"Que De Ti No Quede": A Case Study of a College Preparation Course

The purpose of my case study was to explore the cultural wealth and learning dynamic of a college preparation course at a public charter high school. I sought to explore how the course influences the college aspirations of Latinx students and identify the cultural wealth inherent within student participants. While the college aspirations of Latinx families are comparable to those of their high income or White counterparts, their educational outcomes still lag behind. The single most important barrier to college access for Latinx families is accessing the college knowledge to materialize their college aspirations. This is often because Latinx students not have social circles that contain this knowledge. As a result, students depend on counselors for such knowledge, but the role of counselors in public high schools has historically been problematic to attend to student college aspirations. In public charter high schools, one type of college access program—a college preparation course—seeks to support Latinx students’ college aspirations thru a class dedicated entirely to the college application and enrollment process. My findings reveal that the students’ fuerza marchante along with the course’s college celebratory culture, allow students to fully maximize their college application process. Students see college as a familial achievement and an expectation, access college-going social networks for validation and support, increase their college knowledge by accessing their college counselors, and leverage their bilingualism to support each other through the college application process.