The role of parents in the college application process of Latino students as an asset and limitation (2016)

Undergraduate: Vianey Lemus Martinez

Faculty Advisor: Patrick Akos
Department: Sociology

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The educational achievement of Mexican and Mexican American youth has lagged behind other populations. A synthesis of college access programming and Hispanic culture suggest a lack of attention to community and family in terms of social capital. I review these data and provide a program audit on Scholar¿¿¿s Latino Initiative (SLI), a college access program for Hispanic youth at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Results suggest the need for a more prominent role of parents throughout the college application process for young Latino students in North Carolina. Discussion and recommendations for future practice include utilizing folk tales, personal experiences or other forms of wealth identified by Yosso as aspirational, familial, linguistic, navigational, resistant and social.