacking. The students developed conarratives (O’Connor, 1997), a critical consciousness, that enabled them to understand how race/ethnicity, class, and gender could be used to negatively affect their opportunities, to hold them back. The level of the students’ ability to penetrate the adverse situation, determines the strength and appropriateness of their response.

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(4) Response to Adversity Once the students begin to penetrate the systemic and contextual sources of adversity, they enter into the response phase, where they have to decide how to cope. Their “response ability” (Reivich & Shatté, 2002) stems from the decisions they make while going through their CORE skills (control, ownership, reach, and endurance as identified by Stoltz, 2000). Damon articulated the presence of structured inequalities, such as racism, sexism, and other derogatory positions, that surrounded HEOP students every day (penetrated the adversity), and while not condoning them, stated that he was not going to let them prevent him from attaining his goals. “As long as they don’t kill you. . . . ” These students maintained an upward-mobility orientation (O’Connor, 1997) that was reinforced by their academic and social accomplishments on this campus. Additionally, within their backgrounds, they had ample practice with struggle and adversity and had experienced success in moving through and beyond them. They were not powerless, and they drew on their individual strengths, as well as their collective agency. Their membership in culturally based groups shored up their collective power to take control of their academic experience. They readily accepted that they had a role to play in improving the environment of Ivy University, its receptiveness and inclusion of underrepresented groups, thus taking ownership of their shared accountability. They participated in the diversity roundtable and campus events. The sit-in was also a demonstration of collective agency. The reach of negative situations was minimized in the students’ claims that adverse situations would not prevent them from reaching their academic goals. Stacey admitted to being depressed her first year, but threw herself into greater involvement with her studies and campus groups. Just because she had some academic and adjustment struggles did not mean she was a failure in all aspects of her life. The students maintained an optimism that most of the adversities they faced were short term—a class, a professor—that would be over soon or that they would find a means to deal with more effectively. Adversities would not endure and continue to impede their progress. These students believed in themselves and in the power of collective action. Their behaviors and actions had transformative power, the praxis (Freire, 1970/1995) that is central to change, on an individual or systemic level. Glenn Richardson (2002) calls this response process “[r]esilient reintegration . . . the reintegrative or coping process that results in growth, knowledge, self-understanding, and increased strength of resilient qualities” (p. 310). He and others believe that all humans possess “an innate

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self-righting mechanism” (Werner & Smith, 1992, as quoted in Richardson, 2002, p. 313), and he acknowledges that there are healthy as well as dysfunctional responses. Only the healthy responses are resilient and lead to growth.

(5) Resiliency The more cycles a student goes through, the stronger and more automatic the response becomes to further adversities, leading to situational resiliency, responses to a particular adversity, as well as sustaining resiliency, that ability to believe one will surmount just about anything that has the potential to become a barrier. In essence, the person develops cultural capital (Lee, Spencer, & Harpalani, 2003) that will be invested in future adversities. Similar to Carla O’Connor’s (1997) conclusions, the awareness that the HEOP students voiced about restraints that they identified in their academic environment led them to engage in a praxis of “effort optimism” (p. 624), an enhancement of their academic effort. Like O’Connor, my findings are contrary to John Ogbu’s (1991) contention that Black students’ cultural frame of reference conditions them to view academic success as “acting White” and, therefore, something to devalue or hide. Quite the opposite, the HEOP students took pride in their cultures and also sought academic success and fairness. Their resiliency in this environment enhanced, not threatened, their identities. The cycle of resiliency impacts identity formation when viewed as one of the “. . . dynamic processes that continue throughout the life span as individuals balance new risks against protective factors, encounter new stressors (potentially offset by supports), establish more expansive coping strategies, and redefine (i.e., as a function of unavoidable appraisal processes) how they view themselves . . .” (Lee, Spencer, & Harpalani, 2003, p. 10). The more individuals employ the resiliency cycle and complete it with successful and healthy responses, the more their resiliency confidence rises, which enhances the image they hold of themselves, their identities. Students have always, and will always, encounter adversity in college. Academic challenges concerning classes, professors, requirements, fellow students, choices of majors, and myriad other areas are expected as part of the learning process. However, as we’ve heard from these students, the academic issues are often the minor concerns when compared to the external pressures that the students face in dealing with family and relationship issues, financial need that requires working long hours at

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low-paying jobs, race issues, health concerns, and self systems that are weakened by low self-esteem. The students cycled through the many adversities that they identified as part of their learning experiences at Ivy University, and they emerged even more determined and resilient. They persisted and moved forward, turning adversity into opportunities for growth. The HEOP students arrived at the end of the college bridge, their undergraduate years, fortified by their experiences and ready for what awaited them on the “other side.”

Chapter 7 EXIT AHEAD The Outcomes of College

The god JANUS was the god of beginnings, associated originally with water and bridges . . . He was also the god of doors, entrances, and archways . . . He was portrayed with two faces, one looking forward and one looking backward. —Ancient Roman Mythology (2004)

In the preceding chapters, we explored the students’ entry to college and the process of getting through the rigorous undergraduate years. The chapters revealed the identities of the students and their families, provided an overview of the earlier study of this group (Goodwin, 2002), developed profiles of the HEOP students, introduced the Ivy University culture, and explored the college experience from the academics to the social aspects while exposing the inherent challenges that elicited resilient responses. As the students neared the end, the exit from four or five years of exhausting work, what had they acquired? What had they learned about academics, themselves, and life? Will the four years be worth it? What immediate goals do the students hold for the future? For each of these students, one of the most consuming tasks of college, on conscious and subconscious levels, was the solidification of their identities. Researchers have concluded that “. . . the greatest gains in identity formation occur during the traditional college years (ages eighteen to twenty-three), perhaps because collegiate settings afford students diverse environments, successful role models, and opportunities to examine and test alternatives” (Pascarella & Terenzini, 1991, p. 164). To have a common working definition of identity, I return to the one Lois Weis (1990) developed during her study of youth from White, working-class backgrounds: “. . . ‘identity’ can be defined as a sense of self in relation to

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others. Identity formation refers, therefore, to the processes through which people, either individually or collectively, come to see themselves in relation to others in particular ways” (p. 3). Or, as Philip Wexler (1988) so aptly put it, identity work is “becoming someone.” This is certainly a goal that many students hold for their years in college. The progress students made toward realizing their identities within the college environment was further complicated by their diverse collective identities. The Pleasers, as first-generation immigrants, experienced the dual identity challenge of continuing to learn the cultural identity[ies] of their new country while maintaining and solidifying their identities from their countries of origin. The Searchers, the second-generation immigrants, strove to balance their parents’ affiliations with a different homeland with their needs to carve out their own space within the multiethnic complexity of U.S. collective identity, whatever that may be. And the Skeptics, whose families had been in the country for generations, who found themselves at an elite university, were also torn between different cultural identities tempered by their racial/ethnic affiliations. All of these HEOP students experienced and worked through five major identity issues that Jewelle Gibbs (1999) describes as “. . . sorting out their dual racial and ethnic heritage in relation to (a) their personal identity (Who am I?); (b) their social identity (Where do I fit?); (c) their sexual identity (What is my sexual role?); (d) their relationship with their parents (Who is in charge of my life?); and (e) their career aspirations (What are my options in life?)” (p. 79). In college, there is a fair amount of switching between identities (Cross & Strauss, 1998) as the students experiment with different roles and ways of being, depending on the context of situations and peer influences they encounter. Identity confusion and experimentation are rampant during the first years of college, especially around the five aspects identified by Gibbs, but, as these students reach the end point, they talk at length about how they have developed and grown while in college, and many issues of identity are nearing the point of resolution or, at least, conscious acceptance. For many of these students, the process of finding the self has been as important (perhaps even more?) as finding a career and life direction. The ancient Italian deity, Janus, perfectly symbolizes this transitional period of limbo in which these students reflect on the college years they are completing and project into their futures. They are truly at the point of simultaneously looking backward at their college years and looking forward to new beginnings.

OUTCOMES: WHAT WAS ACQUIRED? In trying to piece together the progress the students made during their quest for collegiate enlightenment and personal development, I asked

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them about their academic standing and what they felt they had learned while in college. They mentioned grade point averages (GPA) and a wide range of acquired skills and information. We also explored what success meant to them and whether they felt they had achieved a measure of success. Along the way, students talked about the changes they had undergone while at Ivy University. And behind all of this, we see the emergence of identities at various stages of development.

The Pleasers LUC. As the most senior participant in this study, with three years of experience at another university before attending Ivy University and three years working at a local company after graduation, Luc had a cooler, detached perspective about the value of an education than many of the other students. But even three years after graduation, Luc vividly recalled her GPA: “Uhm, yeh, and I graduated with quite high of a GPA. I think it was, I don’t know what it called, but, there’s ‘honor,’ then this next one which is ‘distinction?’ . . . I got that one, the second one. . . . My GPA, I had a 3.5 something. It was a little above average, but it wasn’t that high compared to some of the students at [Ivy University].” Luc was somewhat disappointed with her final standing, especially because she had worked so hard for her grades. And she had her previous university as a point of reference: “[My other university], during the second semester of my senior year, my GPA was 3.97. So, it was . . . but I didn’t feel very proud. They had it so easy. You know? I think I felt very successful when I graduated from [Ivy University] with a 3.5.” In terms of skills that she acquired from her college years, Luc stated that she didn’t use the technical information from the degree very much in her job, even though she had been hired as an engineer in her major field. However, Luc felt that she had become very skilled with science: “I’m pretty good at science. It doesn’t require a lot of language in science. You know, the numbers are the same. . . .” In addition, her English-language skills had improved to the point that she rarely needed a dictionary. But the most valuable skills that she brought to her work were her interpersonal skills. Luc’s employer even told her that she was hired not so much for her technical skills as for her personality. She was viewed as a team player, someone capable of listening to other people and making them listen to her, someone able to work with anybody. Luc defined success as “being very happy and satisfied.” She felt that it didn’t depend on being smart or having a PhD, although she would like to have one someday. She was immensely satisfied with her present life: graduating from a respected university, being employed in

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her field by a major corporation, being with her family and able to contribute to their well-being, and having a caring and respectful relationship with her husband. These were all measures of the success that Luc had achieved.

ROBERTO. Roberto indicated that his GPA was 3.66 and that he “killed” himself with heavy course loads to attain and maintain it. However, he focused his responses more on the change that he had realized over the four years of college. One was his name. I was confused because I had been calling him [Roberto] from the beginning. However, during his senior year, he signed something he sent me “[Carl].” So, at the interview, I asked him about his names and he explained that in Jamaica, it was common to have a nickname, unlike your given name. However, he indicated: “I prefer [Roberto]. I used to hate my name. I used to tell everyone to call me [Carl], but I like [Roberto], so I make everyone use that.” That seemed to be a significant step toward becoming comfortable with his identity. During our conversation, when Roberto was talking about some of his frustrations, I asked him if he had ever considered just going home and forgetting about Ivy University. His response, which included his reaction to his recent acceptance to Yale for graduate school, was a powerful validation of the potential for change and identity development during the college years: No, huh-uh. Not at all. No, ’cause it was something I’d waited all my life for. . . . And that’s the thing that made me realize the thing about growing because, when I was in high school, there was no way I would have applied to Yale. And in the time span of six years, I became Yale-worthy. I grew so much that I could be accepted to Yale University. That’s why I’m saying, “Wow!” So much can happen! You can become so different. You can grow so much in such a short period of time. That’s amazing! And, I just, yesterday, getting my acceptance letter, I realized that. . . . Looking back at who I was and who I am, there are so many similarities still, but it’s just amazing how much I’ve become . . . I am [Roberto Simmons]. Like before, that was my name and that’s what they called me. But, I know who I am, you know what I mean? That’s about it. Roberto’s definition of success sounded very much like Luc’s, because he also defined it as personal satisfaction, just in a more expanded version:

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I think success is, uhm, just feeling personally satisfied with all you’ve done. I don’t think success is how much you’ve done, you know. You’ve done this many things and you have this many degrees. I think success is something that is within you, a sense of satisfaction that you’ve done all you could do to your ability. And when you step back from the whole experience and you look at, you say to yourself, “I’m pretty satisfied with what I did.” So, I think that’s success. Even though Roberto felt that he could have done “more” and could have done “better,” he was content with his achievements at the end of college: “But, uhm, this is how it was supposed to happen, so, I’m satisfied. So, yes, I am feeling kind of successful.” This element of acceptance, that things are as they should be, comes through over and over in many of the student interviews.

OTHER PLEASERS. Remarkably similar comments were heard from the other Pleasers. They had respectable GPAs, ranging between 2.8 and 3.3, but not quite as high as Luc and Roberto. There was a lot of disappointment and stress around these little numbers. In terms of skills, the students often referred to the improvement of their ability to communicate, through presentations, writing, and networking with others. They felt these would successfully transfer into their careers. The importance of personal, self skills were mentioned, similar to Luc. Panyos made a rather circular observation about this: Uhm, overall, well, for me I guess, I don’t know, I don’t really discover much about who I . . . I mean, in a sense I kind of know more about myself. People say that, you know, after you graduate you should know more about, more about who you are and what you want to do in your life. You know. At this point, I kind of know about who I am all the time, but I don’t know what I want to do in my life yet. . . . I mean, the good thing, I seem like I’m more mature and, you know, have more time to think about my future, what I want to do. . . . I think the challenge is to overcome myself. . . . Well, my bad thinking, my pondering, my doubt seem to limit my ability to success, to move on with my life. . . . Four years seems to go by really quickly. Maybe because I never stop and take a look at what I’ve done, what I’ve accomplished. . . . Because school requires a lot of hour, lot of time. So, we rarely have time to sit back and look at what we’ve done. . . . It’s just finding

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your own character, who you are. That’s as important as getting good grades. Maybe more, I believe. Good grades, they look at, but how well are you with people? While Roberto exuded confidence about who he had become, Panyos had not reached that stage of identity development. His discourse reveals confusion and doubt. Current research (Restak, 2001; “What makes teens tick?” 2004) documents the ongoing development of the brain into early adulthood. Up until the 1990s, the commonly held assumption was that the brain completed its development by the age of 12. The most recent estimate of brain maturity is around the age of 25. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that the identity development among this group of young adults should range between such extremes, depending on the individual’s stage of physical, mental, and emotional development. I was surprised by Roberto’s two first names, but even more surprised to see this repeated with Tran, especially because these names had not surfaced during our first year together. Tran’s “second” first name appeared on one of his e-mails and I asked him about it. Unlike Roberto, he had decided to retain the second name: Just to be more Americanized, I guess. To be, to get into anything, to have a feeling of being American, to feel like home is always more comfortable with people around you, who you work with. For example, job search or working for, something like that. It would be feeling like, “Oh, this guy is not Vietnamese.” . . . Even if that person is not racist, you know, somehow [William] is easy to remember. An impression. Roberto decided that he was comfortable retaining parts of his immigrant identity including his given name and Tran found greater comfort in assimilating into his new environment by assuming a name that sounded more “American.” He also indicated that when he dealt with the outside world, other than during one-on-one conversations, “. . . out there, I’m going to put on another mask. You know, one of many.” This dilemma over name choice demonstrates the segmented assimilation (Portes & Rumbaut, 1996; Rumbaut, 1996) that was observed among the firstgeneration immigrant students even in the earlier study (Goodwin, 2002). The level of assimilation the students elected varied as they strategically sized up their chances and options within their present and future home, school, and work environments.

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Not surprisingly, this group of Pleasers also demonstrated diversity in their definitions of success. No uniform responses emerged, but there was a focus on personal satisfaction and the value added by hard work: VERONICA: I wouldn’t qualify success with wealth at all. I mean, I always tell my friends, “Listen, all I want to do in life is . . . be in a good position where I’m comfortable with what I’m doing.” Like, it actually makes me happy so I get up every morning and say “Wow! I’m going to work today!” You know, to me, that’s a successful person. . . . As long as you get that personal satisfaction, I think you’re successful. . . . CLARISSA: I guess achieving your goals. But, also, I guess, to be successful, to be able to achieve your goals and maintain links to, not to lose contact with where you come from although you are moving ahead. . . . PANYOS: Well, I think if I’m happy with what I’m doing, that’s success. You don’t have to be like millionaire or whatever. I think if you’re happy with what you’re doing, you’re good at what you’re doing, you’re able to sit back and think about what you’re doing and just kind of have a smile on your face—I think that’s success. TRAN: Uhm, I think that success is remain health[y], and it’s critical. Money. Power. People. The students’ estimation of their achievement of success to this point ranged from Veronika’s “I think I’ve been very successful, actually” to Panyos’s negative “Not really.” Clarissa felt partially successful because she wasn’t happy with her GPA, and Tran said he was halfway, “not there yet.” It is hard for many of us who are looking back from the distance of years in a career to imagine having a strong sense of success at these relatively young ages, but these were students who had accomplished a great deal in their short lives: immigrating to a new country, being admitted to a very selective university, becoming bicultural or tricultural, and persisting to the point of college graduation. But I was somewhat relieved that they knew greater things lay ahead. As Tran put it: “I’ve done enough that I don’t feel regret. Uhm, but I need to look for more. It’s not there yet.”

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The Searchers TIANA. Like many of the students, Tiana had high aspirations. Even with her full load of courses, sometimes working enough hours in the week to be considered full time, and with a young son, she still had hoped to graduate cum laude. She was disappointed during her junior year to realize that this wasn’t going to happen: “I’d have to pull straight “A”s until the end to come out with a 3.5. That’s disappointing, only because I wanted to go to grad school directly after this, and a good grad school.” Despite this, Tiana remained philosophical: “If things don’t turn out exactly, you adjust.” Very little had gone the way Tiana had imagined when she first began college. So, she had been forced to become very flexible with her expectations. The life experiences that Tiana had worked her way through during college had taught her a lot. She was leaving college with a more realistic perspective of the world, of others and of herself. Even though she had to revise her graduation standing, Tiana acknowledged her accomplishments: “Everyone’s got their own success. I think I’m successful now. Uh, I’m going to graduate from here. Take one step at a time.” JASON. One year out of college, Jason was not as concerned with his graduation GPA as he was with getting into a law school. He spent a lot of his first year after graduation preparing for law exams: “I was studying so hard that I realized that it was a test of aptitude, there is really only so much you can possibly do. So, I did OK. I scored in the 92nd percentile.” Jason indicated that his undergraduate education had prepared him for this next step, law school: “Highly...developing a certain sort of skill set. And a history major is just very relevant to law school. The reading, the writing skills.... And it’s important to have that flexibility. You have to negotiate and things like that.... And I’ve always said it’s much easier to sell ideas than to get money out of someone’s pocket. That’s why I’m looking forward to my career as an attorney!” In addition to these academic skills, Jason spoke at great length about his development as a person while in college: I’m definitely a more well-rounded person . . . college gave me the opportunity to extend myself. To try to do things. Which is not necessarily something you get after you graduate. You don’t really come across these opportunities to take part in independent studies or do this or do that. It becomes that, college really opens you to this—I mean, for lack of better words, college is this type of puzzle of the world and it’s a matter of you fitting yourself in there.

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Jason had not sorted everything out, at this point, but he had made tremendous progress toward forming an identity for himself of which he felt proud and accomplished. This came through when he defined success: I mean, on a personal level, I would think that I have certain capabilities, certain skills that I have that I was given, and uh, it’s a matter of using those to the fullest extent. Uhm, whether that be, if I feel I have certain skills speaking, certain skills critical thinking. It’s a matter of using those innate abilities, cultivating those to a degree that I feel as though I reach the point where I feel I can’t really do too much more. . . . Do the best you can. That’s kind of my definition of success on a personal level. On a societal level, it’s making a contribution. The idea of giving back, contributing to society, did not appear very often when students spoke about success. Usually the focus was more on the personal level of success. When Jason identified how successful he felt to that point, he also reverted back to the personal: “I feel I could have done much more, uhm, especially after college. Uhm, you know, well, yes, I do see myself as being fairly successful. I’m not a criminal. My employment opportunities may be fairly limited and that’s a challenge, but any new experience, that’s good. Overall, I consider myself successful.”

OTHER SEARCHERS. Neither Martine nor Marie were satisfied with their GPAs as they neared graduation. Martine described her 2.7 as “terrible,” and Marie felt that switching majors had complicated her course work and resulted in a GPA of 3.05. Her concern was similar to Tiana’s: “But it’s just like, I feel I know I could have done better. It’s just like kind of disappointing because I get frustrated just knowing I could have done a 3.6 or something. But I feel like nowadays, when you’re applying to grad school, it’s such a challenge. . . . Because many schools just want the GPA.” Martine and Marie identified a lengthy list of academically focused skills that they had acquired during college. These included reading and interpreting the reading, appreciating literature, understanding what motivates other people, public-speaking/presentation skills, problem solving, working with groups, and overall communication skills. More than these skills, both young women focused on the personal growth they had made: MARTINE: I just learned a lot about myself through that whole process, just interacting with different people who had a better secondary education or more prestigious high schools,

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or things like that. . . . Just finally, just finally feel I found myself. I know I’ll find more different things and think “Oh, at 22 or 23, I didn’t know who I was.” But I definitely know who I am now as opposed to 18. . . . I think I’m a lot more pessimistic about some things, but at the same time, I’m more optimistic about myself.

