Reasons For Attending College Are Financial : Supporting A Family, No Money For Tuition

There are multiple reasons why someone may want to go to college. Whether it’s to pursue their dreams or prove people wrong. I want to go to college because I want to pursue my dream of majoring in mathematics, math is a passion of mine. I can not say fully what I want to do with my life or when I will find out, but I do know that math is something I want to continue studying. Being Hispanic does not give me a good advantage when it comes to colleges, I have to make sure my voice is heard. What is even more complicated is being a first generation college student, my family really can not help because my parents did not go to college. I have to set the example for my younger brother because he is also going to be a first generation college student

Various reasons exist as to why Hispanic students are dropping out of school. The most widely known cause is poverty. According to Valladeres (2002), ?Almost 40 percent of Hispanic children are raised in families that are below the poverty line, a rate twice as high as that of Caucasian children? (p.37). Hispanic students often find it difficult to attend school when their parents are struggling with finances. Many drop out to assist their parents in earning money to stay in the country. According to Ofelia Garcia Hunter (2003), ?some immigrants formally enroll in public schools to learn English, but then drop out to work, their true goal for moving to the United States? (p.A1). Another very common explanation is the Hispanic?s language proficiency. Often, immigrants entering the U.S. are illiterate in Spanish, which makes learning English a daunting task (Valladares, 2002, p.38). Ronald Blackburn-Moreno explains that ?Latino children who enter school speaking only Spanish have the double task of learning to speak and read English. Once students are in elementary, even in middle school, their inability to read causes them to dropout? (Valladares, 2002, p.38). A further cause is age. If students immigrate at an older age,

My parents always wanted to give their children the life they never had. I am Mexican-American, both of my parents immigrated from Mexico to the U.S. before I was born. I have numerous relatives, including my older sister, who do not have the same opportunities I have to achieve success because they are undocumented. For them, college was only a dream that could never be attained. Being the first U.S. citizen out of my entire family affected the way I thought about life. It was expected that I would attend college because I was the only one who had access to all the resources granted to American citizens. Although, I agreed with my family, the pressure to succeed and be a role model to my younger siblings was overwhelming.

This paper will try to explain the variety of hardships many Mexican-American students endure in hopes to gain a higher education. Many are driven by the “American Dream”, which is the idea that individuals living in the U.S. have the equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and abilities. The American Dream often motivates foreigners to enter the United States illegally, hoping for that “equal opportunity” to success. However, not everyone living in the U.S. has equal opportunities, compared to native-born American citizens. This is why it can be difficult for Mexican-American students to attend colleges and universities. A higher education is difficult to obtain for Mexican-American students because of their low socioeconomic status, their differing cultural and structural characteristics, and the social and political institutions in our current society. Although this paper does not focus on the educational opportunities in Mexico, this paper will mostly focus on the educational system in the United States, particularly California State University, San Bernardino. In addition, this paper will refer to Mexican-American students as first-generation college students.

The Hispanic college students in the Ronald E. McNair Post-baccalaureate Achievement Program and their desire for higher education were discussed in terms of constituents. The discussion of results was a very

The number of diverse students entering and graduating from post-secondary institutions is increasing at rapid rates (Education Trust, 2015; Georgetown University Center, 2012). Between the years 2003 and 2013, 77% of public institutions improved graduation rates for underrepresented groups, including African-American, Hispanic, and Native American students (Education Trust, 2015). Despite this increase, there continues to be a graduation gap between underrepresented minority students and White students. Nationally, 42% percent of Black students that enter college will graduate while 62% of White students will graduate (The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, 2005). There is a similar graduation gap for college students who are the first in their family to attend college, or first-generation students. Sixty percent of first generation students that enter college will attend college for six years without receiving a bachelor’s degree (Smith, 2012). Historically underrepresented students and first generation students face unique challenges and hardships that can make graduation difficult (Hunter, Laursen & Seymour, 2007; Jett, Curry, & Vernon-Jackson, 2016; Schwartz, 2012). High impact practices such as the Ronal McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program (McNair Program) are designed to increase historically disadvantages and first generation student learning and retention in college. An importance aspect of high impact programs such as the McNair

Despite their better standing, the research has surprisingly found that they are “only slightly more likely than those whose parents were first-generation immigrants to have had some education beyond high school or to report household or personal incomes above $25,000” (28). These differences in educational and occupational attainment may be attributed to the overcrowded, underfunded inner-city schools second and third generation Latinos attend or to the fact that young Latinos feel economic pressure to drop out of school to get a job and financially assist their families; thus, keeping them in lower occupational ranks since the well-paid professional positions require a higher educational standard. These results are a bit disheartening, but nonetheless, the educational attainment of Latinos is still in a positive trend since we are seeing a slow, yet gradual increase of educational attainment.

