Latino Students in American Colleges Essay

When one thinks about Hispanics, all too often the image of a field full of migrant workers picking fruit or vegetables in the hot sun comes to mind. This has become the stereotypical picture of a people whose determination and character are as strong or stronger than that of the Polish, Jewish, Greek, or Italian who arrived in the United States in the early 1900's. Then, the center of the new beginning for each immigrant family was an education. An education was the "ladder by which the children of immigrants climbed out of poverty into the mainstream." (Calderon & Slavin, 2001, p. iv) That ideal has not changed, as the Hispanic population has grown in the United States to large numbers very quickly and with little fanfare. Now, the

Latino/Hispanic Americans cover a much wider demographic then believed. Latino/Hispanic Americans consist of; Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Guatemalan American to name a few. Latino/Hispanic Americans are the largest ethnic group in the United States. The Latino/Hispanic culture is very different than ours. Their culture differs in economics, politics, family traditions, family structure, religion, education, language, fashion, art, music, dancing, and food. As natural born Americans in the United States it is important for us to learn about the different cultures migrating into the United States. Many United States citizens have a hard time understanding other cultures; being culturally insensitive is a common theme in the United

In the internship, it is observed that families who support their child in the academic process tend to have successful outcomes in their educational pathways. Parents engage in the conversation of their role as a supporter and how they themselves can inspire their child to continue a post-secondary education. Along with this, numerous students have expressed their aspiration towards higher education due to their parents’ support. Many of the Hispanic/Latino youth in GEAR UP have stated the struggles and sacrifices made by their families in migrating to the United States. It serves as a motivator for students to achieve their goals, so they can one day give their parents a better future as well. This implies that students are less likely to commit delinquent behavior if they have an ambition to strive for a better

There are many barriers which prevent Hispanic teenage mothers from being able to graduate high school. However, there are many ways they can overcome those obstacles, such as receiving their education and having educational, family, health, and economical support.

The participants were from a Texas University, 43 were European and 62 were Hispanic 102 were male and 103 were female. They concluded that Hispanics scored lower on the overall SAT than the European Americans. Hispanics also appeared to have more test anxiety, they were more likely to avoid unfamiliar situations and generally had parents with a lower income. Authors Sackett and Kuncel (2012) studied the role of socioeconomics on SAT grades and in College admissions decisions, another study proposed by Turcios-Cotta and Milan (2013) examined Racial Differences in the Educational expectancies of adolescents comparing Hispanics with white and African American students. They found that Hispanics were less likely to hold higher education expectancies than African Americans and Whites. The study I propose is an expansion of Hannon (2015) experiment looking at SES, Test anxiety, Performance avoidance goals, and Knowledge of learning, in addition I’d like to add looking at their long term education plans. There will be three ethnicities Caucasian, African American, and Hispanic, 30 individuals for each ethnicity. Each group would be divided in half, one half is of

One of the first and foremost reoccurring themes throughout the review of current literature on this subject has been the concept of self-efficacy and perseverance as the sole reason of black male success and retention at Hispanic Serving Institutions. In a doctoral work entitled, “Personal and Institutional Factors Relationship to Self-Efficacy of Persistence to the Senior Year in College Among Self-Identified Black Undergraduate Students in a Hispanic Serving Institution,” author Sandra Fletcher analyzes eight key factors that are alleged to have a significant role in the success and retention of Black males at Hispanic Serving Institutions. The eight factors listed as determinants of success were, “self-pride/personal goal, professional aspiration/career, motivation to support family, desire to have financial independence/better job, to serve community, opportunity to go to college, being first-generation college student, and prove to family the value of higher education” (Fletcher 2012: vii).