MARIE: I’ve definitely matured! I’ve definitely matured and learned a whole lot from how to be more independent. And kind of like, I mean, I knew I had potential to do many things. It’s just like, how much did I have to do it on my own? . . . It’s like, I’m not afraid to voice how I feel, how I want things. . . . If I really want it, I want to get it done, I don’t care; I’ll go to anyone, anyone who has the answers. . . . At one point, I felt like pressured, like I couldn’t do as well at college like everyone. . . . But then, I was like finding out, the more I did stuff, the more I got involved, I was just learning so much. It definitely helped me. I definitely enjoyed it. . . . Just a lot of that has made me realize, just like put my needs first. It had taken time and a lot of personal effort, but both Martine and Marie had made tremendous strides toward becoming independent young women, more confident in their identities. Martine and Marie’s definitions of success and their feelings of accomplishment reflect the growth they had made toward secure identities. Martine had this to say about success: Uh, if you reach your ultimate happiness, in some respect. Success may be for some people an “A” in a course. For me, in economics, it might be a “B”. . . . Now, I’m beginning to feel I’ve been more successful. And that came with time, growing up and just . . . realizing I can’t do 20 things at the same time. . . . I think now that I understand myself somewhat, feel accomplished in certain things. Marie also viewed success on a personal level: “I usually think it’s something like what you have a passion for. I don’t care, like, I don’t think it’s like how much money you’re willing to make.” Marie did acknowledge that, realistically, it was important to be able to make enough money to be able to support oneself. She felt marginally successful, but realized her background had made a significant difference, especially being a firstgeneration college student:

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Yeh. I mean, there are times when I could have done better. I want to kind of change things, but I think, that coming from the background I come from—it’s not like I had my parents who went to college, you know. They couldn’t tell me, assist me in how to do things, how to go about things. . . . Even now, like I still want to do more stuff and it’s hard to do it because I don’t think they approve 100%. So, that I have been successful. And, also, I’m the first one to get a degree, so. . . .

The Skeptics STACEY. An unfortunate experience with one class caused a remarkable slump in Stacey’s GPA. She had been carrying a cumulative average of over 3.0 with a “C⫹” her lowest grade. Due to illness and an unwritten agreement with a professor that went awry, Stacey received a “D” in a course that was then followed by a “C” in the next semester. So, in her last semester she was struggling to bring up her 2.83 GPA. The overwhelming consensus of these students was that the communication skills showed the most noticeable growth during the college years. Stacey was right in line with this assessment, indicating that her writing skills had improved dramatically: “Better. I’m much better. I know what I need to do to get something that’s 20 plus pages done. . . . Freshman year, a five-page paper was like, five pages! What are you going to write for five pages?” Her leadership positions offered ample opportunity for her to refine her speaking skills, as well: “I’m so different from when I was in . . . I used to hate speaking in public. I still, it’s not my favorite thing, but I can do it and I know I can get through and do all that stuff. . . . I never thought I would be doing half of this stuff. Just because, I’m a very shy person.” Her friends often commented on her evolving confidence and bearing, nicknaming her “Queen of England” and “Mrs. Paris.” She shrugged off these labels, but agreed that she emitted this aura of newfound confidence, although she had to admit, “I don’t know where it comes from.” Along with the positive change in academic and personal skills, Stacey identified some negative effects left by her four years in college. People would ask her “What is the toll that it’s taken on you to push forward all of these, you know initiatives or whatever?” Her response was “I’m like, I guess I’m more cynical now than I was before I started all of this. I don’t believe that everyone’s out for common good and all that good stuff. I don’t believe that anymore. But, I don’t know, it’s different. . . . This semester has been more depressing than usual. To me it feels like, the more

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we try to make it [the campus] more comfortable, the bigger the backlash.” Stacey referred to a recent outbreak of racial incidents on the campus. Other students mentioned these, but Stacey had invested a considerable amount of time and energy in efforts to ameliorate these conditions and was clearly frustrated by the lack of progress. Despite her increased cynicism and frustration, Stacey had no problem defining success: “For me, success can be physical or mental. It can range from a job well done, to having monetary success. Doing what you do well.” She also identified the progress she had made toward achieving it: “Partially. I believe that I have met all the expectations that my family has had for me. Right now and everything else that I do is for my personal sense of success; getting my master’s is just the first step.” Like so many of the students in this project, Stacey always had her eye on the future and the possibilities that it held.

DAMON. Communication skills were also on top of Damon’s list of skills acquired while in college, although he also included his contribution to the campus: “I think it [Ivy University] has prepared me quite well in terms of writing and, uhm, written communication skills. But I think that equally the things that have happened outside of class. . . . I’ve definitely been a stabilizing force at this place. The equalizer.” Damon had been a serious student and worked hard on the academics. However, he had given of his time and energy to participate in a number of the campus organizations. Damon was not afraid to speak his mind and to get involved where there were needs, and it was clear that many organizations valued his support and leadership. Damon’s lengthy résumé of activities and organizations had begun well before college, however. He commented on how his efforts had been viewed differently when he was in high school and how he perceived that college served to raise the bar of expectations: “It’s so funny how much I’ve changed. Because I was always seen as a youth back then [before college]. So they were always looking at the youth perspective. [Damon Jones], youth of the year. . . . Now, it’s different now, because I’m older now. I’m not really seen as a youth.” He realized that his level of participation would be measured through different standards from now on. But he was eager for the challenge. A high energy level and dedication to service were evident in Damon’s definition of success: “Success, to me, I just find success as a destination that you choose in life and how close you get to it. But success is not defined by just your achievements. It’s defined by people’s lives that you touch and, uh, what you have done to better yourself.” Damon’s résume may have been the lengthiest of this group of students, but at the

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heart of this involvement was Damon’s strong value system that centered around a life of service. He could look back at his accomplishments and state: “I think I have been very successful this far. But I’m very hard on myself because I think I should be doing more. Uh, I think I don’t do enough. You know, but then I just have to understand, you can’t save the world, so. . . .” Damon is still young, and the world awaits.

OTHER SKEPTICS. Public speaking, working with large groups, and putting programs together were mentioned by the other Skeptics as skills acquired through their experiences at Ivy University. Most important, these skills were transferable to the world of work, a point to which Nicole attests: “Some people could be book smart and some people could be smart factually. . . . My experiences in college prepared me very well. As far as academic-wise, just going into corporate America. I mean everything we learned in classes is a part of our job. . . . You always have to make yourself better. I mean, it’s a continuous process.” The students who had previously graduated and were in the workforce all demonstrated the value they placed on lifelong learning. The definitions of success echoed the refrains of the other students who placed it in the personal context. Nicole stated: “Hmm, doing something that I enjoy doing and succeeding at it, and excelling to no limit.” And Sybill’s idea was that these students were all a work in progress: I feel success is something that can’t be reached. It’s not an end point or a destination. . . . Uhm, you know, I can’t say my life has been a success, because it hasn’t ended. It’s always evolving. There’s always something new to do. A new challenge to face and conquer. And I think it’s how you face your challenges because there’s always going to be obstacles. But it’s how do you resolve them, and how do you overcome them that makes you a success.

REFLECTIONS OF REGRET AND HOPE FOR THE FUTURE The final months of college were a time to reflect and take stock of the growth and perceived benefits of this experience, but also to assess whether the experience had lived up to the students’ expectations. Knowing the rigor of this institution and the backgrounds from which these students came, backgrounds that had ill equipped many of them to slide easily into this campus culture, I listened for indications of regret in their narrations. By far, I heard the positive and optimistic side of their undergraduate

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experiences. But regret slipped in here and there, although for the most part, the regrets were few and relatively insignificant given the magnitude of benefits the students identified. I was most interested in learning if students regretted attending Ivy University and if they would still choose it today, knowing what they now know. Overall, the students voiced few regrets and the majority would return to Ivy University if given the choice. In the preceding section, the HEOP students gave voice to the tremendous growth and change that they had undergone during their four years of undergraduate education. However, they were not as complimentary about the ability of the university to change and grow. To some extent, the students all made compromises along the way, bowing to the inevitable demands of an elite university, but offering up something of themselves that they hoped would leave a small, but lasting impact on the quality of the educational environment. If we expect the students to change during their college years, it is reasonable to ask if the university itself changed accordingly to reflect the students’ investments and contributions to the university. From the students’ perspective, I heard rather discouraging reports about the status of the campus environment. Several of the students felt the opportunities to develop meaningful relationships had declined in the few years they had been on campus. Roberto described the incoming student body as “bland” and less involved, partially because of the divisive reorganization of the dorms into exclusively first-year or upper-class designations. Nicole, who graduated three years earlier, ran into an Ivy University student at a social function in New York City who complained about the lack of spirit and the lower morale of students in general on the campus. In chapter 3, the students identified changes that had followed the student sit-in. These were significant changes, but the students were frustrated, nonetheless, with the slow pace and recurring problems. A number of the students were concerned about the racial incidents that had received some, but not enough, attention during their senior year. They listed a number of suggestions for improving the campus climate. However, Damon was pessimistic about the possibility of meaningful change at Ivy University given its historical challenges with racism. In his research he discovered incidents similar to the recent racial outbursts (graffiti, verbal insults and slurs, harassment, among others) that he chronicled back to the 1960s. Clarissa was privy to the enrollment figures of minority students at Ivy University and stated the percentages of students who were classified as minorities on campus had not changed in the years she had been on campus. However, through her work with the administration in the past few years, she sensed a positive change in attitude. And even Damon observed a new cadre of students who were

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willing to take a stand and work on minority issues that affected the campus. Overall, there were signs of positive change, but so slow and, each movement taken by itself, so minuscule that they didn’t always register with students. Moving from the reflective standpoint, I pursued the students’ hopes for the future. What were they looking forward to after graduation? How well did they feel that Ivy University had prepared them for the rest of their lives? Despite the variety of responses to these questions, the students fervently hoped and cautiously believed that Ivy University had prepared them well for their futures.

The Pleasers LUC. Knowing Luc’s struggle with Ivy University her last year, it was not surprising to hear her discourage others, including her husband, from attending this university. She valued her education and the career opportunities it provided, but that did not outweigh the isolation and loneliness she felt while attending the university. In responding to my question, would she have chosen Ivy University knowing what she knows today, she replied, “But then, if you say, you have a better job, [but] you have to put up with those people for a year, probably not. With all the work I did.” Like most of the students, Luc hoped to find a job after graduation and earn some money. She viewed her education as “. . . no longer education. It was a way to support myself.” The value of a credential from Ivy University was foremost in Luc’s mind; it was what gave her hope when her experience at the university made her feel discouraged. “And that experience, and with the degree from a very highly recognized school, helped a lot, too. Even though, transfer to [Ivy University] wasn’t my idea, wasn’t something I picked, it ended up to be a very good choice.” However, in terms of preparation for life, Luc gave college little credit. “Uhm, education, a very small part of it. You need an education, that’s for sure. And education forms who you become, I think. Because it gives you the right guidance to do, what to do, what not to do. But, uhm, family and . . . yeh, and pretty much who you are. I am where I am now probably 70% from my family. Education, I think, is about 15%.” ROBERTO. Roberto’s regrets were not taking all of the courses that would have prepared him for graduate school (in addition to the heavy course loads he already carried) and that he had lacked time to get involved in leadership activities. Without hesitation, Roberto indicated he definitely would have chosen Ivy University again: “Yeh, I would have

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still. I just honestly can’t imagine my life any other way. I can’t imagine not having cried all those times I cried. I can’t imagine not being excited all those times I was excited. It’s just, if I wasn’t happy with that, that means I’m not happy with who I am because all of those things have made me who I am. So, I definitely would come back if I had it to do over again.” Roberto had justifiably high hopes of going on to an Ivy League college for graduate work and finding a career for which he had passion. He indicated that Ivy University had prepared him for his future: “Uhm, I think it’s done a good job. It has; it has. I can’t lie. It’s done a good job in preparing me for real life. I think that, uhm, that’s true. Although our school is not a hugely diverse school, there’s still a lot of diversity here. So, I think it’s representative of the real world.” Roberto was grateful for his college experiences, but he was most optimistic about his future because of his deep seated belief in himself: “You’ve got to really believe you can do. Even when you’re not doing so well. Even when there are constant reminders and people saying to you, indirectly or directly, that you don’t belong here. You have to know that you’re here for a reason, you know.”

OTHER PLEASERS. The rest of the Pleasers regretted not making the best decisions or doing as well in courses as they could have, but they overwhelmingly would have chosen Ivy University all over again: VERONIKA: I have no regrets coming here at all. But then, I didn’t really know that much, because I hadn’t been in the country that long. When I got here, I went straight to high school. And in high school, they really didn’t tell you. . . . The only place I knew about were like the Ivy Leagues that everybody else is always. . . . I think [Ivy University] was a good choice. CLARISSA: Things happen for a reason. And I’ve just experienced so many of those “If I hadn’t been here” moments that I believe there’s a bigger plan for my life than what I see at this moment. PANYOS: Oh, definitely. Meeting the right people like my roommate. . . . Well, because I know what I have learned, what I have gained, I would say I would definitely. TRAN: My personality is that I think I know a little about myself, so I don’t regret anything I do. That’s just a positive thing that I have to do. Just keep moving, like a machine. . . . I didn’t have enough time to redone what I did. But I don’t regret. If I had time, I’d redo it.

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However, the Pleasers were rather sketchy about their hopes for the future. Veronika sounded fairly intent on her plan to travel abroad for a short period of time and then find a job in her career area, although she didn’t know where. Panyos indicated that he was somewhat lost and impatient when describing what he hoped for after graduation: “Empty space. I don’t know. At this point, I’m not hoping for anything. Well, at least, I know where I want to end up. But, here, today, it’s just kind of cluttered and cloudy. . . . Well, for me, I wish I could have everything decided because time goes by really fast when you’re young. . . . Because I think we want security. You know, we want to make sure we have enough; we’ll be stable in the future.” He was also uncertain about the preparation for life that he had received while in college: “On campus, it’s just such a close environment. In a sense, it is like a world of it own, but it’s not a big world to include everything. So, how well, it does not prepare, but it helps. It helps me to go, ‘OK, since I know this is not enough to prepare me, how would I prepare myself?’” In addition, Veronika indicated that she lacked confidence in the value of the theoretical aspects of the education she had received: I don’t know. I think, in terms of like the theoretical aspects of life, I’ve definitely been prepared for it. Because the courses and the classes and everything, I mean, it’s really hard work. But, uh, I don’t know, in terms of like practical experience, I’m not sure I was given enough. I mean like this semester, I’m taking all business classes. And most of them are like real-world stuff. Getting a chance to apply what we’re learning in class to what’s actually going on outside in the world. But most of the other courses are just theoretical and you don’t really get a feel for how to apply it once you go out into the world. Tran voiced a similar concern about realizing that this knowledge was just the tip of the iceberg: “Uhm, I’ve learned a lot. Kind of like in general. . . . I feel like I’m so tiny, you know. I’ve been . . . I know nothing, you know. . . . Yeh, the more knowledge you gain, the less [you know].”

The Searchers TIANA. Like Luc, Tiana had some bad experiences with developing trusting relationships at Ivy University. She was fortunate in her ability to forge several lasting friendships, and to have achieved well enough to be able to say: “I feel positive, real positive things about this school.” However, she stated that she would not choose Ivy University if she had it to

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do all over again mainly because of the high rates of depression and anxiety rate. Tiana regretted not attending the other university that had accepted her: “So, I mean, I have good friends and all, but I should have sucked it up and went to [another university], become a feminist.” In retrospect, she liked that it was an all-girl institution (“I wouldn’t have a problem with that.”) and that it was near her home. “It probably would have been a better choice, but it’s OK.” After an intense four plus years of academics, Tiana just wanted some time without school in her life: “ I’m going to look forward to January through August school-less! Just a normal person. Just a job. That’s what I want. Just to go to work and spend time with my son, like every other normal person.” But when September rolled around, she hoped to be in graduate school, and a good one at that, because she felt that she was leaving college with a solid base of learning, far different from how she felt when she graduated from high school. Tiana found the connections between her courses particularly interesting: “College is different, like. It’s funny because this year, three of the classes I’m taking, like wrap into each other. . . . I’m just starting to realize that I’ve learned a lot here. And more so that it’s really competitive. I’ve learned that out there it’s really competitive.” So, while she felt that she had acquired a great deal from her college years, Tiana understood that she could not expect to just coast into a plum graduate program followed by a lucrative job. She would be competing for everything she desired.

JASON. While not truly a regret, Jason realized that, in order to attend college, he had given up the opportunity to work and earn money that his family desperately needed. However, he, like most of the students, would still have chosen Ivy University: “Of course. I must qualify that and say that in the short term, postundergraduate, many [Ivy University] students graduate at a disadvantage to other schools with more effective career centers.” Jason and several other students found that employers in New York City were not very familiar with Ivy University and the quality of its graduates. This put the graduates at a disadvantage when they moved back to their home base seeking employment. Despite this, Jason valued his time at this university: “However, in the long term, [Ivy University] is a great school for teaching you the critical thinking skills and love for learning that will benefit you throughout your career and life. . . . With that in mind, I couldn’t have asked for a better setting, mix of students and academic offerings to give me the tools I need to succeed.” Jason was philosophical about regrets: “Everyone has a few regrets, but what’s done is done, and I try not to look back on life with regrets.”

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Jason was disappointed that he was unable to secure a position within his field right after graduation. However, it provided him time to prepare for his law school entrance exams and to work at several jobs that made him desire graduate school even more. On the difficulty of finding an appropriate job right out of college, he commented that: Sadly, one thing that is lacking at colleges is maybe that it doesn’t prepare you career-wise. Maybe it could. But, like I said, like in my case in particular, and in most cases, that you develop a certain critical skill set. You know, being of a critical mind, seeing through certain things. That’s of vital importance. Not having those skills, just go through the world having a cushy office job or something like that, but . . . you don’t even think and comprehend and realize certain things. Jason did look at the world through critical eyes, his gaze penetrated systems, and looked back on college as a hiatus, a “fantasy world” between high school and real life: Uhm, but in some degree, yes, it is a bridge to prepare you in some ways. You know, getting out there in the real world. But, you know, I never thought there was anything else but the real world. . . . Kids my age are very enchanted. Everything is bright. That’s why college, you have your health office, your career services right there, and life is not structured like that. And it’s a great thing, but at the same time, it makes us very dependent. And it doesn’t make us strong as individuals, so to speak. Despite the somewhat protective environment of college, Jason felt that he was well prepared and focused on what he wanted. However, “I realize that I like to prepare for everything, but in some cases, you have no control and it is simply a matter of going with the flow and letting life lead you.”

OTHER SEARCHERS. Having it all to do over again, Martine decided that she would have attended a less prestigious, smaller school for the first years of college and then transferred to a “higher ranking school.” However, she identified few regrets: “You know, thinking about this question, I would think I would have so many things to say, but I don’t really have that many. Nothing’s really popping out. . . . This is why I didn’t feel so, I have that regret where I feel I didn’t perform. Because a

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lot of it is the fact that I felt I let the government down because they invested so much money in me and I wasn’t performing to the degree I should have.” Martine would still have chosen Ivy University because “I love [Ivy University], so although I can sit here and criticize certain things about it, it’s a beautiful school and, you know, the opportunities I’ve received here, it’s far from other people my age around my neighborhood. They don’t go to colleges like this. So, I think I have no regrets coming here. I think I probably would have chosen it again.” Martine quickly expressed her eagerness just to be done with school and graduated, a feeling common to all of the students. As well, she wanted a job and “a little bit of money.” And she valued her college credentials: “. . . I feel with a college degree, my options are greater, and now I have more of an option of what I choose to do.” Marie regretted taking so long to find her passion for a major. She felt she had wasted some time and that her GPA had suffered. In addition, she wished that she had taken greater advantage of opportunities—the support offered by HEOP and campus organizations. Marie had this to say about regret: “I’ve always kind of regretted little things. But as I get older, the more I regret things, you just hold on to the past. And it’s like you just can’t move on. So, what’s the point?” And, bottom line, she would still have chosen Ivy University: “Oh, yeh. I definitely would have come. Even after knowing I went through the bad. It definitely made me more . . . I think I got stronger, like character-wise. Yeh, some people say I’m mature.” Both Martine and Marie felt well prepared to move forward, and they identified a number of areas of preparedness that would be beneficial. Among them were learning about themselves, their ability to handle course work (looking ahead to graduate school), their confidence in dealing and communicating with all types of people, and the ability to problem solve and analyze situations.

The Skeptics STACEY. Stacey’s major regret was her fear that held her back. She had made amazing strides in overcoming it through her leadership positions and memberships in a variety of organizations, but “I let this fear keep me from trying things that I now wish I had, like study abroad.” She was adamant about her choice of Ivy University: “Yes, it provided me with a great opportunity to grow and experience the world. I wouldn’t trade my time there for anything else.” Stacey’s greatest hope upon graduation was to get accepted into graduate school and complete the training she would need to become part of the CIA. She was optimistic: “I believe that since I want to do this with

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all my heart, one way or the other, I will get it done, even if it takes longer than I expected. I will finish my master’s and get the other training that I need.” Stacey felt confident that she was prepared for these next steps, especially because of her leadership experiences that had exposed her to diverse opportunities to build her communication skills and that also forced her to examine herself: I think that being able to do all the stuff that I’m doing right now . . . prepared me a lot. If only because I am forced into professional situations, you know. . . . And be on point with being prepared and being on time. That’s helped me a lot. . . . I think part of it, I think I’ve learned at least how to deal with the bad side of me. When people don’t respond well to corrective criticism and, you know, just having to deal with people’s feelings, it’s just a part of it all the time.

