色情视频

What if everything you thought you knew about supporting first-generation college students was wrong?

As the conventional wisdom goes, parents who never earned a degree present singular challenges and barriers to their children's chances of completing a degree. Their kids have less grounding in how to handle the pressures of higher education, it鈥檚 often thought, so they鈥檙e less likely to stick it out.

Wendy Ochoa, assistant professor in 色情视频鈥檚 Department of Child and Family Development (CFD), rejects that deficit framing outright.

鈥淚f you're not asking minoritized students who supports them and what cultural values and knowledge protects and fosters their academic and emotional well-being, you're likely not getting the full story,鈥� said Ochoa, who is entering her second year on the CFD faculty. 鈥淔or most, it's our families that keep us resilient in environments that aren鈥檛 always welcoming of us. More importantly, cultural values and bodies of knowledge can give us the tools to be leading and innovative professionals in our fields.

鈥淩esearchers of color have been saying this for many years, but the field hasn鈥檛 been listening. It keeps asking the same questions and perpetuating a deficit narrative about being from a different cultural background.鈥�

Ochoa has teamed with Rosie Villafana-Hatcher, director of the Early Assessment Program in 色情视频鈥檚 Office of Educational Opportunity Programs, Outreach and Success, on a new cross-campus initiative to turn that academic orthodoxy on its head. Their idea is to bring parents into the fold early and help students tap into the strengths of immigrant family structures and culture along their journeys to college.

Grit and resilience

Supported by a family engagement grant from the California State University Office of the Chancellor, their 鈥淚t Takes a Village鈥� project will collaborate with local school districts and community partners to facilitate workshops for parents of middle schoolers and high schoolers who are potential first-generation students.

鈥淢iddle school is key,鈥�  said Villafana-Hatcher, who has been engaging with first-generation students for 17 years in her role at 色情视频. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a point where we can still plant seeds, and they still have time to plan and prepare themselves to take advantage of programs and resources available at high schools.鈥�

The program will launch later this summer with families in the Sweetwater Union High School District, which serves San Diego鈥檚 South Bay 鈥� a community with large numbers of Latinx and immigrant students. Villafana-Hatcher said they expect to engage about 100 parents in the program鈥檚 first year.

Workshops will focus on college options, admission requirements, financial aid and support programs and other resources families can tap. It will all culminate with an end-of-year reception where parents will be celebrated with certificates of completion.

鈥淲e want to use the cultures of communities as an asset and not just replicate what works for white, middle-class families,鈥� Ochoa said. 鈥淭here are many workshops out there where they teach you the ways of academia, and it鈥檚 implied that your culture and the way that you were raised is not conducive to success 鈥� even if it's not explicitly stated. Beyond not being true, I think it is harmful.

鈥淕raduating and accomplishing goals, despite the institutional barriers, is resilience,鈥� she added. 鈥淎nd if there's one thing that we know a lot of immigrants are, it鈥檚 resilient. That grit and hard-work ethic that's instilled in us when we are in the crib is crucial and often underappreciated in U.S. school systems.鈥�

A natural collaboration

The academic and the student affairs administrator form a natural tandem. Ochoa鈥檚 research expertise in fostering the wellbeing of diverse young children by centering the knowledge of their parents, dovetails with Villafana-Hatcher鈥檚 experience working with local systems, students and families. And both were first-generation college students themselves, growing up in immigrant families in Southern California.

The two met last fall at the grand opening of 色情视频鈥檚 and bonded instantly. Plans for a collaboration soon followed.

鈥淭his is something that I'm really passionate about,鈥� Villafana-Hatcher said. 鈥淲e are doing great work at this university, but sometimes it鈥檚 happening in silos. Student affairs and academic affairs can sometimes mirror our efforts, but it's nice when we can bridge it and create synergy.

鈥淲e're all working collaboratively for the same purpose: To make sure students come in and they graduate.鈥