I also worked on three independent research projects, under the supervision of Dr. Jeanett Castellanos, for two years and two quarters; that is, examining the association between the Latina/o undergraduate commuter experience and their academic persistence; exploring Latino male undergraduate students’ academic micro-successes; and investigating the association between the psychosociocultural variables and both the relationship satisfaction and well-being of Latina/o undergraduate students in romantic relationships. For these projects, I developed a thorough open-ended interview protocol and interviewed participants, coded patterns and themes, strengthened my writing skills, submitted Institutional Review Board applications, recruited participants,

A study done using media consumption showed that American television and positive parental communication lead to higher education aspirations to their children. One example that can be done is watching positive media that show someone that is Latinx going through struggles that they might experience may be able to help with the values that the parents might have regarding their child’s education (). Something as powerful as media can make a major impact in the relationship between a parent and

In 2012 for the first time in history the college enrollment for Latinos surpassed that of whites among 18 to 24 year olds. (Krogstad & Fry, 2014) However, first-year retention rates reveal reasons for concern; in 1999 the retention rate for Latino/a students from the first to second year was a dismal 75.7%. (Seidman, 2005) However, despite these gains there is still reason for concern; California, the state with the largest Latino population, only 16% of Latinos ages 25 and up hold an associate or bachelor’s degree; this compared to 38% of all Californians the same age. (Lilley, 2014) That number is even lower for Californian Latino/as earning a bachelor degree, 12%. (Quinton, 2015) Furthermore, in California only 42%

: The Early College High School (ECHS) model is an innovative concept that provides socioeconomically disadvantaged students the opportunity to earn a high school diploma, an associate’s degree, and a bachelor’s degree within a six-year period [1]. This timeframe is about two years less than that offered by a traditional or comprehensive high school to earn the same three degrees. With the purpose of identifying variables that impact odds of graduation, this paper takes a closer quantitative examination of ECHS records of those students who are now attending or have attended a four-year Hispanic Serving Institution in the Southwestern U.S. The variables examined in the data include, but are not limited to: ethnicity, first-generation status,

For 10 weeks I tutored three first generation Hispanic American students in reading and writing, the curriculum that was provided to the tutors was effective but contained some examples and concepts foreign to the group with which I was working. There were three ways we solved the situation. First, I would provide a brief explanation of a concept and the students would respond with ideas from their experience that aligned with the original concept. Second, for detailed explanations I would have the students consult the dictionary, encyclopedia and Wikipedia to get a clear understanding of the topic on which we were focusing. Finally, when students where provided assignments to practice writing and grammar but the topics were unfamiliar, I would have the students brainstorm 5-6 topics relevant to them. In this way, students could work on improving their writing skills while focusing on a topic that

My high school only had fourteen counselors to help the 4,263 students in attendance, this counselor-to-student ration meant that not much time could be devoted to each student to help them navigate the complex college application system (Common Core Data 2010). During my time, I never actually spoke to any of the counselors about college plans and I was not even aware that they could help in that area. The only time I met with a counselor was to choose classes for the next year and those meetings never exceeded ten minutes. Also, coming from a family that had not attended college, I was still without the knowledge of how to gain access into the realm of higher education. In the following sections I detail how the cultural capital borrowed or learned from special programs or individuals ultimately impact a student’s upward mobility

“Students whose parents expect them to earn a college degree are 38% more likely to expect a four-year college degree than students whose parents do not expect them to earn a college degree.” Parent’s need to invest in their child’s future. The more the parents invest and talk about pursing a degree and going to college, the more the child will be wanting to go. In poorer families, they tend to invest all the time into the son’s future while in wealthier families they invest in the daughter’s education. There seems to be a change occurring since gender discrimination and stereotyping have decreased, this opens the door for more opportunities in different occupations for women. This has also increased for women not being able to rely on their partner for financial reasons causing parents to provide a greater equity between sons and daughters. Parents who tend to put more pressure on their children to get good grades and set high expectations for their children across all racial/ethnic backgrounds, are more likely to stay in

Teranishi, Robert T., Carola Suárez-Orozco, and Marcelo Suárez-Orozco. “Immigrants in Community Colleges.” Future of Children 21.1 (2011): 153–169. Web.

The results of the study only partially confirm that both types of motivation, family expectation and personal motivation, was related to college outcomes. Personal motivation was found to be predictive of college adjustment; whereas, external motivation from family expectations was not significantly related. There was no significant difference between Latino and Asian participants except for GPA. High school GPA was calculated using t (140) = -2.82, p< .005 and