DAMON. Damon’s eager enthusiasm for just about everything left little room for regret. Hardly a negative word came out of his mouth during all of our interviews. In reconsidering his choice to attend Ivy University, he sided with the majority who would have done it all over again: “I think I definitely would have. Because, you know what? If I didn’t choose [Ivy University], a lot of opportunities that were open to me, I would not have gotten. At the same time, I always wonder, what would I have been doing if I would have gone to another school? . . . But, by choosing [Ivy University], I was able to maintain the connections and build upon, which I already have.” Networking had been Damon’s road to success, and Ivy University’s location in his hometown allowed him to continue to build these relationships. Even though Damon had relished his time at Ivy University, he looked forward to what the future held: Wow. I look forward to life. So, it’s going to be very odd to not carry a book bag. And even when you go to graduate school, it’s going to be different from this. Because you may be a professional working on . . . , but you still have a life and things you’ve got to do. But this is where your rubber meets the road, where you’re really going to start developing what it is you’re going to be doing. I just get butterflies knowing what’s going to happen because I’m anxious, very anxious, because I want to leave an impact and have goals that I want to achieve. I know what I want to be by 2020. I don’t know if it will happen, but it’s something I want to do.

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Graduation was the moment of truth, where all the preparation leading up to this point would now set the direction for life. Damon believed the degree should stand for something: “I think people will have to take you more seriously when you have a degree, or when you’re pursuing a degree, because that shows that you’re willing to take it to the next level. You’re willing to kick it up a notch and willing to work. So, I think that, you know I’m not too fond of sitting in a classroom, but it’s something that’s necessary to experience.” And Damon knew that the undergraduate degree was just the beginning because an advanced degree would be vital to his career development. At this point, Damon felt that he had received preparation for these next steps on several levels. “Uhm, I think the university, well, the university, I think it has prepared me quite well in terms of writing and, uhm, written communication skills. But, I think that equally the things that have happened outside of class have prepared me more. The social interactions that happened outside of class were invaluable and something that you can’t put a price tag on. Because those are things that you take on your life.” Damon depended on connections and networking to make things happen, so, for him, the social understandably took precedence over the academics.

OTHER SKEPTICS. Both Nicole and Sybill indicated that they regretted not doing better in some of their classes, and Sybill also felt she should have chosen a university farther from home (to encourage more independence) and become more active in the campus organizations. Her main regret was not completing her premed program, especially because she continued to dream of med school. But Sybill would have chosen Ivy University again: “Uhm, I would have. It’s a good school. And about everything happens for a reason. Good experiences and bad have taught me lessons, and I’ve been able to use them well. Use those lessons in the future.” However, Nicole was not so sure: “But I actually can’t say that I definitely would have chosen [Ivy University]. . . . Just something about [Ivy University] that wasn’t entirely comfortable. If not [Ivy University], maybe someplace very different, out of state.” Nicole was surprised to find that three years out of college she missed it and she was ready to go back to school! She was convinced that Ivy University had given her the preparation she needed to land a job she enjoyed in her field and that it had made her more independent. However, unlike Damon, she felt that the academics were the only things she took away from her years in college. She found the social atmosphere stifling and was disappointed that at the end of her four years, she had little to put on a résumé.

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Sybill credited her degree from Ivy University for her success with graduate school. Her admission to a graduate program was the culmination of everything she had done in her undergraduate program and became “. . . my proudest moment.” However, now that she had completed her master’s degree, she wasn’t sure that her education had prepared her for what was to follow: Rest of my life? I don’t know. I don’t know what to expect. That’s another challenge. I don’t know what to expect. I’ve always been a student, so I knew what was expected of me and what to do. And now, I have no obligations. . . . It’s weird. You know, I mean, it’s a different transition from being a working adult versus a student. I mean, college is, has helped me realize there’s going to be some good times and some bad times and you have to learn to roll with both of them. Things may not always go your way. And you have to plan for the unexpected. Sybill voiced what many students implied, that away from the structured life at college, they felt anxious about steering their own course without the safety net of a university beneath them.

CONCLUSION This chapter offers a glimpse of the shaping of identities that occurs during college. Combined with chapter 8, a composite sketch is formed of the students working through the five identity issues identified by Jewelle Gibbs (1999) at the beginning of this chapter. From the student narrations, we can almost see a spectrum of identity development emerging, from the anxious and confused students who face the unknown “after graduation” with some trepidation to those who speak with confidence and optimism, excited by the prospects of what lies ahead. The level of satisfaction with the college experience and their performance within this cloistered time and space is far from uniform. Luc, a Pleaser, discourages anyone from attending Ivy University, despite her strong academic achievement. For her, the experience was strictly a rigorous academic exercise, with no opportunity to grow as an individual through social interaction with peers. While Luc had a strong sense of who she is, she credits her family more than the school. In contrast, Roberto, also a Pleaser, has sorted out his external identity, how he wants to be known by the world, and amazed himself with the personal, internal growth he had made during these four years. Add Panyos, another Pleaser, with his confusion about the future and his place in it, to this mix and we have multiple

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stages of identity development represented by students who are all firstgeneration immigrants. While these students shared a collective identity as HEOP immigrant students, their individual identities were vastly different. And so it was for each student in this study. Upon reflection, the students seemed able to agree that they had learned a lot, that they had been exposed to unimagined opportunities and experiences. Most of them indicated that their ability to communicate through writing and speaking had shown tremendous development. Leadership positions and memberships in organizations enhanced these skills as much as some of the classes they took. In addition, most of the students voiced an appreciation for the education they had received at Ivy University and had no regrets about choosing this school. As valuable as this college experience had been, the majority of the students were eager to be done and moving on. They had come a long way in these four hard years, which had gone amazingly fast, and graduation was a heady time for them. However, there were concerns about the transferability of “book learning” to the real world of work and personal aspirations. These students were bright enough to understand that they knew a lot, yet there was a lot they didn’t know. The light was green for graduation as they approached the end of this bridge connecting them to their futures, yet they approached it like a cautionary yellow. Optimistic eagerness, as the students gleefully contemplated their futures beyond the structured academic regime, collided with tentative apprehension, as the students realized all that they would be leaving behind, to create an almost schizophrenic attitude toward this milestone event. But, bottom line, all the students realized and could speak to the tremendous strides they had made toward becoming someone.

Chapter 8 NOW WHICH WAY? Choosing the Right Road

In 2020, 2028, I want to be either president or vice president. It’s very unrealistic and I don’t know if they’re going to happen, but there’s a saying that if you aim for the moon and you miss, you’ll be with the stars, at least. So, you may not be president, but hey, maybe you’ll be a senator or governor. —Damon, graduating senior from upstate New York

All of the students in this study approached graduation with a sense of elation mixed with trepidation. In fact, as they talked about their postgraduation plans, they all expressed a dichotomy of emotions: anticipation tempered with fear, eagerness contrasted with reluctance, and hope mixed with unsettling qualms. These students were riding the roller coaster of graduation highs and lows. Many challenges lay ahead for the HEOP students. In the sections that follow, the students skillfully identify a number of potential obstacles in their postgraduate world. Interwoven are their desires for more—a better life, more education, the chance to make a difference, more time with friends and family. It was remarkable to hear their diverse and lofty ambitions. Their years at an elite university opened their eyes to the possibilities all around them. However, these students were savvy enough to realize that what lay ahead were uncharted roads, some full of potholes and some paved with gold. All of these students had already survived and learned from the shock of attending an elite university whose culture clashed with their urban backgrounds. The distinct stages of culture shock (Guanipa, 1998) have been well described in previous chapters through the students’ narrations of their college experiences. The first stage was the “honeymoon” stage where Ivy University was big, new, and wonderful in their eyes because it 151

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was so different from anything they had known. They were excited by everything they encountered during their initial visits and the summer program on campus. But, during their first year, the second phase set in when the transition between the two cultures took a negative turn, where problems emerged and evoked strong emotional responses, some anger, some sadness, and some just plain homesickness. Some students questioned whether they had made the right decision to attend this university. However, by the second or third year, most students hit the third stage and had adjusted to the environment, finding more of a sense of belonging as they carved out a space for themselves. They reexamined their earlier lives and aspirations, and strove to find a balance in their lives. This segued into the fourth stage when students solidified their new identities and formulated new life goals based on their growing body of experience and knowledge. And for some of these students this was the second time they had cycled through this type of culture shock, the first being when they had entered the United States as immigrants or refugees. Poised at the exit ramp from college, these students were about to plunge headfirst into another potentially shocking transition that had all the signs of the fifth stage of culture shock. Their reentry into the world that they left to enter college would bring challenges as they tried to fit their new identities and dreams into a space that might not have grown and changed in parallel ways during their absence. In addition, family and friends might not recognize this stranger in their midst. New relationships might have to be negotiated, while the graduates struggle to move forward with their plans and dreams. The students might not have formally learned about culture shock, but their discussions about their future plans include all of the elements.

BALANCING ACTS: CHALLENGES AHEAD Graduation is a celebrated event, one that many think of as a joyous milestone occasion, and, yet, I sat across from many faces with “deer in the headlights” looks on them. So, I attempted to tease out the fears that gave these students pause and concern. I posed a number of questions that focused on future plans. The primary one was the simple, “So, what challenges do you see ahead in your future?” This elicited a plethora of responses, many of them settling on the common themes of graduate school (both getting in and paying for), securing an appropriate job, managing finances (especially college debt), and keeping connections alive with family and friends. The order of importance shifted between students, but

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the focus was consistent: how does one balance all of the significant parts and pieces of one’s life—the academic, the career, and the social? Just listening to the varied narrations, I began to feel the students’ pain and appreciate their perceptions of the complex world they were reentering.

The Pleasers LUC. For Luc, who had come to the United States as a Vietnamese refugee, graduation was the joyous celebration that previous generations had expected. Three years into her postgraduate life, with a satisfying career and a new husband, her primary goal was to maintain the status quo: “To keep everything like it is. That’s the only thing I wish night and day, is it wouldn’t change.” Her experiences in her homeland had impressed on her the importance of savoring each accomplishment. “I came from Vietnam and the country was ruined by the war. . . . But still, war is not the answer because no one wins at war. People, the country is destroyed. And usually innocent people like us get caught in it. . . . Do anything to avoid it.” The safety and security of her new life was more than she had imagined possible. Luc entertained the desire to pursue a PhD, but her employer did not reimburse educational expenses, and that was a concern: “With the economy this way, they [her employer] can’t afford it. Don’t blame them. . . . But with PhD, you have to quit work. But I just don’t know if we’re financially stable enough to do that yet.” Luc’s job paid well enough that she was able to contribute to the family’s expenses and was paying off her college debt. She estimated that it would take six or seven years to become debt free. So, for now, she was content to encourage her husband to pursue a graduate degree, and she would wait. A few significant relationships were central sparks in Luc’s life. She was a traditionalist in many ways, and family was her core concern. She was delighted to buy a home next door to her sister and her family, and she described their relationship as close. Her father and mother were members of her close household. However, as far as friends were concerned, Luc indicated: “Uhm, I, uh, I don’t socialize a lot, so any friends that I make, I tend to keep for a long time.” Amazingly, several of her friends from grammar school in Vietnam were in her wedding party. In addition, she had three or four friends from her first university with whom she maintained an active relationship, but none from Ivy University. Luc’s most significant relationship, her husband, had developed after college and thoroughly enhanced her life: “That’s why I said I’m in much better shape than when you had your first interview with me.”

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Upon graduation, Luc began attending a Buddhist temple and met her husband while doing some volunteer work. Her shyness made it hard to meet people and to allow others to get to know her. But Luc’s husband was persistent, and it was clear that she felt only love and admiration for him: “And, uhm, I’m very lucky in that respect. I’m not sure, but I know there’s a long way ahead, but he’s a better person than I am.” They were both chemical engineers working together every day in the same company. In addition, they taught a youth club at their temple, so the children could learn about their religion and language. It was easy to understand why Luc’s deepest wish was to keep everything as it was. From where she sat, everything was in perfect balance and order.

ROBERTO. Where Luc had found stability and direction, Roberto, on the cusp of graduation, was in a different place and not as comfortable. Graduate school and friendships were Roberto’s challenges. He had just been accepted for a graduate program at Yale and was excited about his academic prospects, yet he was reluctant to throw himself into a new and even more elite environment where he was concerned that he would have to prove himself every day. “So, I feel that’s the kind of environment Yale is, and that’s not conducive to learning and doing well. . . . You know, do I want to go through that for two years?” He knew that there would be few, if any, Black people in his department. As amazed as he was by his acceptance letter, he was going to thoroughly explore the situation before accepting the offer. This neatly segued into his biggest challenge: “I think, maybe staying focused. Just keeping my eye on the prize. Just remembering that looking at the bigger picture, not to be consumed with what’s on the plate of food in front of me. Look at the whole meal, you know.” Of great importance to Roberto was that he find a way to maintain the friendships that he had nurtured in college. His friends had taught him so much about life and about himself and his values that he was confident the friendships would last beyond college. “I mean, there’s no way I can see us not keeping in touch. It’s crazy. Like I honestly, even though we’re not together, I need to know they’re there to function.” Roberto spoke little about his family, but it was clear that these friends had become his surrogate family: “Like I need to know that I can call and speak to them to function. I mean, they’re like my therapist and my family away from home. They’ve been my family for four years so, uhm, even though we’re not going to be together, we’re still family and I can still call them. And I’m hoping that’s how it will be.” OTHER PLEASERS. Clarissa’s main concern was getting into a graduate school with her GPA, knowing the importance that schools place on

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it. Getting a job and paying off her college loans were also on her mind, but she felt these could be delayed until after graduate school. However, for Veronika, Panyos, and Tran, finding a lucrative job took top priority. Tran worried about competing with other minorities for a position; Veronika wanted a company that would pay for business school; and Panyos wanted to find a job that would pay him enough to start his own business: “Start my own business because maybe I was thinking of working for three to four years to get the business to be stable, then after that, I can take a lot of time off. Enjoy my life, instead of working with a big company with two weeks of vacation.” These students were determined to stay in contact with their college friends, primarily through e-mails. They felt like Roberto, that a lot of time and meaningful memories were invested in these relationships. The friendships had become significant outcomes of college, and they would work to keep them alive after college. As for romantic aspirations, Veronika was one of several students to identify her frustration about marriage: “Well, I want to have a family, definitely. I was actually planning to be married by 25. . . . [Y]ou think about these things when you’re young, and you think it’s so feasible. But it’s not really feasible until—at that point in my life, I don’t think I would be ready.” Veronika had to admit that she knew very few people getting married in their twenties, but she would be married someday and have a family: “Family is so important to me. Very, very important to me.”

The Searchers TIANA. By this point in her life, Tiana had survived so many adverse situations that she had become fairly unconcerned about upcoming challenges. Her philosophy seemed to be to take one challenge (day) at a time and to be flexible. Things will work out. She faced her college debt squarely in the face: “I’m not concerned with my loans. A breeze. You know, I don’t have four kids, a husband, a house, and two cars. Pay them off. So, I’m not ready to be concerned about it.” Three years of graduate school were in her immediate future, but she didn’t seem worried about paying for them either: “Someone brought up paying for grad school. I, to tell you the truth, I’m not even thinking about it. I will be, but I’ve got enough on my plate right now. I don’t know how grad school financial aid goes.” Time to worry about this later. Maintaining friendships, squeezed around caring for her son and going to school, had already been challenging, so Tiana was hopeful that her few close friendships would survive distance and time: “Uhm, I can tell that we’ll disappear from the world for a little while and then

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catch up.” One reassuring thing was the continuity of her friendships from the Bronx: “Well, I still have my friends at home. . . . They’re my two best friends.”

JASON. Tiana’s terse replies were more than counterbalanced by Jason’s reflective narration of the challenges he’d experienced since leaving college the year before. Finding an appropriate job in New York City was the most immediate challenge he faced, and the sales job he finally accepted was less than fulfilling: “I was not using any intellectual skills whatsoever. And that, that was something that was a bothersome point to me, the fact that I felt that in college I tried to cultivate my intellectual capabilities. And then, in this job in particular, it’s something that wasn’t being used at all.” Despite doing fairly well with sales, Jason left this job to focus on his next most pressing challenge: admission to law school. He needed more time to prepare for the entrance exams than working full time would allow. Law school presented a host of challenges beyond just scoring well on the entrance exams. Jason obsessed over writing the perfect personal statement for his applications: “To put a soul in that application, that’s what I need to do.” He worried about the rigor of law school, as well as the health of family finances without his income. He wondered about his credit rating and taking on more loans. The entire process was overwhelming: “That whole law school, taking the LSATs, signing up for this, signing up for that, going to visit schools and everything. Some of that, I have no guidance. And that’s what makes it even more difficult. Thinking that, ‘OK, I read everything. I think I know what I’m doing. I think I’m on the right path, but I’m not sure.’” Jason also mulled over larger challenges such as making a difference in the world when one has few resources and the difficulty young people of his generation will have in owning a home. “And that’s probably going to expose some ugly discontents that maybe people from my generation have with this society that was created from, say our parents, our parents’ parents. We’re going through the motions. Going to college. This is the right thing to do. Things like that. Sometimes when you just get out, you realize . . . we just don’t have that voice.” And beyond these concerns was an even larger one: “. . . a huge challenge that I foresee is the ability to balance my work and life.” The juggling act included law school, career decisions and satisfaction, time for family and friends, assuming more responsibility to support his family, and keeping his family together. Jason understood himself well enough to know that he often attempted to take on too much: “I am afraid that I may feel that I am pulled in so many different directions that you lose focus in life.”

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Beyond work and preparing for law school, Jason had been busy since graduation. He had managed to keep in touch with a few college friends (“I’m just not very good, just keeping in touch in general.”) and had met a young woman with whom he’d spent a considerable amount of time, even traveling to California together. Jason had also volunteered in the Junior Achievement program, teaching middle-school students in Spanish Harlem the economics of staying in school. He was modest about talking about this experience because “. . . I look at volunteering a lot of times to be a selfish pursuit, something that I enjoy doing.” I began to get the picture about his concern over balancing everything in his life.

OTHER SEARCHERS. Interestingly enough, Martine was also facing the challenge of getting into law school. Her concern was primarily that her undergraduate GPA “isn’t a very strong one.” She had decided to take a year or two off and work in order to get financially prepared for the long haul of law school. Also, like Tiana, she worried that it would be difficult to maintain their friendship at a distance. Marie had contemplated working after graduation, but decided that after September 11 (the World Trade Center bombing), it would be a better idea to go immediately on to graduate school. The looming challenge was finding the right school that offered international studies. She was semiconcerned about financing more education but indicated that she was capable of working very hard for what she wants. In addition, Marie echoed Veronika’s concern about finding a husband and the timing issue: “Sometimes I wonder when will I be ready to settle. . . . It’s kind of a scary thing because I feel like the years are approaching. I feel I need to do more before I do start settling. So, that’s why I want to try things now, so I can finish this in two years in case I do decide to get married.” She also worried about when to have children and how to negotiate career and family: “Raising kids, it’s a job, you know. I’m just afraid—I don’t know—I need to make sure I can do my career and also have my family come first. . . . So, that’s why finding the fulltime job I decide to do afterwards is a huge decision.” Marie had already decided that she would not have a large family and she would not be a “woman who stays at home.”

The Skeptics STACEY. Stacey identified her biggest challenge as money, for rent, for books, for classes. She had not been working and, as a result, “. . . my resources are stretched very thin right now.” She was applying to graduate schools but was somewhat discouraged that she would have to take

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some bridge courses, which would add on time, in order to be prepared for her major. Stacey had experienced a number of health problems during college, and as a result of her treatment for cervical cancer, she was afraid that she wouldn’t be able to have children. So, she faced a unique challenge right before graduation: “I even talked to both sets of my parents, ‘How would you feel if I like had eggs harvested or even had a baby right now?’ I’m not going to, you know, I’m not going to give up on school, but I don’t want to not have the opportunity in the future. You know, before we knew how far the cancer had spread, I was just like, I’d rather have one now and deal with whatever later.” Stacey decided to go full speed toward graduate school, but lingering concerns about her fertility trailed after her.