Hispanic students are a noticeable population in the education system in the United States, because like said before the Hispanic population in the United States is growing noticeably. Yet, the a lot of students are not seeking higher education or taking rigorous classes, and

In a 2004 journal by Susan Auerbach, the concept of parental influence and support for Latina/o students is addressed. Auerbach shares that, “Research suggests the pivotal role of parents in promoting students’ college going” (Auerbach, p.127). It is no mystery that parents have great influence over their children, and when a parent is uneducated on how to best advise their child regarding higher education, they are unable to use this influence to encourage attendance. Auerbach states, “Families without a tradition of college going do not have sufficient knowledge to help their children navigate pathways to college” (Auerbach, p.140). According to the Latino Eligibility Study, the single most important barrier to college access for Latino students in California is lack of active knowledge of the steps needed to go to college (Gandara, 1998,2002). Parents of first generation students need tools that can aid in the child’s success and serve as a means of knowledge on what can be a challenging and confusing process. Another issue tied to parent involvement and understanding is that, “Poor and working class Latino families come to college preparation relatively late in students’ careers, with fewer resources and more obstacles” (Auerbach, p.136). The journal supports the idea that Latino/a parents are in need of early access to college preparation education in order to be able to challenge and support their

The U.S. Department of Education’s Digest of Education Statistics (2010) compiles data on educational trends and statistics in the United States. According to the digest, in 2009 African Americans earned about 10 percent of all bachelor degrees awarded. Furthermore, about 20 percent of African Americans currently hold a college degree. When compared to the same rates for the white non-hispanic population, African Americans are largely lagging behind. The challenges that African Americans are facing must be met by post secondary institutions if this group is going to continue on the path of economic and career prosperity. This need is discussed in the report Minorities in Higher Education:

First generation students are characterized as unprepared for college. The Latino first generation is so pervasive and over population that many Latino first generation do not have a affliction as those whose family has been in the United States for a while. A first generation student especially that is Latino, are usually from income are notoriously low compare those to all American family. Over the past decade, the latino population has grown from 35.3 million to 50.5 million , composing 16.3 percent of the total population. In fact, more than half of the growth in the total population in the U.S from 2000 to 2010 can be attributed to the increase in the Latino population. Latinos clearly constitute a vital population of the U.S population. Only 37% of Latino high school complete between the 18 and 24 are enrolled in college and one at of ten hold a college degree. Overall , there household plays a huge part into the minds of a first generation

Earning a college degree has long been considered—one of the major keys in achieving the American Dream. However, contrary to popular belief, that theory has been proven invalid. According to a recent study from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRBOSL), “Education does not help black and Hispanic college graduates protect their wealth the same way that it does for their white and Asian counterparts.”

What could schools do to support the college access of Latino immigrant students? To understand how public high schools serving low-income, immigrant students (majority of whom were of Hispanic descent) achieved high rates of college acceptances, Jaffe-Walters and Lee (2008) conducted an ethnographic study to explore how schools provide students with the academic skills and social capital to support college-going. Among other factors, the researchers found that staff resisted “deficit thinking by focusing on the structural and material conditions that limit families” (p. 285). That is, instead of blaming students’ circumstances for struggles to achieve in school, educators at these schools sought ways to overcome structural barriers and provide students with the resources and capital necessary to graduate and attend college. One way of preparing all ELLs attending the schools was grouping students heterogeneously in academically challenging courses, with an “assumption that all

The graph above illustrates the graduation rate of high school students among the Hispanic community. It depicts that during the early 1990’s the graduation rate among hispanics was extremely low, with only at least 61% of students graduating just from high school. It displays that students among the age of 18-24 had a low probability of graduating, and this continued between 1994 and 1996, where the percentage of high school graduates dropped below 61%.

Zarate shows us the reality that minorities face when wanting AP courses; “It appears that schools with high minority student concentrations did not increase their AP course offerings to mirror similar-sized schools’ AP offerings” (Zarate,15). Even within these students who are under the college pathway, the limited college exam preparations, AP and honors classes that they receive are not enough to make them competitive when wanting admissions to higher education. These students who are under the college pathway are usually identified as “gifted” or talented students which is only around ten percent of the total student population. For the rest of the students who have the same ability to be taking these classes if their parents, teachers, counselors or themselves do not make an effort for the students to experience these classes they will always be behind and not be in the college pathway as the other students. “Their history, which involves educational tracking and sub-standard schools, has affected Latinos’ entry into higher education. Rather than accept the prevailing myths that Latinos and other students of color come from families that do not value higher education, this insists that we recognize how they have traditionally been tracked by ineffective schools into non-college-bound majors, which has resulted in their disproportionate attendance”