Latina/O Students' Needs

Abstract

To better understand Latina/o students' needs in a predominantly White institution of higher education with low Latina/o retention rates, semistructured interviews were completed with 30 Latina/o students. The themes that emerged through qualitative analysis of the interviews were: linguistic and financial barriers; a need for unity; availability of resources; sources of support; and educating ourselves and others about Latinas/os. Recommendations for enhancing the Latina/o student experience include activities to engage Latinas/os in the university life, bilingual support, and extending the curriculum to address Latina/o issues. Other institutions of higher education would benefit from studying local Latina/o students' needs to gain more insight into retention and graduation issues from the perspective of the students.In the summer of 2006, the first author met a group of 10 Latina/o students who were participating in a summer bridge program at the university. The bridge program offered remedial coursework to provisionally admitted undergraduates. Of that group, five Latina women failed to return for the fall semester even though they successfully completed their coursework. The second author, a graduate of the same university, observed numerous Latina/o peers who entered the institution but failed to complete their degree. These incidents raised questions about whether the needs of Latina/o students were being met by the bridge program and the university as a whole. Until the current study, the university had not 359 Ó 2012, Baywood Publishing Co., Inc.

Reducing Gaps in First-Year Outcomes Between Hispanic First-Generation College Students and Their Peers: The Role of Accelerated Learning and Financial Aid

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Immigrant Identity and Experiences in U.S. Higher Education Research: A Systematic Review

“…Researchers also studied the experiences of immigrant students based on their race and ethnicity. Most of the studies we reviewed focused on the experiences of Hispanic/Latinx students, and within those studies, the majority nationality represented was Mexican (Leinbach & Bailey, 2006;Mahaffy & Pantoja 2012;O'Connor et al, 2009). Student populations from other racial and ethnic backgrounds present in the literature we reviewed are Black students from outside the U.S. (Griffin et al, 2016;Hope et al, 2016), including Black Caribbean college students (Sanchez, 2013), as well as Asian (Chang & Chang, 2004), Asian American and Pacific Islander children of immigrants (Laanan & Starobin, 2004), and Southeast Asian students (Uy et al, 2016).…”

“…For example, one of the most prominent themes was related to lacking the knowledge or having the skills needed to effectively navigate (1) the college preparation and choice process in the U.S. and (2) the college experience and achieving college success. Knowledge deficits ranged from lack of information about the college choice process and what is needed to be a competitive college applicant (e.g., Engstrom, 2008;Kouyoumdjian et al, 2017;Lauby, 2017;Leinbach & Bailey, 2006) to lack of knowledge about resources to help navigate college and requirements for college graduation (Cerezo et al, 2009;Freeman, 2017;Mahaffy & Pantoja, 2012;Person & Rosenbaum, 2006). Another major challenge was the lack of English language skills (Conway, 2010;Eberly, 2018;Engstrom, 2008;Smith, 2010).…”

“…The second most prominent theme regarding the negative depiction of immigrants focused on their lack of resources needed to effectively navigate (1) the college preparation and choice process in the U.S. and (2) the college experience and achieving college success (Freeman, 2017;Mahaffy & Pantoja, 2012;Oseguera et al, 2008). O'Connor et al (2009) discussed the negative impact of limited social capital in some immigrant communities, which leads to lack of information for college and overrepresentation of immigrants in community college.…”

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