DAMON. What Damon labeled a huge challenge had also proved to be an asset in the past, and that was his youth. He aspired to hold public office and knew this asset could quickly become a liability: “I mean, I run for something, lose. Think I would care? I’m young. I can move on to the next thing. It wouldn’t be the end of the world. I don’t have a family, I don’t have any kids. I don’t have anything tying me down, per se, to make me feel sad about it.” Damon admitted that his political ambitions were lofty, but countered this with: “People say I’m not the average young person. So, it’s going to be very hard to get some people who don’t know me to take me seriously. . . . I know that’s going to be a constant stumbling block, that people are going to see me as trying to jump over this imaginary system that is set up where you’re supposed to wait your turn.” Damon registered another challenge that was facing him: racism. In seriously contemplating presidential aspirations, Damon realized this could be a significant impediment: “But it [racism] still rears its ugly head everywhere. . . . [Y]ou’re not going to see that many Black CEOs, Fortune 500 company. Government, I mean, come on, you don’t have any Black governors or senators. That’s a stepping-stone to president. So, that’s going to be something for me that’s going to be extremely difficult to overcome.” However, with Damon’s connections, some of which he forged in college, he felt anything was possible. Damon was intent on continuing his connections well beyond college. He maintained contact with students who had already graduated and had a number of close friends from his college years. He understood the challenge of continuing these significant relationships and had a solution: “[T]he problem at [Ivy University] is that so many minorities have bad experiences while they’re here, so when they leave they don’t want to maintain ties with [Ivy University]. So, my goal is to change that. . . . So, I want

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to work on having some kind of minority coalition, connection.” Damon planned to contact graduates and oversee this minority alumni network. Beyond the ties of friendship, he felt this was politically expedient: “Actually, from my standpoint, the important thing is to stay in contact with them. These are the people who are going to be doctors, lawyers, judges, engineers. These are the people who are going to be successful. It’s got to be a network.” Damon believed in coalition building.

OTHER SKEPTICS. Nicole and Sybill continued to face educational challenges even several years after graduation. For Nicole, it was the desire to go on for graduate school but the doubt about being able to go full time. She indicated that even juggling school part time and working full time “[t]hat’s going to be definitely a challenge because, you know, I feel like my plate is full.” Her company had no tuition reimbursement, so Nicole knew she would have to find a way to work while attending school. Sybill had been somewhat more fortunate and had completed her master’s degree right after graduation from Ivy University. However, her desire for a PhD created another dilemma. She also wanted to settle down, but found the two to be in conflict. So, she indicated that a relationship would just have to wait until after the PhD: “It’s just hard to be in school and have a relationship. It’s just putting a lot of stress on school and the relationship. I just couldn’t imagine being a PhD student trying to have a relationship.” Sybill had learned this from experience because she had broken off a previous engagement with her high school sweetheart just after graduation when she realized they were too young. However, in her optimistic fashion, Sybill commented, “Everything happens for a reason. Maybe 10 years later, we may meet one day and. . . .” In addition to relationship challenges, Sybill had found her first job a disappointment. It was not really in her field of expertise, but there were few jobs available when she graduated with her master’s degree, a stark contrast to just one year before. She blamed the effects of September 11 for the diminished employment opportunities. She had even had a job offer in New York City that was pulled after the terrorist attacks. All of these challenges were significant, but Sybill’s greatest challenge was one of the most frequently discussed, that of financial debt: “. . . I just want to get it cleared out. There’s so many things I want to do. I just don’t want to have that hanging over my head.” To find the best way to start paying back her college loans, Sybill was working with a financial planner. She had learned some important lessons: “Actually, even though it was hard financially for my family, it taught me a lesson. I’m very wise about money. I’m not just frugal, but I know how to live below my means.”

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THE MOON AND THE STARS: GOALS FOR THE FUTURE And the best truly does get saved for the last. In this final section of the students’ stories, they share their aspirations around career and education, their hopes and dreams. I was most curious to hear how their four long years at an elite university had shaped their goals.

The Pleasers LUC. “I want to go back to school so badly . . . I want it so badly. . . . A higher degree.” One of Luc’s dreams was to get a PhD, although there was doubt in her mind when and if that might happen. Finances were the major impediment. With a PhD, Luc felt that she would have a better chance of doing more of what she had a passion for, which she identified as “I want to work in research to develop ideas, to see my ideas going up. But, with my degree right now, I’m not able to do that.” However, her ultimate career aspiration was quite different: “And my dream has been to become a college professor, since I was a little kid. And you have to do that with a PhD, I know.” Luc was adamant that her wish to return to school had nothing to do with earning more money: If I want to go back to school, it’s not because I want more salary. It’s because I want more education. I want to feel, uh, I don’t know—maybe to look at myself, to feel proud of myself. It’s just more than a salary. I grew up in a very difficult situation. So, what I’m making right now is far more than I expected. . . . My main goal of going to college: to have a better life. That’s all. Which is what happened right now, so that’s really my goal. And, in a way, Luc was living part of her dream, to have a career job and to have her family around her. She was still amazed, three years later, that she had been hired for a sought-after job as an electrical engineer in a respected company, and even months before graduation. “An opportunity I could never imagine.” It was her determination and persistence during the application period, despite her shyness, that accomplished this major coup. Even though her first year was awkward, she learned a lot of technical and interpersonal skills on the job. And now, Luc can confidently state: “I found a place now where I just don’t want to leave.” She has a home, a husband, extended family around her, a lucrative career,

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and hopes and dreams for the future. Even though Ivy University had not been her first choice university, it propelled her into an enviable career.

ROBERTO. Roberto’s immediate goal after graduation was to attend graduate school, although he admitted to some fears around attending an Ivy League university: “Like, I feel the same I felt coming from high school to college. A little bit intimidated because I’m going to be in the classroom with all these doctors and, uhm, older people who are just going to look at me. And I’ve heard horror stories of being called ‘undergrad’ or the ‘young person,’ blah, blah, blah.” Roberto was a little surprised that he had been accepted at Yale, but definitely pleased and honored. It would be the stepping-stone to his career: “I wanted to run a hospital, so, that’s what I’m going to grad school for.” Roberto had specific ideas about the type of hospital administrator he would like to be. Primarily, his goal was to work with minority populations and have an impact on people. He had worked in several care facilities while in college and discovered that “[i]t just makes it, you know, a patient feels that much better if their doctor actually cares about what they’re doing. That’s what I envision for the kind of place I want to run.” Before he had a chance to turn this vision into reality, Roberto knew there were many steps to climb, the first being the graduate degree. In addition, Roberto indicated that “. . . I like to travel and I like to meet people. I’m so the ‘sit down with the client, take him out to lunch, and sit down and chew the fat’ type of person, so I’d like to do some consulting work first. And then, eventually, I’d like to, if not run, . . . be on the board of directors or run a health center.” Despite this ambition, Roberto knew the best decision was to head off to graduate school first. “I don’t look forward to working. I’m not ready yet. I know I’m not ready to do the 9 to 5 thing. I do look forward to developing my passion for whatever it is I do decide to make my career.” He knew there was something he would discover in his advanced education that would ignite him, and that was what he was setting out to find at Yale. Like many HEOP students, Roberto’s financial aspirations were somewhat tentative. “I can honestly say that I don’t desire to be filthy rich, but I would like to be comfortable to the point where I can buy my mother a house. . . . I just want to be comfortable and really enjoy what I do. I want to get up every day and say ‘I’m looking forward to work today.’” Job satisfaction and making a positive difference in people’s lives were higher priorities than money for Roberto. However, he continued by saying, “So, if that comes along with making a million dollars, that would be great. But if it comes along with living a comfortable life, I’d be just as satisfied.”

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OTHER PLEASERS. All of the other Pleasers were considering graduate school. Veronika wanted to attend a business school, but realized that most of the top schools wanted some work experience. So, she planned to move back to New York City, live with her brother, and look for a job, preferably one with tuition benefits. Her ultimate goal would be an Ivy League business school majoring in management of information systems technology or entrepreneurship. Panyos had also decided to delay graduate school in order to work and possibly clear up some of the confusion he felt over his goals: “Well, if I get a master degree and I’m stupid with everything else, what good is that going to do to me?” He realized that engineering was not a field in which he wanted to continue and dreamed about starting up his own business with his brother. However, he also realized that “. . . it’s kind of hard just to go out and start your own business. So, I don’t know. This road, I don’t want to do. This one is kind of hard to go, so I’m just staying here in the middle.” Panyos was thinking about getting an MBA, but thought they were becoming too “commonplace.” One thing about which Panyos was clear was that he was not returning to New York City right away: “I know if I go back home, I just have to start looking for a job and work right away, which is not what I want yet. I want to see, maybe three or four months, see what happens. And then, because I know I have the rest of my life working my butt off. So until then, let me do my own thing first.” Clarissa and Tran were more certain about going directly into graduate programs. Clarissa was applying for master’s programs in education and was hoping for some time to travel and be with her family. She planned to live in New York City when her graduate schooling was completed and hoped to teach junior high. And Tran was applying to graduate schools where he would major in physical therapy. It was the perfect combination of his love for dancing and his degree in biomechanics. It was also one of the top health care careers, which Tran attributed to the aging baby boomers. He hoped to open his own business at some point. However, first he had to get admitted to a graduate program at a university near Ivy University. He had no plan B: “No, a big iron door shut right here. Don’t want to go there.” All of these students and their families had struggled financially, but the professed financial aspirations sounded surprisingly modest. Clarissa stated the obvious: “. . . considering that I would like to teach, I know it won’t be anything particularly high.” Veronika indicated that money was important only to a certain extent: [I]t’s more I want to go to Jamaica, if I can schedule my next vacation, I want to go to Jamaica. I just want to be able to just

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afford that. Just say, I want to go, just buy the ticket and not worry I’ve got to save this here, I’ve got to save this here. . . . I mean, I don’t want to live in a big house with all these rooms and everything. I don’t want that. Something just appropriate. Panyos did not have any set monetary goals, but thought that he would like “[e]nough to live my life, give some to my parents. . . . So, I don’t know how much is enough. . . . But a million bucks a year, that should be enough. . . . Million bucks a year. I’m happy. I’m not going to bother you or cause any trouble.” And Tran also lacked specific goals, but had ideas about the quality of life he wanted to afford: “A family, a house, a car, independence. I can support myself. Simple. . . . Yes, and bringing my family over. It’s more important, bringing my family over, than to be rich.” All of the Pleasers included family in their future financial plans, something that is characteristic of first-generation immigrant families who have worked so hard to ensure that the children will have more opportunities than the parents. And the children often expressed their gratitude by giving back to the family.

The Searchers TIANA. Even though she was slightly disappointed with her grades, Tiana was not letting that deter her from her dream of becoming a hospital administrator. She was planning on continuing right on to graduate school and completing a combined program that would take three years and culminate with master’s degrees in both public health and business administration. “It’s still going to happen. Come whatever, it’s going to happen. You know. This happened!” She wanted to go to a prestigious graduate school but did not seem to have a strong preference for where. However, Tiana considered herself a New York City person at heart and would probably return there where family and friends were nearby. With her son as her immediate focus, Tiana did not talk about romantic goals. Tiana seemed to have an in-the-present orientation, putting one foot in front of the other, so it was not surprising that she had done little research into salaries of hospital administrators. However, she indicated, “I think they make a lot of money. So, but I think, I’m almost positive they make a good amount of money. I assume, a minimum would be like $50,000. Compared to where I’m at now, if I could make 50 . . . I worked my way up this far. So, I don’t know. I’d like to be comfortable—$50,000.” JASON. Passion for law and learning virtually oozed out of Jason’s pores. After working for a short period of time in sales, he was headed to

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law school. “Then I decided to myself, law school really is the best option for the skill set that I have and how I could implement that in a career. I felt that law school was the most appropriate thing for me.” He certainly appeared to have the intensity for it: “I was reaching very high. That’s just a characteristic of me. I always try to push myself to my maximum limits and to see what I could actually accomplish.” Jason wanted to attend a “good” law school but indicated that at the end, “. . . after that, it’s really up to you. It really is. As with any career. It’s really up to you and your own personality. And that is what I’m confident about.” He also talked about the importance of career satisfaction and making wise decisions along the way. “I want to be in a position where I won’t regret my decisions or how I am utilizing myself.” As passionate as Jason was about a career in law, he was even more committed to building a satisfying personal life that strikes an appropriate balance between family, friends, and career. “Coming from a singleparent household, you know, I want to have a happy marriage. I want independent children, not the cushioned children. Yeh, I just want to be comfortable.” He was realistic enough to know that he would be working long hours and that he would have to make a conscious effort to orchestrate a full life. However, he felt he had already matured a great deal and was prepared to succeed at this, as well as at law school. Jason was a bit more aware than other students about the financial side of his career: “As you can see, I’m very focused on money. . . . I’m not attending law school because you get a high paying starting salary. But, at the same time, it’s awfully attractive and looking at the average starting salary, I’m thinking to myself, well, I could take these three years and if I work hard as a student, I could pay for the mortgage when I get out. And I could still have some money left.” However, Jason registered some disappointment at how difficult it had become for anyone in his generation to own their own homes. He wished for, but didn’t wholly subscribe to, the attainability of the American Dream of white picket fences and quaint cottages.

OTHER SEARCHERS. Martine was planning on graduate school but only after a year or two break to make some money, perhaps as a paralegal. She was as passionate as Jason about law. However, her twist was a bit unusual: “I know this sounds funny—animal law. . . . The American Bar just recognized it as a growing interest in law. It’s basically the rights of animals, in terms of whether it’s livestock or just organizations like PETA [People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals], things of that nature.” Her reasons for going into law had nothing to do with the financial rewards: “And I don’t know if, necessarily, helping a corporation is

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the best way for me to feel good about myself. And animals, children, human rights are things that, you know, human refugee cases are more of interest to me.” Martine knew that when she was ready for graduate school, she would look at schools that were larger than Ivy University. She hoped to live in New York City, nearer to her parents, now that she felt they had a more mature relationship. Marie had decided the reverse. After September 11, when the economy took a dramatic downturn for new hires, she had decided to immediately pursue an MBA, with a focus on international relations or international studies. She felt confident that she could gain admission to a top business school, even though they are extremely competitive: “I feel everything is falling into place pretty much.” Marie was applying for internships over the summer in order to get some business experience. She was also looking forward to squeezing in a year in Spain in the near future. Marie admitted the move would be somewhat scary, but shrugged off her parents’ concerns for her safety: “The more you hear about stories, incidents—it’s never safe for a woman in the United States’ society to be alone. It’s hard. It still is.” Marie’s career dream was to work for a company that was connected to Latin America, something she could relate to because of her cultural heritage. But, eventually, she hoped to own her own business in a large city, just like her father: “And I think I have that mentality, too, where I don’t think I can go for a long period of time working for someone. I think I want to do it myself.” Both of these young women sought financial independence, but not real wealth. Martine was able to identify a lifestyle that she hoped to afford: “I just want to get a house, with a fence, with 2.5 kids, a dog, and buy a house maybe for my family in El Salvador. The little things. Maybe a Jaguar when I’m 60.” With even more detail, Martine stated: “I just want the feeling of not worrying if I have enough money in the bank to buy a Big Mac at McDonalds. . . . It’s never really been about the money. And you would think, ‘OK, you want to be a lawyer because of the money.’ And it’s really not. I think, I want a job that I’m going to be able to rest my head down at night.” Marie had similar goals: “. . . I don’t want to be like wealthy, or anything like that, because I don’t think that’s how I am. . . . But I think, I just want to be debt free in a sense. I just want to own my own house and kind of just like, just teach my kids how to save money and not abuse it.” And Marie could also further define financial success: “I just want to save enough money to like be able to put my kids through college and stuff like that. But it all depends also like what my husband will be doing. But I don’t want to depend on that, so I’ll have my own money and be able to be debt free.”

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The Skeptics STACEY. Stacey’s ultimate desire was to be a crime scene investigator for the FBI. She had dreamed of this for quite a while and was doing everything in her power to make it happen. She had been accepted into a master’s program in Connecticut and, even though it was not the forensic science major for which she had applied, it was close: criminal justice with a certificate in forensic investigation. Stacey was disappointed that she would have some bridge courses to take, but she was confident that these credentials would move her closer to her dream. Within the FBI, Stacey did not want to be just a regular field agent. She described the division for which she was aiming: “They have, right now, three evidence recovery teams. They are teams that are made up of pathologists, forensic scientists, toxicologists, everybody, everywhere. Just about one of everything that they can find that deals with anything. And they go and investigate scenes.” Stacey felt this would be a perfect fit for her background and interest in the sciences and for her desire to make a difference. However, it would be demanding: “. . . [Y]ou get called around the world, 24/7, you’re on duty. That’s why, if I can do it, I’d rather do it young before I have children. It will have to be something I do young because at any minute, you’ve got to go.” Her rekindled romance with her high school sweetheart was going well, but she had no immediate plans for a major commitment, so, if she was going to take on a career with this level of responsibility, this was her time to do it. DAMON. An MBA or a JD might be in Damon’s future, but immediately after graduation, he was planning to work. “But I really want to explore the working companies. You know, how they work. Learn how they work. Maybe make some money at the same time. I’m not trying to starve. . . . Uhm, I’m looking at banks.” Right before graduation, Damon was interviewing with local banks. His strong preference was to stay in the area so he could continue to “explore my political aspirations at the same time. Maintain business.” Damon had applied to and been accepted at several universities (his backup plan), but he hoped to secure a job that would pay for his future education. Damon maintained that his ultimate dream and goal was to become president of the United States: “And who knows if that will happen, but it’s still something that I’m still going to shoot for.” In the short term, Damon wanted to be elected to the local school board one year after graduation. He explained that he was “very disillusioned about that whole process.” Most local residents were as well. The urban school district was large and in disarray after a number of lean

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years as state aid declined, despite the increase of mandated programs and testing, and the escalation of educational problems. Damon was somewhat concerned that his youth may be a disadvantage, but he felt more qualified than many who had sat on the board and done very little. Damon had financial aspirations to match his political dreams, which he recounted at some length: You know people say money isn’t everything. I think that money is important. I think people are more important than money; God is more important than money; but money is important because you need to be able to survive. And we can kid ourselves and say “You know, but happiness is more important than money,” but you’ll be a little bit more happy if you have more money. You’ll be able to do things you want to do. You’ll be able to send your kids to schools that you want to send them to. You’re able to live where you want to live. You don’t have to be hampered by your situation. Uhm, money doesn’t change that many things, in terms of societal things. There’s still going to be racism. There’s still going to be sexism and classism. But it will allow a lot of doors to be opened to you. So, I want to make as much money as I can. I wouldn’t mind being a millionaire. He joined the ranks of Roberto and Panyos who also indicated that a million dollars might be enough. However, they did not expect to just be handed this small fortune. Each of these students sounded like he was willing to work, and work hard, for this income.

OTHER SKEPTICS. Nicole was studying for her GMATs and hoping to enter a part-time master’s program in business administration. Eventually she dreamed of owning her own business where she would be a consultant for medical billing and compliance activities. She had learned the importance of advanced degrees: “You just realize having a bachelor’s is nothing. It’s a good start, but you definitely can’t stop there. And being in corporate America, I see that, you cannot stop there.” She knew that a master’s degree would make her more marketable. Because she was settled back home in New York City, living with her long-term boyfriend and employed in a job she really liked, she had no plans to move. “If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.” She appreciated the quiet pace of Staten Island and its proximity to the frenetic city. Nicole hoped that her career path would take her income into the six figures.

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Sybill was also fortunate to have landed a job that brought her tremendous satisfaction: “So, I work for a consulting firm, a health consulting group, which I absolutely love. It’s my dream job . . . work with minority populations in HIV and AIDS prevention. I love it! It’s great. I work crazy hours.” However, after a short break—maybe a year—she planned to apply for medical school or for a PhD program in health care administration. She was actively exploring her options: “Uhm, well I definitely want to work with minority populations. . . . I want to work with, specialize in an area that affects African Americans —diabetes—or, I don’t know. Maybe ob/gyn. Those are some of the options.” To accomplish this and to make it financially feasible, Sybill had decided that “. . . the only way I would go to medical school is if I could do the National Health Service program, where you go to medical school and you commit to going to underserved areas. . . . but I really want to work in a third world country. That’s my long-range goal.” Sybill was also thinking about where she wanted to live. She loved Atlanta with its big-city feel and sprawling opportunities, but her home and heart were in Buffalo, and she couldn’t dismiss that as an eventuality. But her immediate and pressing goal was to pay off her school debt so she could live her life free of that nagging burden.

