In El Paso, Texas, the largest port of entry from Mexico into the United States, transition is a way of life. Every day, people line up on the arched bridges spanning the Rio Grande, coming by car, bike, or on foot to the United States to shop, study, or work. Looking across the border from the University where part of this study took place, one sees hillsides of dilapidated houses, many home to workers atmaquilidoras—factories run by US corporations in Mexico to take advantage of lower production costs. At the time of this study, drug violence rates in...

With the decline of the well-paying manufacturing jobs and inexpensive agricultural lands, education is the new form of entry into US society for students from immigrant families like those featured in this study (Suárez-Orozco and Suárez-Orozco 2001; Perez 2008). Apodaca (2008, 59) has claimed that education is the single most important asset to “ensure personal and professional growth and to become a more productive member of the community.” The desire for a more successful future is strong among all the students who took part in my study, and it is clear they identify education as a key element of this...

This chapter details the stories of two students who were not enthusiastic about college but began in part because it was expected of them. They both started at the local community college and ended up doing very little writing their first year. Although Daniel had relatively strong writing ability and was a former pre-AP student, he ended up in a developmental writing class; the second student, Joanne, did not have any writing class her first year. Despite some factors working in their favor, both dropped out of college their second semester.

Daniel possessed many markers of a successful student. English...

The two students in this chapter faced academic and non-academic challenges as they finished high school and transitioned to college. They both had to care extensively for younger siblings, drawing time away from their studies and limiting their ability to participate in extracurricular activities. While both were generally underprepared for college like the other students in the study, Yesenia started with perhaps the lowest writing ability of the participants. Nonetheless, Bianca and Yesenia sought and found sponsorship from a variety of individuals both in and beyond the institution, working extra hours to balance school responsibilities with often extensive extracurricular demands...

The previous few chapters brought stories of students who struggled in various ways, with some stopping out of college and some moving beyond their first year. The two students in this chapter also faced some challenges in their educational journeys, although many of these were before they came to college. Because of various personal characteristics and experiences, the two students profiled in this chapter ended up having relatively smooth transitions to college and excelled beyond many of their peers, despite having a high school education that inadequately prepared them for success.

My first impression of Carolina were of a diligent...

While students featured in previous chapters generally stayed on consistent paths throughout their journeys from high school to college, the student featured in this chapter was never sure what she wanted. Paola initially questioned whether or not she should go to college but ultimately decided to go. She excelled the semester she was there and became very engaged in the work she was doing, but stopped out the following semester. Paola’s journey helps illustrate the complexity of students’ pathways to college and how they are shaped by factors beyond a teacher’s immediate control.

Paola’s parents came to the United States...

The curricular and extracurricular experiences of Daniel, Joanne, Bianca, Yesenia, Mauricio, Carolina, and Paola show the diversity of paths Latina/o students take, even at the same institutions. Many of the stories shared were positive: high school teachers as literacy sponsors, a scholarship program for children of migrant workers supporting a student’s success, and the dedication of an underprepared student helping her succeed against many odds. However, the stories are also ones of struggle. After briefly revisiting the students’ writing experiences across the three institutions, this chapter explores how the students developed the habitus and networks of capital necessary to support...

The stories of Joanne, Daniel, and Paola along with the untold stories of students who began this project but never started college vividly illustrate the reality depicted by statistics shared in the introductory chapter: minority students, including Latinas/os, do not graduate at the same rate as their majority peers (Llagas and Snyder 2003; Lumina Foundation 2007). Although education is not a guaranteed pathway to economic success, educational disparities contribute to the increasing divide between the rich and the poor in the United States as unemployment rates and expected earnings between someone with a high school education and a postsecondary degree...

Although I have continued to stay in touch with most of the students from this study informally via Facebook or an occasional text message, I reconnected with them more formally during their second year at college. The updates provided here about each student’s ongoing college journeys emphasize the point that students’ pathways to and through college are always transforming, continually impacted by forces both inside and beyond institutions.

Daniel’s second-year story offers a perspective of the path of what life was like after stopping out of college, a path followed by two other participants that I was unable to interview....