What Helped You Stay in College? Social Capital and Other Factors That Promote Student Persistence

Download or read book What Helped You Stay in College? Social Capital and Other Factors That Promote Student Persistence written by Phillip Michael De La O and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 51 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is the goal of most students to obtain a college degree due to the advantages that come with it such as higher rate of pay, greater job security, and retirement benefits. While there are a large number of students who are able to rise to the task, there are some who fall short. According to the United States Census Bureau's 2015 study, educational attainment rates are highest among Asian Americans and Whites at 51.4% and 31.1% respectively, while the percentage of African Americans and Hispanics is considerably lower at 19.5% and 14.3%. First-generation college students are a group who often tend to struggle with degree attainment for various reasons. One notable reason for the lack degree attainment could be the amount of social capital in this group of student's lives. For the purpose of this study, the definition of social capital will be a blend of both Pierre Bourdieu's and James Coleman's definition. Social capital will be defined as a process where resources (behaviors, norms, information) are exchanged and accumulated among individuals or groups to facilitate certain actions. This thesis aims to investigate the social capital in the lives of a group of first-generation college students attending California State University, Los Angeles who took part in the Persistence in Education Study. This longitudinal, mixed methods study will examine the resources used during their first year of postsecondary education and how they used this information to persist when facing obstacles.