CONCLUSION Anticipating their postgraduate futures, these HEOP students astutely identified their fears and confronted the challenges of the complex “real world” that lay ahead, especially in their graduate school plans, their employment aspirations, their ability to maintain relationships with family and friends, and their desire to establish a sane and satisfying balance between all the competing demands that would be placed on their time and energy. Each student’s unique situation created a different combination of immediate concerns, but it was remarkable how similar some of their comments sounded. Graduate school—completing the applications, getting admitted, deciding which one, and coming up with the tuition—appeared to be the demand pressing most heavily on their minds as they graduated. Many of the students (Roberto, Clarissa, Tiana, Marie, Stacey, and Sybill) planned to attend graduate school immediately upon graduation. The rest (Luc, Tran, Veronika, Panyos, Jason, Martine, Nicole, and Damon) were delaying their graduate experience, primarily in order to work for a year or two and save up some money. Panyos was a glaring exception, in that he talked about the possibility of graduate school, but was not committed to applying for a program in the next few years. He was so

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unsure of his future direction that he just wanted time to refocus his life. Roberto and Jason were also concerned about focus, but maintaining their chosen direction, rather than finding it. And Sybill, who graduated two years earlier, had already successfully carried out her plan of attaining a master’s degree and was taking a breather from school in order to apply her education in a paying job before making the move toward a medical degree or PhD. Personal connections with family and friends also drew considerable attention for these students. A number of them were keenly aware that returning home while they looked for jobs or waited for graduate school admission was going to be a lesson in diplomatic negotiation. They anticipated the “reentry” shock of returning to their previous environments as changed people, who may have to deal with the constraints of living with their parents again. Marie, Martine, and Panyos were especially concerned about the excessive protectiveness of their families. However, Luc and Jason found the closeness of family life a welcome change and one they wanted to maintain. And Veronika, Marie, and Sybill were concerned about starting their own families at some point, and wondered about timing and combining family, school, and careers. Maintaining college friendships seemed easier, and most of the students were hopeful and even confident that they would remain close to these friends who had been there for them during the trying years of college. Only Tiana and Martine thought this might be a challenge. The challenges of balancing all of their competing interests and desires only served to further inspire these students to do everything in their power to ensure the realization of their hopes and dreams. Adversity rarely seemed to slow them down. If anything, they had learned throughout their lives to accept challenges and to work hard to surmount them. The students shared with me an incredible smorgasbord of ambitious career goals. Luc wanted to be a college professor and Clarissa hoped to teach junior high English. Several students were interested in the medical fields: Roberto and Tiana in hospital administration and Sybill probably in becoming a physician and working with minority populations and their health issues. Jason and Martine were headed to law school. Veronika was looking into business, perhaps investment banking. A number of students wanted the independence of owning their own businesses: Panyos, doing something related to engineering with his brother; Tran, as a physical therapist; Marie, as an international business consultant specializing in Latin America; and Nicole, doing medical billing and compliance consulting. Stacy dreamed of being a crime scene investigator for the FBI, and Damon set his sights on becoming the president of the United States. To achieve these lofty career goals, students

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would be earning MDs (Doctor of Medicine), JDs (Juris Doctor), MBAs (Master of Business Administration), and other master’s degrees and PhDs (Doctor of Philosophy). Despite these ambitious and noble career goals, very few of the students set their financial aspirations as high. Only Roberto, Panyos, and Damon intimated at becoming millionaires. The majority of the group focused on living “comfortable” lives where their basic needs and a little more, such as vacations and restaurant dinners, could be accommodated without worry. Whatever their financial goals, the students expected to work hard for whatever they earned. Many of the Pleasers and Searchers (Luc, Panyos, Tran, Martine, and Jason) talked about providing financial support and assistance for their families, something that is virtually expected in recent immigrant families and commonplace for most poor and working-class families. Even throughout college, a number of the students had been sending money back home, and this would be a practice they would continue. The immediate financial goal for many of the students was to pay off their college loans and become debt free. Into an increasingly complicated globalization of work and opportunity, these students strove to position themselves for the future. Theirs was a constant negotiation of identity in all of Gibbs’s (1999) five dimensions set within the changing spaces of the transition between school and work, self and society, and family/collective expectations versus individual ideation. They were truly like the students who Cameron McCarthy (1998) identifies as “hybrids . . . who experience the shifting nature of identity and proceed to . . . position themselves as active producers and agents of culture who are situated within a global system” (p. 160). These students sound like they are truly reaching for the moon, but as Damon stated, even if they miss the moon, they have a level of resiliency and optimism that will certainly place them with the stars.

Chapter 9 CONCLUSION Closing the Gap

Like strangers in a strange land, today’s increasingly diverse and financially burdened students enter the world of higher education intent on succeeding at academic institutions that were originally designed for culturally homogeneous, middle-class populations. Throughout their college careers, they are expected to learn from faculty trained primarily as researchers rather than as teachers. Student drop-out rates and levels of faculty burnout are high—a phenomenon leading some conservative educators and politicians to demand that higher education be saved by eliminating “unqualified” students or their professors. However, once we consider the possibility that neither students nor faculty have exhausted their potential for significant growth and development by the time they meet in the college classroom, new and better solutions emerge. —Esther Kingston-Mann and Tim Sieber (2001)

This study set out to learn what happened at the end of the undergraduate trail for a group of students completing their studies at a selective, elite university. What made their stories compelling and distinguished this cluster of students from many others graduating from hallowed institutions like Ivy University was that these students did not meet the admissions criteria for this institution and were only admitted through a tightly regulated opportunity program, the Higher Education Opportunity Program, jointly funded by the New York State Department of Education and the admitting university. Because they entered at a disadvantage, it is even more remarkable that this group of students stubbornly persisted and graduated in more impressive numbers than those students who were admitted through the traditional admissions criteria. Taking a longitudinal look at this group of HEOP students provides an opportunity to see the stages that students go through from the beginning 171

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of their collegiate experience to the point of graduation. The “big picture” reveals their transition-to-college period, the “honeymoon” phase of culture shock (as described in chapter 8), where they were awed by attending Ivy University and amazed, yet somewhat intimidated, by the campus and everything that comes with being at a selective university. This initial elation lasted into the early months of the first year, when “the bloom was off the rose” and the students began to lose the idealized image of what college was all about. Now they had to deal with the realities of being a minority on campus, living full time among students who were from dissimilar backgrounds, being great distances from home and everything familiar, and sitting in classes where the demands were numbing and the treatment of students not always congenial. For some, this second stage happened abruptly and destabilized them. They were forced to reassess their academic and social strategies, as well as their reasons for coming to college in the first place. As they began to steady themselves and develop survival systems, they turned to extending themselves into the university community, finding those places and people where they felt valued and where they could safely continue their search for and expression of their identities. This time was all about creating a balance between all factors competing for their time and attention. Toward the end of their undergraduate years, most students had made tremendous progress toward “becoming someone” and were looking to the future with some trepidation, but more with a sense of being able to put all that they had learned into practice, either in career-appropriate jobs or graduate school. Their drive, persistence, and resiliency had carried them this far, and most of them believed that these attributes would take them successfully into the “real world.” In the following sections, I first respond to my guiding questions from chapter 1 by summarizing the conclusions culled from the students’ narrations about (1) their experiences and success at Ivy University and (2) their perceived outcomes of graduating from this selective university. Following those two pieces, the implications of this study for educators and institutional decision makers are contained under four umbrella headings: the first returns to the metaphor of the bridge that is college; the second explores access to selective universities; the third section expands on what has become a central motif of this research—the resiliency of these HEOP students; and the fourth section looks to the future for these students.

RECIPE FOR SUCCESS: MAKING IT HAPPEN The students had a lot to say about their experiences over the four years of their undergraduate education, an education that occurred as much

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outside of the classroom as inside. Chapters 2 through 6 focused on the students’ experiences at Ivy University, from their first through their final year. The progress that was made in this brief period of time was impressive, both in acquiring knowledge that would elevate their career options and in learning about themselves and refining their visions of the world and life in general. What I found remarkable was that the majority of these students had few regrets about anything that had happened on campus during these years. Knowing what they now knew about the challenges and frustrations of sometimes being “out of the know”/“outsiders” (Horowitz, 1987) in this split climate, these students, overwhelmingly, would do it all over again at Ivy University. They were quite philosophical and viewed most situations as learning opportunities, putting things into perspective in a way that often sounded more mature, but might also be read as more idealistically naive than many college students their ages. Affiliations with various groups on campus allowed many of the HEOP students opportunities to further define their collective identities and exercise their leadership potential. If the students elected to join activities, they were usually related to cultural or ethnic groups. The solidification of identity, both individual and collective, was an important task during these critical years of development. For students like Stacey, Damon, and Nicole, involvement in the politically charged groups that focused on minority issues were ideal training grounds for future careers and leadership roles. The work was often exhausting and frustrating, but rewarding and engaging in the long run. Other students, especially Luc and Tiana, eschewed campus groups, organizations, and activities and focused on their academic pursuits, family responsibilities, and relationships. The significant conclusion from these varied levels of participation (or integration, as some would call it) is that the students succeeded and were able to graduate despite, or in spite of, their involvement in campus activities. Higher levels of involvement did not correlate with higher academic achievement. Roberto, who admitted that he liked to participate but preferred that others lead, probably achieved the highest overall GPA and was admitted to the most prestigious graduate school. While Vincent Tinto (1987) and others push for social integration as a key to retention, these students are evidence that success is possible without it. Some of their lives were too complicated to allow space for these extracurriculars. Through the student narrations, there was clear support for Linda Lau’s (2003) assertion that it takes the dedicated and shared responsibility on the part of three groups on campus to create and build a community: the institutional leaders, the faculty, and the students. The students were most vocal about their positive and negative experiences and treatment

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within the institution as a whole, as well as within their classes, and they generated a comprehensive list, found in chapter 4, of what each of these three entities might do to make the campus climate more embracing of all students. The HEOP students agreed that (1) students need to be more proactive and assertive advocates for themselves; (2) the faculty need to be challenging and supportive; and (3) the administration needs to be in touch with its student body, actively listening to their concerns and responding promptly and appropriately. These students were not looking to get out of the hard work of learning or to escape the responsibility for knowledge acquisition that fell squarely on their shoulders. Throughout their narrations, over and over, they reiterated that they liked to be challenged, they expected to be learning cutting-edge material, and they wanted their degree to validate their hard-earned competency within their chosen fields. They wanted the faculty to do their jobs in creative, effective, and caring ways, and they wanted the administration to be fair, openminded, and willing to change. There was a tinge of moral indignation in their perceptions that the faculty and administration did not step forward and meet them halfway. The HEOP students felt tremendous pressure to achieve, for their families in some cases, and for themselves in others. Because this group was coming from behind in terms of preparation for college, they had to cover more ground, more quickly than many other students around them. On top of this, they often felt that they were carrying the banner for their identity group(s) and that they had to prove that they were as competent as the next student. The stress that they felt was partially self-inflicted, but also characteristic of a concern most universities voice about their student populations. A recent article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Rimer, 2004) described the variety of programs and services that colleges around the country have instituted to combat stress-related conditions. The Bowdoin dean of student affairs, Craig Bradley, supported some radical student efforts to refocus students toward healthier attitudes: “. . . anything to get students to stop worrying so much about body image, grades, careers” (Rimer, 2004). More colleges, private and public, are attending to issues of “personal growth and emotional well-being.” While Ivy University had not created massage and group therapy sessions like some universities discussed in the article, the students would probably have welcomed more of an effort to alleviate the emotional/mental stress they felt on this campus. Stacey was surprised and shocked to discover late in her third year that a number of her newfound friends from the prefreshman summer program had been dealing with depression, just like her. The students all concurred that Ivy University was a rigorous, academically focused campus, to the point of being unhealthy in

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terms of the students’ physical well-being, as well as the overall health and vitality of the institution. More intrusive, active advising from the very beginning, developing a caring relationship with each student, might have saved these students a great deal of mental duress. The rather tame social lives that these students described provided further evidence of the academic focus of the HEOP students. Many of them mentioned striving to achieve a balance in their student lives, between all of the competing pulls on their time and attention. The social lives that the students did discuss revolved around friendships that they had made with students from their prefreshman summer program. It was remarkable how many of them counted these early relationships as some of the most enduring and meaningful relationships they had experienced in these four years. And the students who had graduated a year or two before indicated that they were still in contact with these friends. The shared backgrounds and common experiences that many of them brought with them to campus forged strong bonds that became supportive, almost family-like networks. Many of the students were living with, or near, these friends in their last year of college. Tiana and Marie became fast friends with their assigned suite mates in their early years of college. But, for the most part, friendships evolved between students who shared common cultural or ethnic backgrounds and mores. Only rarely would students mention some significant friendships that crossed over into the population at large. The summer bridge program was clearly a valuable first step in the HEOP students’ college lives. However, with more multicultural opportunities woven into the Ivy University experience in academic as well as social venues, these students might also have forged significant friendships outside of their cultural zones of comfort. Deeper, romantic relationships came up in our conversations now and then, but were not major topics of discussion. Several of the students had formed some promising liaisons, including Damon, Nicole, and Stacey, but, for the most part, these students had not had the time or the opportunity to become romantically committed during college. However, many of them indicated a desire for a significant, caring relationship/marriage in the future and voiced concern about the challenge of balancing work and family. Family relationships were a bit more challenging than friendships. A college diploma would significantly alter family dynamics for many of the HEOP graduates. Most of the students were actively renegotiating their places within the family nexus. Many of them wondered about going home again. The university experience had changed them in significant ways, and they would not be returning home as the same people who left.

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How would their families accept them? Martine and Marie had worked to reframe the overbearing patriarchal expectations of their families. But they were still concerned that their parents would have difficulty allowing them to go forth in the world under their own steam. Many of the students proceeded cautiously and tentatively into these family reconfigurations. However, some, such as Jason and Luc, had better and more mature relationships than ever with their families and were delighted to have more time with them. These students had all grown and matured, and, for better or worse, their family relationships would never be the same as before their college years.

SHORT-TERM OUTCOMES Through all sorts of adverse situations—academic challenge and disappointment, confusion about majors and career direction, family issues, financial strains, dealing with roommates/professors/advisers/friends, constructing an institutional “fit” while maintaining an individual identity—these students had grown and risen to the ranks of resilient graduates. Adversity became challenges to overcome, and the students were confident that they could overcome most challenges. Career goals started in one direction as incoming freshmen and often veered into entirely new territory as the world of learning opened the HEOP students’ eyes to new and never before imagined opportunities. When one door closed, new doors of creative possibilities opened. Many students changed their majors and charted new directions. Only 2 of the 14 participants in this study stayed in their original majors. The following list summarizes the dramatic range of choices that were made: • Because her previous major was not offered, Luc had to change her major to chemical engineering when she transferred from another university. • Roberto changed his major a number of times from optics in his freshman year to the double major of psychology and Spanish, then to a double major of psychology and health and society with a minor in Spanish. • When Veronika realized it was her mother and not she who guided her choice of major, she changed from premed and psychology to economics. • Clarissa became discouraged with her grades and switched from premed to English. • Tran switched from biochemistry to biomechanics his second year because it better suited his interests.

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Tiana changed from premed to health and society because it kept her close to the medical world without the chemistry requirements. Jason moved from economics to history when he decided to pursue law school. Martine started out with political science and economics but changed to political science with a religion minor. Marie went from being a biology major to an anthropology major, but was frustrated that she could not design her own hybrid major. Nicole began as a math major and disliked the lack of application of concepts in this major so switched to health administration, which had more flexibility. Sybill had been a premed and English major and found there was too much reading tied to this combination. She changed to health and society and found it fascinating. Stacey began with microbiology as her major and changed to a double major of health and society and anthropology when the chemistry stopped her.

Only two students stayed in their majors all the way through the four years: •

•

Panyos remained in electrical engineering, primarily because he didn’t want to disappoint his parents. He thought that he really wanted to teach but admitted that he was confused. Damon loved and lived political science. He viewed it as the window to the past and to the future: “Power drives everything.”

Many of these students were seeking variety and flexibility in their majors once they got a taste of the broad range of majors that were possible on this campus. They found it difficult to choose just one area and ended up with many combinations of double majors and minors, with a number of certificates thrown in. Given the number of changes in major, the quality of academic advising should be a central issue for undergraduates. However, at Ivy University, the HEOP students found that they relied on the advice of their peers or on a fortunate encounter with one influential/charismatic professor. A life-changing decision was made with little guidance. The complexity of making a choice between so many tempting majors was just the preliminary indicator that these students were actively engaged in changing and rearranging their goals throughout the four years of college. However, wherever they ended up, the one thing that

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they had in common was lofty career goals. Among this group of students that had come out of high schools that had provided minimal preparation and that had experienced severe personal financial challenges were some ambitious career aspirations. Teaching attracted both Luc and Clarissa. Luc wanted to be a college professor of engineering and Clarissa hoped to teach junior high English. Roberto and Tiana both wanted to be hospital administrators, and Jason and Martine planned to become lawyers. Five students aspired to own their own businesses: Veronika, Panyos with his brother, Tran as a physical therapist, Marie doing something with international relations, and Nicole with medical consulting. Sybill dreamed of being a doctor in a third world country, and Stacey wanted to be an FBI crime scene investigator. Perhaps the most ambitious dream was Damon’s serious plan for a life in politics, culminating in the presidency of the United States. The students realized that to achieve these career dreams graduate school would be mandatory, and many of them planned to continue right on to graduate school after graduation. Roberto, Clarissa, Tran, Tiana, Marie (MBA), and Stacey were planning on master’s degree programs in the year following undergraduate school. At the time of the interviews, Sybill had already completed her master’s degree and was hoping to begin either an MD or PhD program in the near future. Several students planned to continue on for advanced degrees after they had taken a little time to work and earn some money: Veronika, Panyos, and Nicole planned to complete MBAs; Jason and Martine were studying for law school admissions; and Luc dreamed of completing a PhD at some undetermined point in the future. Damon was going to work for a few years and decide whether he wanted to pursue an MBA or a law degree. Even though Ivy University had been a rigorous academic battle for many of the HEOP students, it had not dashed their academic dreams. If anything, it energized them with new determination toward the achievement of meaningful graduate degrees and eventual careers that would allow them to contribute to society. Many of the students deferred immediate application to graduate school because financial pressures forced them to work for a period of time. They all carefully planned how best to handle their immediate futures. Those who were working were strategically allocating their money to a combination of paying off their undergraduate debts, contributing to their families, saving for graduate school, and day-to-day survival. The financial aspirations seemed modest; most of them alluded to being “comfortable” and providing security for their families, truly a mark of achievement and success for families that had struggled financially for so long. Only a few of the students admitted to aspiring to become millionaires, and then it was hard to tell if they were really serious about this as

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a primary goal or if it would be a welcome secondary benefit derived from their efforts with academics and employment. The immediate outcomes of graduating from an elite institution, one that many of the HEOP students could only dream of attending, were numerous for these students. Their GPAs were commendable, and for some, extraordinary, giving lie to the sentiment that students from inner city and marginal schools are not appropriate candidates for selective universities. Even though many of the students had to struggle to get on common ground with the majority of their Ivy University peers, none of them regretted this extra effort. The students felt that they had learned a lot, measured by GPAs, but also measured by personal growth and satisfaction. Not only were they walking away with credentials that should enhance their futures, they had developed ambitious goals for their careers and graduate training. The contacts they had made with faculty, programs, and other students at Ivy University opened their eyes to career possibilities that they might not have become aware of at less selective institutions. None of them were discouraged by the challenge of academics, and all of them included graduate degrees within their life plans. They were graduating feeling more personally and professionally empowered and remarkably changed.

IMPLICATIONS College Is a Bridge For most students, college is a bridge between high school and a career in the “real world.” For generations it has been viewed as a welcome pause between adolescence and adulthood, a time to have last flings and flirtations before responsibilities for careers, families, and self-sufficiency consumed most of one’s waking hours. For upper-middle-class and elite families, that perception might have been a reality, but for poor and working-class families, college is much more than a bridge between two developmental stages. For students from these families, college provides the opportunity to jump classes, to transition from the lower strata into the middle to upper classes within one generation. As Herant Katchadourian and John Boli (1994) reported in their study of Stanford University graduates, “. . . all of the participants in the lower-middle, working-, or lower-class groups report upward mobility” (p. 163). Even more applicable to the HEOP students was their finding that “. . . entry into the educational elite almost guarantees upward mobility for minority students” (p. 166). William Bowen and Derek Bok came to similar conclusions (1998) about the economic outcomes for Black graduates

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from elite universities, as did Thomas Kane (1998) for Blacks and Latino/as. Cycles of poverty and bare survival can be broken, and new directions that will affect generations to come can result from making it through the college experience. Many HEOP students talked with pride about how they were paving the way for their siblings and for their children. Their intent in graduating from college was to improve the life opportunities of those who came behind them. Their children would never rely on welfare or want for any essential item. Clearly, college is a bridge that spans a gap, not just of knowledge, but an opportunity gap that many students have not had the ability to cross. Each year that is successfully completed becomes a milepost on the way toward unimaginable promise. Families, especially those who are first-generation immigrants, rely on these children to make the immigrant experience worth the effort. Often it has been an extremely wrenching experience of tearing families apart in order to achieve more opportunities for a future in which families can sustain themselves by their hard work, rather than perform backbreaking work for substandard wages. A college degree can be the magic key that opens a world where there are no worries about where the next meal will come from or whether the rent will be paid on time to avoid eviction. Crossing this bridge has immediate and vital rewards on which entire families may depend. Once one child has successfully made it to the other side, it becomes easier for siblings to manage the crossing. Establishing a place and an identity on this campus required taking risks and being brave. These students realized the value of their education and willingly undertook what was necessary to achieve it, while trying not to compromise themselves. Paradoxically, the farther a student traveled toward the unknown at the end of this bridge, the farther they moved from their families and everything they had known in the past. There is an additive but also a subtractive process at work in this dialectic of higher education. Students bring with them portions of their pasts, but in the process of moving forward, they also leave parts behind.

Access: Students Need It To cross this bridge, the students need access to it. Chapter 1 explored the unequal opportunity that students coming from inner city, urban schools often face. Their schools placed HEOP students at educational disadvantage and their families were challenged by economic disadvantage. It was only through the HEOP system that these students had the opportunity to attend a selective university and pursue their academic/ career dreams. Without the HEOP support, these students would have

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been denied access to Ivy University and consigned to affordable and local community colleges. Even the cost of four years at a public university might well have been beyond their means, especially when their delayed ability to earn income is factored in. Again, these families had no backup resources and often depended on the children to work and contribute to the family’s well-being. Public colleges and universities serve a vital function in the higher education system. For many students these are appropriate and convenient choices. The education gained from these institutions can be life changing. However, selective/elite universities are the incubators of our country’s leaders. People who rise to positions of power and who become change agents in this country have, for the most part, graduated from Ivy League or similar elite institutions, not community colleges (Bowen & Bok, 1998; Knight & Oesterreich, 2002). In this light, it is worth noting that President George W. Bush has recently promoted community colleges as the institutions to best meet the training needs of the U.S. economy: “Many of the fastest-growing occupations require strong math and science preparation, and training beyond the high school level. . . . I propose increasing our support for America’s fine community colleges, so they can train workers for the industries that are creating the most new jobs” (Cooper, 2004, p. 13). While many students will benefit from this increased opportunity to attend college, increased funding of community colleges will result in less money going into other areas of higher education, institutions and programs that may prepare students for lifelong learning that confers career flexibility, versatility, and adaptability versus slotting workers into technical jobs that will be outdated within several years, if that long, thereby setting up a cycle of temporary employment followed by mandatory retraining for the next temporary job. The higher education that President Bush supports is a short-term solution to a current situation, not an education that will serve a person over a lifetime and develop a critical consciousness and leadership ability. As Henry Giroux (1996) urges, “Rather than accepting the modernist assumption that schools should train students for specific labor tasks, it makes more sense in the present historical moment to educate students to theorize differently about the meaning of work in a postmodern world” (p. 67). When students have ability, are capable of achieving at the levels required by selective universities, and aspire to careers and positions that can only be reached through these types of institutions, it is difficult to justify denying access because of their underprivileged backgrounds. Many states recognize this civic responsibility and have created programs such as HEOP to provide this type of access. However, these programs are small, the numbers are strictly limited each year, and funding is

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threatened annually. More and more, as the states have decreased their contributions to these plans, the colleges and universities have been forced to increase their support for the tuition and costs involved with these students. However, many administrators are forced to focus on the economic bottom line and see little immediate return for this investment. It is my hope that this study has amply demonstrated the value of programs like HEOP. Beyond the issue of social responsibility that we all bear to create equal opportunity in this country for all of our citizens, despite their means, there are a number of benefits that are derived from ensuring the best possible education for all of our youth. In the previous section, the benefits to the families of these students were highlighted. Breaking cycles of poverty and providing opportunity for people to become contributing members of society is a powerful motivator for compensatory programs. To document what this means in dollars and cents, the Collegiate and Professional Development Unit of the New York State (NYS) Education Department calculated and prepared Opportunity Program Graduates Estimate of Annual Revenues to New York State as of 2001–2002. To briefly summarize the salient points, 27,600 students had graduated from HEOP as of 2001–2002. Of these, it was estimated that 22,080 remained in NYS. Estimating the median income for bachelor degree graduates at $42,276, the total estimated gross income for HEOP graduates in one year was $933,454,080. The 12% NYS income tax on these earnings would net $112,014,490, and 4% NYS sales tax on 50% of these gross earnings would result in $18,669,082. Adding together the tax, the state recoups $130,683,572 on its investment. There is also a return on public assistance that is saved (approximately 15% of HEOP students are from families on public assistance), which amounts to $16,248,000. Adding this savings to the tax generated by these graduates gives a grand total of $146,931,572 that HEOP graduates have contributed back, in one form or another, to the state of New York. It is in all of our best interests to educate these students, educate them well, and equip them to enter professions that satisfy their needs and those of their communities. Beyond the economic payback that makes the short-term cost more than worth it in the long run, there is the ability of well-educated people to become leaders or people of influence within society, who have the potential to change their local communities, their states, our country, and the world (Bowen & Bok, 1998). A number of the HEOP students had tastes of leadership and looked forward to more opportunities to contribute at these levels. Even those who lacked time in college were hoping to make significant contributions at some level. None of them talked

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about going home and sitting around, watching television, and “hanging out” with their friends, while expecting parents or others to provide for them. Just the reverse; they took a measure of pride in the fact that they would be contributing to their families while supporting themselves. HEOP and compensatory programs like it, provide life chances for a population that reflects the demographic shifts and evolution of this country. They pull students from groups that will be increasingly represented on college campuses, with varying levels of success. Once they recruit them, they continue to provide dedicated/mandated counseling and support for the students, contrary to many institutions that attract students and then let them “sink or swim.” As Betty Siegel, president of Kennesaw State University, observed: “We build beautiful campuses; we hire distinguished faculty; we develop challenging curricula; then the ‘wrong’ students show up!” (Brown, 2003). Recent articles such as one on CNN.com (“Many College Students,” 2004) report dismal graduation rates for “poor and racial minorities,” including Black and Latino/a students. Compared with the 63% overall graduation rate for students enrolled in fouryear colleges (a degree within six years), graduation rates for Blacks were significantly lower at around 30%. The article points out the widening wage differential between bachelor’s degrees and high school diplomas as one of the immediate concerns about statistics like these. Issues like this underscore the need for HEOP and similar programs. In my 1998 research cohort, the graduation rate of the original 23 students was 96%, and this cohort included only students who were from disadvantaged backgrounds, where other studies have lumped all Black students or other minorities together, regardless of family income. New York State’s HEOP student graduation rates are usually higher than the 63% overall graduation rate for all students across the nation in four year college programs. Without programs like HEOP, elitism will become even more entrenched than it is today in selective universities like Ivy University. Writers like Michael Greve (1999), who cofounded The Center for Individual Rights, a part of the “conservative public interest law movement,” doesn’t think this is a bad idea. In his polemic “review” of The Shape of the River (Bowen & Bok, 1998) he states: “By definition though, elite universities won’t be representational by any measure, be it race or religion or income. Elite public education redistributes income and life chances upward. . . . America’s (mostly private) elite universities are the envy of the world. . . .” These attitudes of entrenched acceptance of privilege and entitlement need to be challenged in a democracy like the United States. Even Anna Quindlen (2004), a more progressive journalist, in her address to the 2004 graduates that appeared in Newsweek, assumes a

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level of privilege that many of her readers may not share: “I look at all of you and realize that, for many, life has been a relentless treadmill since you entered preschool at the age of 2. Sometimes, as though I am narrating a fairy story, I tell my children of a time when the SAT was taken only once and a tutor was a character in an English novel. . . .” For the HEOP students, this world of preschools, tutoring, and SAT training sessions is a fairy tale. A nation of educational “haves” and “have nots,” created by design and sanctioned by the citizenry is not democratic. Compensatory programs, as a means to bridge this gap, are, in the long run, inexpensive investments toward educational health and equity in this country, and, as such, they need more attention and support. Sylvia Hurtado and Karen Inkelas (1998) provide a challenging perspective regarding access: The broad definition of access to any postsecondary institution ignores the important fact that there is a hierarchy of resources and opportunities that come with attendance at different types of postsecondary institutions (Hearn, 1988) and these differ even at 4-year institutions that are further differentiated by selectivity status (Karen, 1991). . . . Thus, according to the broadest definition of access to any type of institution, we may be quickly approaching universal access and the picture for various groups can be portrayed as “good news.” However, most would now contend that this hardly represents equal access as students become aware of distinctions among postsecondary options, the system becomes more differentiated, and researchers reveal how different groups tend to pursue distinct postsecondary opportunities. (p. 85) So, even though we have made significant strides toward universal access, questions must still be raised about the equity of that access. We know that minority students are overrepresented in community colleges and that the transfer rate for students from community college to fouryear institutions remains dismally low, as low as 10% (Solman, Solman, & Schiff, 2002). This brings us back to the pressing need for democratic access to college, eloquently defined by Laura Rendon (1998): Democratic access ensures that all students, regardless of social background, race/ethnicity or gender, are provided a fair and equal opportunity to graduate from high school, enter the college of their choice, graduate from college, and enter the graduate or professional program of their choice. (p. 64)

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Resiliency “Resilience is most important at life transitions” (Maluccio, 2002, p. 2). Surviving four years at an elite university would certainly qualify as a major life transition, and the HEOP students have spoken at length about the challenges of this transitional period. They defied the odds just by entering Ivy University and riding it out to graduation. After hearing their stories and understanding their lives, they are clearly students “at promise” and not “at risk.” HEOP students have successfully engaged the cycle of resiliency that is set in place by facing the numerous adversities and detours that seem to be inherent to a selective university. They bring a background of dealing with adverse situations and, because of this, are perhaps better equipped to initiate a resilient response than some less experienced students. However, a case could be made that they are provided with too many adverse “opportunities” and that an institution needs to make a concerted effort to minimize the culture shock and transitional adjustments that students like these from diverse backgrounds are certain to encounter on an elite campus. Consistent cultivation by the faculty and administration of protective factors—providing caring connections, building educational competence, and creating opportunities for participation and contribution—within the learning environment would enhance students’ prospects for persisting in their efforts and not giving up. The HEOP students, for the most part, discovered that persistence led to success. If they didn’t succeed at first, they tried another way or recharted their course. They grew in their ability to penetrate the underlying structural conflicts within the university. By questioning the sources of their adversities and developing a critical consciousness, these students became agents of transformative possibilities. In “critical moments of critique” (Weis, 2004), these students chose to move forward, learning and refining coping strategies through their individual and collective struggles. Their praxis of “effort optimism” (O’Connor, 1997, p. 624) epitomized educational resiliency. When they encountered challenges, they acted back and responded by working hard, problem solving, and pushing further. The more cycles of resiliency that these students successfully completed, the stronger their response to succeeding adversities. Eventually, the HEOP students found themselves at graduation, armed with high ambitions, fueled by the time they spent in an elite environment where they saw new possibilities all around. Now, when they speak, they sound like nothing is impossible and no goal inappropriate. Their challenges have been difficult ones, but their reactions to them and their plans beyond them have been thoughtfully calculated.

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If all of our universities were filled with students who were as persistent and resilient as this group of HEOP students, a considerable amount of time, research funds, paper, and ink could be reallocated to more useful purposes than worrying, studying, and writing about the challenges with the college population. Questions around motivation, parent and student entitlement in this consumer-driven culture, student retention, and a number of other higher education issues would be almost nonexistent. The culture and climate of an institution can enhance resiliency among all students, or it can virtually destroy it. The puzzling thing is that the individuals who populate these institutions hold the key to change, but they are notoriously slow to agree on and implement any change, be it small or large. The HEOP students arrived at college highly motivated, with a lot on the line. What they most wanted from this university was an even chance—to learn, to grow, to be heard, to be valued, to make a mark. When we talk about the importance of student integration into the social and academic spheres of a institution (Pascarella, Terenzini, & Wolfle, 1986; Tinto, 1987; among others), we need to reframe this charge and ask the question, “To what are we expecting the students to integrate/assimilate?” (Tanaka, 2002). Elite environments can be stifling and distinctly Anglo-European by design. Are all students interested in integrating into an environment that expects them to do all of the changing and conforming, and, in return, the institution attempts no change that would better reflect its current population? We already know (from Horowitz, 1987, and from the students’ conversations) that college students are having a lot less fun and working much harder in a more competitive, focused environment on college campuses today than when compared to previous generations. Anna Quindlen (2004) refers to this in the graduation column that was mentioned in the previous section: How exhausted you must be . . . peace is not what you see in the immediate future, for the world, for this nation or for yourselves. Instead, what stretches before you looks like a version of “Survivor” in street clothes. Find the job. Find the mate. Scale the ladder. Have the baby. Make the deal. Make the birthday cake. The gym, the Gap, the lover, the decor, the cuisine. Who will win the contest? Perhaps it will be those of you brave enough to stop moving. (p. 70) The HEOP students noted a heightened competitiveness at Ivy University over the few years in which they were in attendance. They quietly adjusted their behaviors and activities, but resisted assimilating/integrating

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themselves wholeheartedly into what appeared to them to be a rat race designed by others, with rules that were hard to understand and rewards that meant little to them. To graduate from this university, and to do it without sacrificing their cultures and values, was their ultimate reward. Their resiliency shone from within. It is the university’s responsibility to not tarnish it.

Future George Kuh (2001), who has been involved for many years in surveying first-year and senior college students, summarized important changes in the college population and the need for appropriate institutional response: The inescapable implication is that we must be more intentional about using good practices in undergraduate education to arrange socialization and learning experiences that induce students to take advantage of the multitude of learning opportunities college offers and bring coherence and meaning to their studies. (p. 294) Kuh promotes learning communities, careful attention to learning/teaching styles, intentional advising, integration of theory, and research into teaching practice, among many other points of consideration. He is only one of many educators and researchers attempting to shed some light on collegiate practices that make a difference in the students’ quality of educational experience (see, for example, Chesler, 2002; Fink, 2003; Light, 2001; Palmer, 1998). Together, this body of educators urge faculty and administrators in colleges and universities to be part of institutional change, adapting to the needs of the students who populate their campuses. Their writings provide practical and viable strategies that command serious attention from the higher education community. Pedagogical professional development is every bit as important to educators as disciplinary research and development. The primary task of teaching faculty is to be able to effectively communicate, that is, teach, the content of their fields, and teach it well to a growingly diverse group of students. In addition to these experts, the HEOP students themselves furnished numerous suggestions for creating more learning-centered classrooms (chapter 4). Exciting changes in higher education are afoot, and universities must seize responsibility and aggressively focus on upgrading teaching techniques and creating more contemporary learning climates, efforts that are long overdue. Culture change is difficult, especially at the institutional level, but it is unfair to expect it only from students. Education is a two-way street.

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There are no crystal balls that can reveal what the future holds for these HEOP students. But, at this point, they are on promising trajectories, and they believe that they will succeed. Hand in hand with the confidence come the doubts about the economy and job prospects that are well justified given that the unemployment rate among young adults aged 20 to 24 was around 10% at the time of these students’ graduations (Porter & Winter, 2004). Other clouds on their horizons concern their financial solvency, their evolving family relationships, and their ability to strike a balance in a world spinning toward a globalized economy of ever-changing employment terrains. The seesaw of emotions is enough to give them whiplash. Graduation is a major victory for any HEOP student. There is relief and a measure of satisfaction in completing such a daunting task. The insecurity about what the future holds puts a bit of a damper on the ecstasy of graduation. A randomness about this event is like being catapulted off the end of the bridge into a dense fog, landing who knows where. It is certainly not the calm, orderly, planned exit for which they had hoped when college began. The question is, to what do they emerge after these undergraduate years? Anna Quindlen (2004) aptly identified some of the pressing concerns of this generation. However, a number of extra concerns could be added to the list for the HEOP students. No family bumpers cushion their exit; no resources exist to fall back on. The students have to set their own course and have the wherewithal to make it work. One distinct advantage that they have over many of their peers in their home neighborhoods is that they have graduated with a degree from a prestigious university that may open doors along the way. And they are not afraid to knock on those doors. Entitlement is a foreign feeling to this population, but they firmly believe that their hard work and accomplishments will pay off. They have truly learned some important lessons. In a perfect world, there would be a lucrative job waiting at the end of the bridge, with full benefits and colleagues who valued the unique contributions of these HEOP graduates. World peace is too much to expect, but the means and resources to build a satisfying and fulfilling life should be possible in this society that has so much. As a fitting ending for this collection of student stories, I returned to the bridge between Ivy University and the rest of the world. The drive through the campus on this summer day was peaceful, filled with the green of a lush spring that had produced a stunning display of flowering plants and shrubs. These accents of color were carefully selected and positioned ornaments that set off the imposing architecture of the lecture halls and massive library that was the centerpiece of the campus. Traffic

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was nonexistent and it felt like time stood still in the slow pace of the summer session. I wondered how many new HEOP students were on campus getting their first taste of college life, filled with all of the hopes and expectations like “my” group of students. As I stood in the center of the bridge, the river below was running full and fast. I looked to my left at the campus skyline, punctuated by the impressive buildings named for the many dead benefactors of the university. I wondered how adequately this book captured how Ivy University had changed the HEOP students in the four or five years in which they had been in attendance. In turn, was there any measure of how they had changed the university? The silent, staid buildings showed no signs of the struggles for identity and knowledge that the students had undertaken. Would they be remembered, and had they made a mark on this campus? Turning to my right, I viewed the community that represented the world through which the students were just beginning to make their way. This side of the river was noticeably busier, noisier, and not as neatly tended as the campus side. I pondered their new lives and whether they would be richer, fuller, happier, and more meaningful lives because of this college experience. Would they accomplish great things that would fulfill family expectations and their personal goals? Would these years and effort be worth it? Would the passage over this elite collegiate bridge bring them closer to their dreams? As I walked back to my car on my way to meet Damon to quickly catch up on his world, I was reminded of his inspirational quote and how appropriately it fit my hope for this talented group of students. I am grateful that they allowed me to share a part of their lives. I know that they and their stories have changed me. I wish them the moon . . . and at the very least, the stars.

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APPENDIX A Suggested Readings

One of the most exciting, yet frustrating, aspects of working within the field of the sociology of education is that it is a dynamic, burgeoning area that has exploded with research and stimulating discussion. For those readers who wish to delve more deeply into some of the numerous theoretical areas of this discipline, this is a list of works that I have found seminal to my thinking, and I provide them as a starting place. All of these researchers and writers have done commendable work around theory and have contributed over the years to the knowledge base. Many of the works are considered classics in their fields. They have educated, informed, and humbled me in my partial understandings. Working through this list helps position and theorize my work where my words may not do justice to some of the foundational concepts. As a teacher of reading, I believe in the power of words and take the responsibility of representation very seriously. For that reason, I encourage readers to acquaint themselves, if they have not already done so, with these leading experts in this complex and vibrant field. The works are loosely arranged by theme/focus although, admittedly, many defy neat categorization and often overlap in a virtual hybridization of areas of knowledge. This list may prove useful for researchers and graduate students exploring topics in greater depth and for those who are curious and hungry for more. I suggest that, in addition to the readings themselves, some attention be paid to the notes and references that are included as their sources of information. Due to space constraints, it is not possible to provide a comprehensive listing of all of the sound and significant work in each of these areas. Those listed have used their literary space well and should lead readers in productive directions.

CLASS Fine, M., & Weis, L. (1998). The unknown city: The lives of poor and working-class young adults. Boston: Beacon Press. 191

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Kozol, J. (1991). Savage inequalities. New York: Crown Publications. Kozol, J. (1995). Amazing grace. New York: HarperPerennial. MacLeod, J. (1995). Ain’t no makin it: Aspirations and attainment in a low-income neighborhood. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Weis, L. (2004). Class reunion: The remaking of the American White working class. New York: Routledge. Willis, P. (1977). Learning to labour: How working class kids get working class jobs. Westmead, UK: Saxon House Press. See also: Raissiguier (Gender), Weis & Fine (Race/Ethnicity/Culture)

GENDER Bradley, H. (1989). Men’s work, women’s work: A sociological history of the sexual division of labour in employment. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Holland, D. C., & Eisenhart, M. A. (1990). Educated in romance: Women, achievement, and college culture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Jones, S. (1995). Voices of identity and difference: A qualitative exploration of the multiple dimensions of identity development in women college students. (Doctoral dissertation, University of Maryland, 1995). Dissertation Abstracts International, 57, 1045. Josselson, R. (1987). Finding herself: Pathways to identity development in women. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Luttrell, W. (1996). Becoming somebody in and against school: Toward a psychocultural theory of gender and self-making. In B. Levinson, D. Foley, & D. Holland (Eds.), The cultural production of the educated person (pp. 93–117). Albany: State Univeristy of New York Press. McRobbie, A. (1978). Working class girls and the culture of femininity. In University of Birmingham, Center for Contemporary Cultural Studies, Women take issue: Aspects of women’s subordination (pp. 96–108). London: Hutchinson. Raissiguier, C. (1994). Becoming women, becoming workers: Identity formation in a French vocational school. Albany: State University of New York Press. Smithson, I. (1990). Introduction: Investigating gender, power, and pedagogy. In I. Smithson (Ed.), Gender in the classroom: Power and pedagogy (pp. 1–27). Urbana: University of Illinois Press. See also: MacLeod (Class), Weis (Class), Weis & Fine (Race/Ethnicity/ Culture), Willis (Class)

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HIGHER EDUCATION Altbach, P. G., Gumport, P. J., & Johnstone, D. B. (Eds.). (2001). In defense of American higher education. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Bérubé, M., & Nelson, C. (Eds.). (1995). Higher education under fire: Politics, economics, and the crisis of the humanities. New York: Routledge. Horowitz, H. L. (1987). Campus life: Undergraduate cultures from the end of the eighteenth century to the present. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Levine, A. (Ed.). (1993). Higher learning in America: 1980–2000. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. London, H. B. (1992). Transformations: Cultural challenges faced by first-generation students. New Directions for Community Colleges, 80, 5–11. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Mow, S. L., & Nettles, M. T. (1990). Minority student access to, and persistence and performance in, college: A review of the trends and research literature. The handbook of higher education (pp. 35–105). New York: Agatha Press. Pascarella, E. T., & Terenzini, P. T. (1991). How college affects students: Findings and insights from twenty years of research. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

IMMIGRATION Gibson, M. A., & Ogbu, J. U. (Eds.). (1991). Minority status and schooling: A comparative study of immigrant and involuntary minorities. New York: Garland. Pedraza, S., & Rumbaut, R. G. (1996). Origins and destinies: Immigration, race, and ethnicity in America. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. Portes, A. (Ed). (1995). Economic sociology of immigration: Essays on networks, ethnicity, and entrepreneurship. New York: Russell Sage. Portes, A. (Ed.). (1996). The new second generation. New York: Russell Sage. Portes, A., & Rumbaut, R. G. (2001). Legacies: The story of the immigrant second generation. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Qin-Hilliard, D. B., Feinauer, E., & Quiroz, B. G. (Eds.). (2001). Immigration and education [Special issue]. Harvard Educational Review, 71 (3).

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Rumbaut, R. G., & Portes, A. (Eds.). (2001). Ethnicities: Children of immigrants in America. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Seller, M. S. (1988). To seek America: A history of ethnic life in the United States. Englewood, NJ: Ozer. Suarez-Orozco, M. M., & Suarez-Orozco, C. (1995). Transformations: Immigration, family life, and achievement motivation among Latino adolescents. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. Youssef, N. H. (1992). The demographics of immigration: A sociodemographic profile of the foreign-born population in New York State. New York: Center for Migration Studies. See also: Seller & Weis (Race/Ethnicity/Culture), Waters (Race/Ethnicity/ Culture)

QUALITATIVE RESEARCH METHODS Bogdan, R. C., & Biklen, S. K.. (1992). Qualitative research for education: An introduction to theory and methods. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Denzin, N. K., & Lincoln, Y. S. (Eds.). (2000). Handbook of qualitative research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. LeCompte, M. D., & Preissle, J. (1993). Ethnography and qualitative design in educational research. San Diego: Academic Press. Maxwell, J. A. (1992). Understanding and validity in qualitative research. Harvard Educational Review, 62 (3), 279–299. Noblitt, G. W., Flores, S. Y., & Murillo, E. G., Jr. (Eds.). (2004). Postcritical ethnography: Reinscribing critique. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press. Schensul, J. J., & LeCompte, M. D. (1999). Designing and conducting ethnographic research. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press. Schensul, J. J., LeCompte, M. D., Hess, G. A., Jr., Nastasi, B. K., Berg, M. J., Williamson, L., Brecher, J., & Glasser, R. (1999). Using ethnographic data: Intervention, public programming, and public policy. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press. Stanfield, J., & Dennis, R. (1993). Race and ethnicity in research methods. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications. Weis, L., & Fine, M. (2000). Speed bumps: A student-friendly guide to qualitative research. New York: Teachers College Press.

RACE/ETHNICITY/CULTURE Apple, M. W. (1982). Education and power. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

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Apple, M. W., & Weis, L. (Eds.). (1983). Ideology and practice in schooling. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Cross, W. E., & Strauss, L. (1998). The everyday functions of African American identity. In J. K. Swim & C. Stangor (Eds.), Prejudice: The target’s perspective (pp. 267–279). San Diego: Academic Press. Darder, A., & Torres, R. D. (Eds.). (1998). The Latino studies reader: Culture, economy, and society. Malden, MA: Blackwell. Frankenberg, R. (Ed.). (1997). Displacing Whiteness: Essays in social and cultural criticism. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. McCarthy, C. & Crichlow, W. (Eds.). (1993). Race, identity and reproduction in education. New York: Routledge. McCarthy, C. (1998). The uses of culture: Education and the limits of ethnic affiliation. New York: Routledge. Perry, T., Steele, C., & Hilliard, A. G. (2003). Young, gifted and Black: Promoting high achievement among African-American students. Boston: Beacon Press. Root, M. P. (1997). Multiracial Asians: Models of ethnic identity. Amerasian Journal, 23 (1), 29–41. Seller, M., & Weis, L. (Eds.). (1997). Beyond Black and White: New faces and voices in U.S. schools. Albany: State University of New York Press. Smith, W. A., Altbach, P. G., & Lomotey, K. (Eds.). (2002). The racial crisis in American higher education: Continuing challenges for the twenty-first century. Albany: State University of New York Press. Suzuki, B. H. (1994). Higher education issues in the Asian American community. In M. Justiz, R. Wilson, & L. Bjork (Eds.), Minorities in higher education (pp. 258–285). Phoenix: Oryx Press. Tatum, B. V. (1999). Why are all the Black kids sitting together in the cafeteria? And other conversations about race. New York: Basic Books. Waters, M. C. (1999). Black identities: West Indian immigrant dreams and American realities. New York: Russell Sage. Weis, L., & Fine, M. (Eds.). (1993). Beyond silenced voices: Class, race, and gender in the United States schools. Albany: State University of New York Press. Weis, L., & Fine, M. (Eds.). (2000). Construction sites: Excavating race, class, and gender among urban youth. New York: Teachers College Press. See also: Fine & Weis (Class), Gibson & Ogbu (Immigration), MacLeod (Class), Torres & Mitchell (Social Theory), Weis (Class)

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RESILIENCY Brown, J. H., D’Emidio-Caston, M., & Benard, B. (2001). Resilience education. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. McMillan, J. H., & Reed, D. F. (1994, January/February). At-risk students and resiliency: Factors contributing to academic success. Clearing House [On-line]. Retrieved March 1, 2004, from http://search.epnet.com/direct.asp?an=9403237696&db=afh O’Connor, C. (2002). Black women beating the odds from one generation to the next: How the changing dynamics of constraint and opportunity affect the process of educational resilience. American Educational Research Journal, 39 (4), 855–903. Richardson, G. E. (2002, March). The metatheory of resilience and resiliency. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 58, (3), 307–321. Ward, J. V. (1999). Resilience and resistance. In A. Garrod, J. V. Ward, T. L. Robinson, & R. Kilkenny (Eds.), Souls looking back (pp. 173–185). New York: Routledge. Waxman, H. C., Gray, J. P., & Padron, Y. N. (2003). Review of research on educational resilience. Santa Cruz: University of California, Center for Research on Education, Diversity & Excellence.

SOCIAL JUSTICE/OPPORTUNITY Bowen, W. G., & Bok, D. (1998). The shape of the river: Long-term consequences of considering race in college and university admissions. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Fine, M., & Weis, L. (2003). Silenced voices and extraordinary conversations: Re-imagining schools. New York: Teachers College Press. Freire, P. (1995). Pedagogy of the oppressed. (M. B. Ramos, Trans.) New York: Continuum. (Original work published 1970) Guinier, L., & Sturm, S. (Eds.). (2001). Who’s qualified? Boston: Beacon Press. Gutman, A. (1987). Democratic education. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Hochschild, J. L. (1995). Facing up to the American dream: Race, class and the soul of the nation. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Tierney, W. G., & Hagedorn, L. S. (Eds.). (2002). Increasing access to college: Extending possibilities for all students. Albany: State University of New York Press. Trent, W., Owens-Nicholson, D., Eastman, T. K., Burke, M., Daugherty, J., & Norman, K. (2003). Justice, equality of educational opportunity and affirmative action in higher education. In Compelling

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interest: Examining the evidence on racial dynamics in higher education. Report of the AERA Panel on Racial Dynamics in Colleges and Universities. [On-line]. Retrieved April 14, 2003, from http:// www.stanford.edu/~hakuta/RaceInHigherEducation.html U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (1998). Reconceptualizing access in postsecondary education: Report of the Policy Panel on Access, NCES 98-283, for the Council of the National Postsecondary Education Cooperative, Subcommittee on the Policy Panel on Access, Washington, DC.

SOCIAL THEORY Aronowitz, S., & Giroux, H. A. (1991). Postmodern education: Politics, culture, and social criticism. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Bourdieu, P., & Wacquant, L. J. (1992). An invitation to reflexive sociology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Feinberg, W., & Soltis, J. F. (1992). School and society. New York: Teachers College Press. Giroux, H. A. (2003). The abandoned generation: Democracy beyond the culture of fear. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Giroux, H. A., Lankshear, C., McLaren, P., & Peters, M. (1996). Counternarratives: Cultural studies and critical pedagogies in postmodern spaces. New York: Routledge. Gutek, G. L. (1997). Philosophical and ideological perspectives on education. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Torres, C.A., & Mitchell, T. R. (Eds.). (1998). Sociology of education: Emerging perspectives. Albany: State University of New York Press. Wexler, P. (1992). Becoming somebody: Toward a social psychology of school. London: Falmer.

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APPENDIX B Participant Profiles

Clarissa Age: 22 Graduated: 2002 Major: English Family Background: First-generation immigrant from Guyana who lived in New York City and identified herself as Black with a mixed heritage. Career Goal: Junior high teacher

Damon Age: 22 Graduated: 2002 Major: Political Science Family Background: Native born of American parents who lived in a medium-sized upstate New York town. Damon identified himself as African American or Black. Career Goal: Politician with the aspiration of holding a high office

Jason Age: 23 Graduated: 2001 Major: History Family Background: Second-generation immigrant with a White father and a mother from Taiwan who lived on Long Island, New York. Jason identified himself as racially mixed. Career Goal: Lawyer

Luc Age: 27 Graduated: 1999 Major: Chemical Engineering Family Background: First-generation refugee from Vietnam whose family resided in a medium-sized town in upstate New York. Career Goal: Chemical engineer in a manufacturing field 199

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Marie Age: 22 Graduated: 2002 Major: Anthropology Family Background: Second-generation immigrant who resided in New York City with parents from Ecuador. Marie identified herself as Hispanic. Career Goal: Business owner

Martine Age: 22 Graduated: 2003 Major: Political Science with a minor in Religion Family Background: Second-generation immigrant whose parents were from Cuba and El Salvador and who lived in New York City. Martine identified herself as Latino/Spanish. Career Goal: Lawyer specializing in animal rights

Nicole Age: 25 Graduated: 1999 Major: Health Administration Family Background: Native born of American parents from New York City. Nicole identified herself as Black. Career Goal: Health consultant

Panyos Age: 22 Graduated: 2002 Major: Electrical Engineering Family Background: First-generation immigrant from Thailand who lived in New York City. Panyos identified himself as Asian. Career Goal: Manufacturing business owner

Roberto Age: 23 Graduated: 2002 Major: Psychology/Health and Society with a minor in Spanish Family Background: First-generation immigrant from Jamaica who lived in New York City. Roberto identified himself as Black with Cuban and White heritage. Career Goal: Hospital administrator

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Stacey Age: 22 Graduated: 2002 Major: Health and Society and Anthropology Family Background: Native born of American parents from New York City. Stacey identified herself as African American. Career Goal: FBI forensics specialist

Sybill Age: 24 Graduated: 2000 Major: Health and Society Family Background: Native born of American parents who lived in a large upstate New York city. Sybill identified herself as African American. Career Goal: Health consultant

Tiana Age: 22 Graduated: 2003 Major: Health and Society Family Background: Second-generation immigrant whose parents came from Puerto Rico. Tiana identified herself as Puerto Rican. Career Goal: Hospital administrator

Tran Age: 22 Graduated: 2002 Major: Biomechanics Family Background: First-generation refugee from Vietnam who lived in a medium-sized town in upstate New York. Career Goal: Physical therapist who eventually owns a business

Veronika Age: 24 Graduated: 2002 Major: Economics Family Background: First-generation immigrant from Ghana who lived in New York City. Veronika identified herself as African or Black. Career Goal: Investment banker

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INDEX

Note: Emboldened page numbers signify a definition. academic advising, 177 first-generation immigrant students and, 60 multigenerational-immigrant students and, 71 second-generation immigrant students and, 64, 66, 67–68, 107 academic competence. See academic success academic majors, 176–177 academic success campus activities and, 173 deficiency model, 12 determinants, 12–13, 74–75, 77 first-generation immigrant students and, 129, 133 multigenerational-immigrant students and, 138–139 resiliency and, 77, 102, 121–122, 125–126, 185 second-generation immigrant students and, 134 student tips for, 75–77 class selection and workstyle, 72 classroom behavior, 60 general strategies, 60–61, 66, 69, 72 See also grade point average access, to higher education, 180–184 achievement gap, 65 Acosta-Belen, E., 25 active participation. See social participation

administration. See under Ivy University admissions court cases, 2, 3 social participation and, 45 socioeconomic status and, 3 adversity in cycle of resiliency, 121, 185 first-generation immigrant students and, 103–105 multigenerational-immigrant students and, 108–112 response to, 176 cycle of resiliency and, 124–125 skills affecting, 102 second-generation immigrant students and, 105–108 affirmative action bias toward beneficiaries of, 46 court cases, 2, 3 African and African American studies, 52 Africans/African Americans. See Black student(s) agoraphobia, strategic, 25 Altbach, P. G., 51 American Dream first-generation immigrant students and, 21 multigenerational-immigrant students and, 28 second-generation immigrant students and, 25

213

214

Index

Americanization, 24–25 Ancient Roman Mythology, 127 anxiety. See stress and anxiety Arenson, K. W., 4 Asian students fraternity experiences, 24, 46, 47–48, 67, 88–89 high school experiences, 9 model minority myth and, 88 See also Jason; Luc; Panyos; Tran assimilation of immigrants, names and, 132 strategic resistance to, 58, 186–187 See also integration awareness, in cycle of resiliency, 123 barrier, language as, 19, 21, 34 Bean, J. P., 43, 57 Benard B., 102, 122, 123 Bhabha, H., 42 bias toward affirmative action students, 46 toward Puerto Rican students, 25–26 Black student(s), 29 cultural frame of reference, academic success and, 125 fatigue of representation, 46, 104 graduation rates, 183 high school experiences, 9 overconfidence, 11 precollege neighborhoods and schools, 101–102 stereotype threat and, 65 upward mobility, 179–180 See also Clarissa; Damon; Nicole; Roberto; Stacey; Sybill; Veronika Bok, D., xv, xvii, 2, 179, 181, 182, 183 Boli, J., xvi, 3, 4, 179 Bond, Julian, 118, 119 bonding. See friendships; romantic relationships; social connections Bourdieu, P., 3, 44, 85 Bowen, W. G., xv, xvi, xvii, 2, 179, 181, 182, 183

Boyte, H. C., 42 Bradley, Craig, 174 brain development, 132 bridge metaphor, xvii–xix, 179–180 bridging, across fraternities, 47–48 Brown, T., 183 Bush, President George W., 181 Cabrera, A., 43, 57 campus organizations/groups diversity roundtable, 52, 69 Greek. See Greek life participation in, 75, 123, 173–174 first-generation immigrant students, 59, 61–62, 119 multigenerational-immigrant students, 69, 72–73, 118–120, 138 response to adversity and, 124 second-generation immigrant students, 64, 66–67 See also social participation career(s) aspirations, 169–170, 176, 178 first-generation immigrant students, 160–163 multigenerational-immigrant students, 166–168 second-generation immigrant students, 163–165 preparedness for, 142, 143, 144, 145, 147, 148, 149 racism and, 158 career center, 144 Carrasquillo, H. A., 117 Carroll, D., 79 Casper, G., 31 Castaneda, M. B., 43, 57 challenge(s) adversity as. See adversity college experience as, 41 first-generation immigrant students and, 34, 35 multigenerational-immigrant students and, 39 second-generation immigrant students and, 36, 38, 47

Index

postgraduation, 14–15, 152–153 first-generation immigrant students and, 130, 153–155, 160–163 multigenerational-immigrant students and, 157–159, 166–168 second-generation immigrant students and, 155–157, 163–165 Chan, S., 88 Charles, C. Z., xvi, 9 Chesler, M., 187 Clarissa (Pleaser), xviii, 199 academic major, 176 adversity experiences, 105 identity development, 133 overall experience, 10, 11, 35–36, 142 postgraduation hopes/plans, 154–155, 162 social experience, 85, 86 support systems, 114 university administration, view of, 53, 140 class system within elite institutions, 50–51 transitioning within, college degree and, 179–180 climate, academic/social in cycle of resiliency, 121–123, 186 split climate, 50–51 views of, 43–44 first-generation immigrant students, 44–47, 55 multigenerational-immigrant students, 48–50 second-generation immigrant students, 47–48 collective action, 124 collective identity identity development and, 128 multigenerational-immigrant students, 24 participation in organizations and, 173

215

college. See community colleges; elite institutions; higher education; Ivy University communication skills, 131, 137, 138, 139 community on campus, criteria for, 173–174 off campus, student participation in, 73 community colleges, 181, 184 competence. See academic success competition social experience and, 97 stress and, 80–81 connections. See social connections control, as CORE skill, 102, 124 Cooper, M. H., 181 CORE skills, 102, 112, 124 counseling services demand for, 80 first-generation immigrant students and, 112–114 multigenerational-immigrant students and, 118, 119 second-generation immigrant students and, 115, 116, 117 See also academic advising countries of origin, 21, 25 Cream of the Crop, xvi Cress, C. M., 50 Cross, T. P., xviii Cross, W. E., 128 cultural capital, 44, 85, 125 culture campus involvement and, 173 of first-generation immigrants, 21 frame of reference and, 24 friendships and, 175 of higher education, 31–32, 186 of multigenerational-immigrant students, 28–29 response to adversity and, 124 of second-generation immigrants, 24–25 See also elite institutions; Ivy University

216

Index

culture shock, 151–152, 172 curricula African and African American studies, 52 student suggestions regarding, 53 cycle of positive reciprocity, 114 cycle of resiliency. See under resiliency Damon (Skeptic), 18, 27–28, 199 academic major, 177 academic/social integration, 48–49, 50 academic experience, 71–74 social experience, 93–95 adversity experiences, 110–111, 123 anxiety and, 81 determination, 56 diversity roundtable and, 52 identity development, 138–139 overall experience, 39–40 postgraduation hopes/plans, 147, 148, 151, 158–159, 166–167 racial/minority issues and, 140–141 recruitment promises and, 54–55 success determinants, 12 support systems, 119 Darder, A., 26, 42 deficiency model of academic success, 12 Delpit, L. D., 44 democratic access, 184 depression, 80, 81 development. See identity construction disadvantaged students college outcomes, 4–5 precollege disadvantages, 8–10, 101–102 discrimination. See racism diversity on campus, 45, 51, 104 of faculty, hiring practices and, 52, 53 roundtable, 52, 69 of staff, 113 student suggestion regarding, 53

of country of origin of first-generation immigrant students, 21 of second-generation immigrant students, 25 dorm life. See residential life dual frame of reference, 21, 24 academic/social integration and, 46 acting White, Black students and, 125 first-generation immigrant student and, 33 identity and, 24 multigenerational-immigrant students and, 28 economics of HEOP, 182 U.S. economy, 3, 14 See also employment; finances education metaphors for, xv–xix, 179–180 preparation for college, 8–13 See also higher education educational disadvantage, 9–10 effort optimism, 125, 185 elite institutions admission, 2–3 counseling caseloads, 80 culture of, 31–32 effecting change in, 56, 187 elitism in, 183–184 integration with, 186 split climate in, 50–51 leaders and, 181 employment during college first-generation immigrant students, 104–105 multigenerational-immigrant students, 110–111 second-generation immigrant students, 106 education and, 4, 145 HEOP investment and, 182

Index

postgraduation, 178 first-generation immigrant students, 141, 142, 143, 153, 155, 161 multigenerational-immigrant students, 149, 159, 166, 168 second-generation immigrant students, 144, 145, 146, 156, 164 See also finances endurance, as CORE skill, 102, 124 engagement. See social participation English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), 19 ethnicity campus involvement and, 173 friendships and, 175 terminology, 25, 29 evaluation standards, 68 Evans, S. M., 42 faculty as advisors. See academic advising diversity of, 52, 53 diversity roundtable and, 52 impact/perceptions, 122 first-generation immigrant students and, 19, 21, 60, 62–63 multigenerational-immigrant students and, 27, 49, 71, 74 second-generation immigrant students and, 64–65, 67–68, 118 negative behaviors, 53–54 protective factors and, 185 student advice for, 53–54, 76, 174 trust and, 65 family, 98–99, 175–176 first-generation immigrant students and, 21, 86, 103, 153–154 multigenerational-immigrant students and, 93, 94–95, 96, 108 postgraduation status of, 169 pressures from, 80, 82, 91, 108 second-generation immigrant students and, 24–26, 87–88, 89–90, 91, 108, 117 upward mobility and, 180

217

fatigue of representation, 46, 104 finances concerns over, 80, 89, 107, 108 HEOP aid first-generation immigrant students and, 114 multigenerational-immigrant students and, 110, 119 second-generation immigrant students and, 106–107, 115–116, 163 New York State funding of higher education, 4 postgraduation, 170, 178–179 first-generation immigrant students and, 153, 155, 160, 162–163 multigenerational-immigrant students and, 157, 159, 167 second-generation immigrant students and, 156, 157, 164, 165 See also employment Fine, M., 25, 42, 43 Fink, L. D., 187 first-generation immigrant students (Pleasers), 8 academic/social integration, 44–47 academic experiences, 58–63 social experiences, 82–86 adversity experiences, 103–105 characteristics, 21–22 identity development, 129–133 individual profiles, 18–20 overall college experience, 10, 11, 33–36, 141–142 postgraduation hopes/plans, 130, 141–143, 153–155, 160–163 regrets, 141–142 resiliency and support systems, 112–115 views of university culture, 44–47 See also Clarissa; Luc; Panyos; Roberto; Tran; Veronika Fischer, M. J., xvi, 9 Foster, K. M., 30

218

Index

frame of reference. See dual frame of reference fraternities. See Greek life Freire, P., 120, 122, 124 friendships, 175 first-generation immigrant students, 35, 79, 85, 113 multigenerational-immigrant students, 49, 92, 94, 95, 118, 119 postgraduation, 169 first-generation immigrant students and, 153, 154, 155 multigenerational-immigrant students and, 158–159 second-generation immigrant students and, 155–156, 157 second-generation immigrant students, 87, 88–89, 90–91, 116 gender marianismo role of, 117 students’ issues with, 23 Gerstl-Pepin, C. I., xix Gibbs, J. T., 128, 149, 170 Giroux, H. A, 181 giving back, 135 Goodwin, L. L., 2, 6, 13, 32, 104, 127, 132 grade point average (GPA), 179 first-generation immigrant students, 112, 129, 130, 131 multigenerational-immigrant students, 137 second-generation immigrant students, 134, 135 grades, focus on, 108 graduate school, 168–169, 178. See also specific student graduation rates, 2, 183 Gratz v. Bollinger, 2 Gray, J. P., 102 Greek life Asian fraternity, 24, 46, 47–48, 67, 88–89 limited opportunity for, 42 sorority, 115

Greene, H. R., 32, 97–98 Greve, M., 183 Gross, E. J., 28 growth, 41. See also identity construction Grutter v. Bollinger, 2 Guanipa, C., 151 Harpalani, V., 120, 125 health concerns familial, 93 personal, 109, 158 helpfulness, required, 123 Hengstler, D., 57 HEOP students advice for administrators, 53–54, 76–77, 174 for faculty, 53–54, 76, 174 for other students, 75–76, 174 precollege disadvantages, 8–10, 101–102 precollege summer program, 5, 119–120, 175 as research cohort approach to, 5–7 classifications of, 7–8 collegiate success of, 8–13 graduation rates for, 2, 183 original cohort nonparticipants, 14 See also first-generation immigrant students (Pleasers); Higher Education Opportunity Program; multigenerational-i mmigrant students (Skeptics); second-generation immigrant students (Searchers); specific student heroes, 119 high school preparation for college, 8–13 higher education access to and benefits of, 180–184 employment and, 145 institutions of

Index

admission to, 2, 3 bifurcated system within, 51 cultivation of protective factors in, 185 culture of, 31–32, 186 effecting change in, 56, 187 public versus private, 181 See also elite institutions; Ivy University intensity of, 96–98 metaphors, xv–xix, 179–180 necessity for and outcomes of, 4 preparation for, 9–11 student stress and, 79–81 success in deficiency model of, 12 determinants of, 12–13, 74–75, 77 Higher Education Opportunity Program (HEOP) access to higher education via, 180–181 creation, 28 economic value, 182 eligibility criteria, 9 financial aid. See under finances graduation rates, 2, 183 nature and purpose, 2, 4 precollege summer program, 5, 120, 175 research support, 6 student services first-generation immigrant students and, 112–113, 114 multigenerational-immigrant students and, 110, 118, 119–120 second-generation immigrant students and, 106, 115–116 Hispanic student, 25. See also Marie Hochschild, J. L., 21 honeymoon stage, 151–152, 172 hopes of first-year students versus graduates, 41

219

for future. See first-generation immigrant students; multig enerational-immigrant students; second-generation immigrant students; specific student Horowitz, H. L., 96, 173, 186 Hurtado, S., 3, 184 identity construction, 127–128, 149–150 brain development and, 132 campus involvement and, 173 collective versus individual, 24 cycle of resiliency and, 125 first-generation immigrant students and, 20, 34–35, 129–133 as growth, 41 multigenerational-immigrant students and, 27, 28, 39, 137–139 names and, 130, 132 second-generation immigrant students and, 23, 24, 36, 37, 38, 101, 134–137 immigrants attitudes toward, 25–26 college and, 7 financial security and, 163 generational nature of, 7–8 names of, identity and, 130, 132 Puerto Rican students as, 25–26 upward mobility, 180 Vietnamese refugees as, 22 voluntary versus involuntary, 8, 28 See also first-generation immigrant students; multigenerationalimmigrant students; secondgeneration immigrant students; specific student income education and, 183 of HEOP graduates, 182 individual identity, 24 Inkelas, K., 3, 184 integration, 186 academic, 57–58, 74–77

220

Index

integration (continued) dual frame of reference and, 46 first-generation immigrant students, 44–47 academic experiences of, 58–63 social experiences of, 82–86 importance of, 43–44, 75, 173 multigenerational-immigrant students, 48–50 academic experiences of, 68–74 social experiences of, 91–96 resiliency and, 102 second-generation immigrant students, 47–48 academic experiences of, 63–68 social experiences of, 86–91 social, 96–99 strategic resistance to, 58, 186–187 student suggestions regarding, 53 The Invisible Tapestry, xvii involuntary immigrants, 8, 28 involvement. See social participation isolation, perceptions of, 19, 27, 34, 46, 92 Ivy University administration cultivation of protective factors, 185 racial incidents and, 53, 140 student advice for, 53–54, 76–77, 174 betrayal of promises, 54–55 career center, 144 change and growth, 1, 140–141 cultural climate, 32, 43–44, 50 changes effected in, 52–54 first-generation immigrant students’ views of, 44–47 multigenerational-immigrant students’ views of, 48–50 second-generation immigrant students’ views of, 47–48 faculty. See faculty minority student affairs office, 52 staff, 113

Jamaica, 20 Janus, 127 Jason (Searcher), 18, 23–24, 199 academic major, 177 academic/social integration, 47–48 academic experience, 66–68 social experience, 88–90 adversity experiences, 107 identity development, 134–135 overall experience, 37–38 postgraduation hopes/plans, 145, 156–157, 163–164 regrets, 144–145 support systems, 116 jobs. See employment Kane, T. J., 180 Karabel, J., 3 Katchadourian, H., xvi, 3, 4, 179 Keohane, N. O., 4 Kiang, P. N., xvi Kingston-Mann, E., 171 Knight, M. G., 181 Kozol, J., 93 Krovetz, M. L., 12, 102 Kuh, G. D., xvii, 3, 31, 56, 187 language ESOL classes, 19 student experiences with, 19, 21, 34 Latino/a students, 25 graduation rates, 183 high school experiences, 9 marianismo role, 117 overconfidence among, 11 as second-generation immigrants, 25 upward mobility, 180 See also Martine; Tiana Lau, L. K., 75, 173 leadership, 123, 173, 182–183 elite institutions and, 181 first-generation immigrant students and, 59, 61–62 multigenerational-immigrant students and, 69, 72–74, 118, 119, 137, 138

Index

second-generation immigrant students and, 67 learning experiences, 41 first-generation immigrant student and, 34 multigenerational-immigrant student and, 40 second-generation immigrant students and, 37, 38 LeCompte, M. D., 7 Lee, C. D., 120, 125 Leonard, B., 4 library use, 42–43 Light, R. J., 187 living arrangements. See residential life Luc (Pleaser), 18–19, 199 academic major, 176 academic/social integration, 44 academic experience, 58–60 social experience, 82 adversity experiences, 103–104 identity development, 129–130 overall experience, 33–34 postgraduation hopes/plans, 141, 153–154, 160–161 regrets, 141 support systems, 112 Lundy, G. F., xvi, 9 majors, 176–177 Maluccio, A. N., 185 marginalization perceptions of, 55, 97 strategic resistance to, 58 marianismo, 117 Marie (Searcher), 200 academic major, 177 academic/social integration, 48, 90, 91 adversity experiences, 108 growth and, 101 identity development, 135, 136 overall experience, 38 postgraduation hopes/plans, 146, 157, 165 regrets, 146

221

residential life, 38–39 stress and, 81 support systems, 117 Marshall, K., 123 Martine (Searcher), 200 academic major, 177 academic/social integration, 48, 90–91 adversity experiences, 107–108 identity development, 135–136 overall experience, 10, 38 postgraduation hopes/plans, 146, 157, 164–165 regrets, 145–146 residential life, 39 stress and, 81 support systems, 117 Masssey, D. S., xvi, 9, 10 McCarthy, C., 170 McClelland, K., 3 McMillan, J. H., 102, 114, 122, 123 media coverage, 49, 51 metaphors, xv–xviii, 179–180 Millett, C. M., 3 minority students enrollment in community colleges, 184 at Ivy University, 140 fatigue of representation, 46, 104 graduation rates, 183 involvement of, 53, 104, 141, 173 postgraduation networking, 158–159 sit-in by, 51–52 issues precipitating, 51 outcomes of, 52–54 student affairs office for, 52 upward mobility, 179–180 model minority myth, 88 multigenerational-immigrant students (Skeptics), 8 academic/social integration, 48–50 academic experiences, 68–74 social experiences, 91–96 adversity experiences, 108–112 characteristics, 28–29

222

Index

multigenerational-immigrant students (continued) identity development, 137–139 individual profiles, 26–28 overall college experience, 10, 11, 39–40, 146, 147, 148 postgraduation hopes/plans, 146–149, 157–159, 166–168 regrets, 146, 148 resiliency and support systems, 118–120 views of university culture, 48–50 See also Damon; Nicole; Stacey; Teresa names, identity and, 130, 132 Nettles, M. T., 3 New York State HEOP. See Higher Education Opportunity Program higher education funding, 4 refugee immigrants, 22 Nicholson, Jack, xxii Nicole (Skeptic), 200 academic major, 177 adversity experiences, 111 identity development, 139 overall experience, 10, 40 postgraduation hopes/plans, 148, 159, 167 regrets, 148 social experience, 95, 96 support systems, 119–120 Nora, A., 43, 57 Norman, E., 12 Occupational Outlook Handbook, 4 O’Conner, C., 12, 102, 120, 124, 125 Oesterreich, H. A., 181 Ogbu, J. U., 8, 21, 24, 28, 30, 125 Opportunity Program Graduates Estimate of Annual Revenues to New York State as of 2001–2002, 182 outsiders, 55, 97 overconfidence, 10–11

ownership, as CORE skill, 102, 124, 125 Padron, Y. N., 102 Palmer, P. J., 187 Panyos (Pleaser), 200 academic major, 177 academic/social integration, 46, 84, 85, 86 adversity experiences, 105 identity development, 131–132, 133 overall experience, 35, 142 postgraduation hopes/plans, 143, 155, 162, 163 support systems, 114 participation. See social participation Pascarella, E. T., 32, 55, 57, 127, 186 Pataki, George, 4 Perna, L. W., 3 persistence. See resiliency place, significance of, 42–43 Pleasers. See first-generation immigrant students Porter, E., 188 Portes, A., 22, 132 postgraduation, 13–15, 152–153 finances, 170, 178–179 first-generation immigrant students and, 130, 141, 142, 143, 153–155, 160–163 multigenerational-immigrant students and, 146–147, 149, 157–159, 166–168 nonparticipant research cohort and, 14 second-generation immigrant students and, 134, 144, 145, 146, 155–157, 163–165 Preissle, J., 7 pressure. See stress and anxiety private versus public education, 181 professors. See faculty protective factors, 102, 185 public assistance savings, 182

Index

public versus private education, 181 Puerto Rican students, 25–26. See also Tiana Quindlen, A., 183–184, 186, 188 race secondary education and, 9 student interactions, 49–50 racism as career challenge, 158 incidents reflecting administration and, 53, 140 media and, 49 student impact of, 46, 49–50, 56, 109–110, 140 reach, as CORE skill, 102, 124, 125 reciprocity, cycle of positive, 114 Reed, D. F., 102, 114, 122, 123 regrets, 140, 173 first-generation immigrant students, 141–142 multigenerational-immigrant students, 146, 147 second-generation immigrant students, 144–145, 146 Reivich, K., 61, 102, 120, 124 Rendon, L. I., 3, 184 required helpfulness, 123 residential life, 33, 41–42 diversity in, student suggestion regarding, 53 first-generation immigrant students, 34, 35 multigenerational-immigrant students, 39, 40 second-generation immigrant students, 36–37, 38–39 space in, 42–43 resiliency, 12–13, 120–126, 185–187 academic success and, 77, 102, 121–122, 125–126, 185 cycle of, 120–126, 185 adversity in, 121, 185 awareness in, 123 climate in, 121–123, 186

223

resiliency in, 125–126 response to adversity in, 125–126 as response to negative social environment, 44, 56 support systems fostering first-generation immigrant students and, 112–115 multigenerational-immigrant students and, 118–120 second-generation immigrant students, 115–118 See also adversity Resilient Spirits: Disadvantaged Students Making It at an Elite University, xix, 13 Restak, R., 132 retention of students, 43–44, 56 Richardson, G. E., 120, 124, 125 Richardson, R. C., 42 Rimer, S., 174 river metaphor, xv–xvi Roberto (Pleaser), 18, 19–20, 200 academic major, 176 academic/social integration, 44–46 academic experience, 60–63 social experience, 83–84 adversity experiences, 104 campus climate, view of, 55 friendship and, 79 identity development, 130–131, 132 on minority student participation, 53 overall experience, 34–35 postgraduation hopes/plans, 142, 154, 161 regrets, 141–142 stress and, 80 support systems, 113–114 role models heroes as, 119 of resiliency, 122 romantic relationships, 83–84, 98, 175 first-generation immigrant students, 86, 153, 155

224

Index

romantic relationships (continued) multigenerational-immigrant students, 92–93, 94, 95–96, 159 second-generation immigrant students, 24, 87, 89, 90–91, 157 roundtable on campus diversity, 52, 69 Rumbaut, R. G., 132 Sahadi, J., 3 Sanchez-Korrol, V., 117 Santiago, C. E., 25 Sax, L. J., 50 Schiff, T. W., 184 Searchers. See second-generation immigrant students second-generation immigrant students (Searchers), 8 academic/social integration, 47–48 academic experiences, 63–68 social experiences, 86–91 adversity experiences, 105–108 characteristics, 24–26 identity development, 134–137 individual profiles, 22–24 overall college experience, 10, 11, 36–39, 143–144, 145–146 postgraduation hopes/plans, 144–146, 155–157, 163–165 regrets, 142–146 resiliency and support systems, 115–118 views of university culture, 47–48 See also Jason; Marie; Martine; Tiana secondary education, preparation for college, 8–13 segregation, education and, 9 Seller, M. S., 22, 24 The Shape of the River, xv, xvi Shatté, A., 61, 102, 120, 124 Sieber, T., 171 Siegel, B., 183 sit-in, 51–52 issues precipitating, 51 outcomes of, 52–54, 140

situational resiliency, 125 Skeptics. See multigenerationalimmigrant students skill sets communication skills, 131, 137, 138, 139 CORE skills, 102, 112, 124 development of first-generation immigrant students and, 129, 131–132 multigenerational-immigrant students and, 137, 138, 139 second-generation immigrant students and, 135 inadequacies in, 11 Skinner, E. F., 42 Smith, R., xviii social connections, 96–99, 140–141, 175–176 college experience as, 41 first-generation immigrant students and, 35, 59–61, 79, 82–86, 114 between HEOP students, 48, 59, 87, 90, 119–120, 175 multigenerational-immigrant student and, 39–40, 91–96 resiliency and, 102, 121–122 second-generation immigrant students and, 36, 37, 47, 86–91 See also family; friendships; romantic relationships social participation level of, 45, 53, 173 limits of, 175 resiliency and, 122–123 sit-in. See sit-in types of, 84, 93–94 volunteerism, 94–95, 138–139 See also campus organizations/groups Solmon, L. C., 184 Solmon, M. S., 184 sororities, 42, 115 The Source of the River, xvi, 10 space, 42 living. See residential life significance of, 42–43

Index

Spencer, M. B., 120, 125, 126 split climate, 50–51 Split Ruling on Affirmative Action, 3 Stacey (Skeptic), xviii, 18, 26–27, 201 academic major, 177 academic/social integration, 48–50 academic experience, 68–71 social experience, 91–93 adversity experiences, 108–110 depression and, 81 identity development, 137–138 overall experience, 11, 39 postgraduation hopes/plans, 147, 157–158, 166 regrets, 146 support systems, 118 staff, 113 state governments, HEOP-type programs, 181–182 Stauffer, E. C., xviii Stavans, I., 25 Steele, C., 65 stereotype threat, 65 Stoltz, P. G., 77, 102, 112, 120, 124 strategic agoraphobia, 25 strategic resistance, 58, 186–187 Strauss, L., 128 stress and anxiety family pressure and, 80, 82, 91, 108 levels and sources of, 79–81, 174–175 students ethnic groups. See Asian students; Black student(s); Latino/a students Pleasers. See first-generation immigrant students Searchers. See second-generation immigrant students Skeptics. See multigenerationalimmigrant students See also disadvantaged students; HEOP students; minority students; White students; specific individual

225

Suarez-Orozco, C., 8 Suarez-Orozco, M. M., 8, 21, 24 success, 185 academic. See academic success nonacademic measures of first-generation immigrant students and, 129–130, 131, 133 multigenerational-immigrant students and, 138–139 second-generation immigrant students and, 134, 135, 136 suicide, 80 summer program, precollege, 5, 119–120, 175 support services. See under resiliency Supreme Court, U.S., 2, 3 sustaining resiliency, 125 Sybill (Skeptic), 201 adversity experiences, 111, 112 overall experience, 40 postgraduation hopes/plans, 149, 159, 168 recruitment promises and, 54 regrets, 148 social experience, 95–96 success and, 139 support systems, 119–120 Tanaka, G., 57, 186 TAP (Tuition Assistance Program), 106 Tatum, B., 29, 42 taxes, HEOP investment and, 182 teachers. See faculty Terenzini, P. T., 32, 55, 57, 127, 186 Teresa (Skeptic), 9–10 terminology of ethnicity Black/African/African American, 29 Hispanic/Latino, 25 White, 29 Tiana (Searcher), 1, 18, 22–23, 201 academic major, 177 academic/social integration, 47 academic experience, 63–66 social experience, 86–88 adversity experiences, 105–106

226

Index

Tiana (Searcher) (continued) depression and, 81 identity development, 134 overall experience, 11 postgraduation hopes/plans, 155–156, 163 regrets over and hopes for future, 143–144 support systems, 115–116 time management, 11 Tinto, V., 43, 57, 59, 173, 186 Torres, R. D., 26 Tran (Pleaser), 201 academic major, 176 academic/social integration, 46–47, 85, 86 acquired knowledge and, 143 adversity experiences, 105 identity development, 132, 133 overall experience, 35 postgraduation hopes/plans, 155, 162, 163 regrets, 142 residential life, 43 stress and, 80–81 support systems, 114–115 transfer student(s) challenges, 34 rate of, from community college, 184 transition to college, 28, 151–152, 172 college as, 179–180 Trent, W., 3, 9 trust stereotype threat and, 65 student issues with, 85–86, 88 Tuition Assistance Program (TAP), 106 university. See elite institutions; higher education; Ivy University University of Michigan, 2, 3 ups and downs of college, 41 multigenerational-immigrant student, 39–40 second-generation immigrant student, 36

upward mobility, 179–180 urban schools, preparation for college, 9–11 U.S. economy, 3 U.S. Supreme Court, 2, 3 Veronika (Pleaser), 201 academic major, 176 academic/social integration, 46, 85, 86 adversity experiences, 105 identity development, 133 overall experience, 35–36 overall experiences, 142 postgraduation hopes/plans, 143, 155, 162–163 recruitment promises and, 54 voluntary immigrants, 8, 28 volunteer activities, 90, 94–95, 138–139 Wang, L., 88 Ward, J. V., 12, 13 Waters, M. C., 17, 29 Waters, Mary, 17 Waxman, H. C., 102, 122, 123 Weis, L., 25, 42, 43, 127, 185 Wexler, P., 128 White students, 29 as dominant majority attitudes toward affirmative action, 46 HEOP student marginalization and, 97 multigenerational-immigrant students and, 28, 124 residential life and, 42 response to racial incidents, 50 high school experiences, 9 Whitt, E. J., xvii, 31, 56 Willis, B., 123 Wilson, Woodrow, 56 Winter, G., 188 Wolfe, L. M., 43, 57, 186 work. See employment

EDUCATION

Graduating Class Disadvantaged Students Crossing the Bridge of Higher Education Latty L. Goodwin Foreword by Lois Weis In Graduating Class, Latty L. Goodwin tells the story of a group of students from poor and working-class families who struggle against all odds to graduate from an elite university. The author explores the lived experiences of an engaging group of college students and shares their stories of trials and tribulations, joys and sorrows, and their frustrations and successes. Goodwin shows that even though the affirmative action debate was recently “settled” in the Supreme Court, universities are still left to grapple with defining who is deserving, meritorious, and qualified for admission. This timely story of hope and of students persevering through academic adversity poignantly demonstrates the justice of democratic access to higher education. “This is a vivid recollection of the life experiences of students of color in an Ivy League university. The topic is significant and it speaks to the need to keep the doors of higher education institutions open to working-class students of color.” —Marta Baltodano, coeditor of The Critical Pedagogy Reader “Those of us in higher education concerned with attracting diverse students to our programs have much to learn from this book. The author brings up important intellectual issues concerning motivation, affirmative action, and the academic culture.” —Patricia A. Scully, coauthor of Families, Schools, and Communities: Building Partnerships for Educating Children, Third Edition Latty L. Goodwin is Associate Professor of Educational Development and Director of the First Year Enrichment Program at Rochester Institute of Technology.

State University of New York Press www.sunypress.edu