Summary #1

Next, I want to look towards if other educational minorities struggle with success throughout
college because of their status. This source that I have for my first summary describes how
latinos have a more strugglesome time throughout college because of different factors like being
a first generation, stereotypes, and low familial support. After reading this my inquiry idea has
shifted slightly to go towards minority success, rather than psychological health throughout
groups.

Flink, Patrick Jermain. “Latinos and Higher Education: A Literature Review.” ​Journal of
Hispanic Higher Education​ 17.4 (2018): 402–414. Web

The author of this journal is Patrick Jarmain Flink. He works at the Manhattan Community
College in New York. This was published October 1, 2018. The intended audience is for anyone
interested in knowing about rates and logistics of latinos in college. It was more specifically for
latinos who may be wanting to go to college, but are considering all factors. This is especially for
first year generation latinos. This article is peer reviewed, making it more credible.
This journal was about latinos that go into college and how different aspects of their life are
affected. Latinos are the fastest growing ethnic-minority group in the United States, and more of
them are beginning to enroll in universities as well. Even though they are enrolling more, latinos still
have one of the lowest rates of graduates of all of the ethnic minorities. Latinos any people who come
from spanish origin. This includes Mexico, South America, and Cuba. about 58% of latinos enrolled
in higher education start at a two year or community college. Latinos also experience more
challenges, such as stereotypes and discrimination. Latinos are also come from many different
backgrounds and many are first generation students. This can have many different negative
psychological effects on them. The journal also goes into the challenges and hardships faced because
of being first generation and because of cultural issues.
Flink uses many different sources and outside information, including stats and other facts.
This establishes logos throughout the journal. This article is mostly all factual, with few opinions or
ideas of his own. There are pathos presented through some of the facts though since we feel for the
latinos and their community when coming through college.
This has agreed with other information I have found for minorities, not as specific as Latinos,
but it is a general agreement with everything that I have read that minorities have a tougher time
throughout higher education. “​First-generation students also often lack the familial support and
understanding that other students have from parents who have attended college (​Boden, 2011​).”
“For Latinos, as well as other immigrant populations, acculturation is a challenging process
given that their new communities often have distinctly different cultural values and beliefs, and
often are inclusive of a language that is foreign to them (​Aguayo et al., 2011​; ​Schwartz et al.,
2013​)” “ Some Latinos may experience discrimination, stereotyping, or the feeling that they do
not belong on campus (​Becker, 2011​; ​Cronin et al., 2012​). These unique challenges may have
significant effects on Latinos’ psychological well-being as well as their ability to succeed
academically (​Arbona & Jimenez, 2014​; ​Cronin et al., 2012​).”
I may use this source in my thesis for describing the hardships that are faced for minorities or
first generation students. This can have an affect on psychological health as well and can be a good
thing to include in my thesis.

Summary #2

Roksa, Josipa, and Peter Kinsley. “The Role of Family Support in Facilitating Academic Success
of Low-Income Students.” ​Research in Higher Education​, vol. 60, no. 4, June 2019, pp.
415–436. ​EBSCOhost​,
search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ1216398&site=ehost-live&scope
=site.
This journal is by Josipa Roska and is peer reviewed, making it more credible. The
intended audience of this was for anyone who was curious. More specifically, she may have been
trying to reach the thoughts of people who can help first generation students and socioeconomic
students reach more success. This is also a study, so experimentation happened and there is data
to represent the findings of the study. In this summary, I will be focusing on explaining what is
within the journal, rather than the stats.
This journal talks about the difference in socioeconomically advantaged and
disadvantaged people. One of the key things it describes is disparities between the groups and
how this can cause students to be more or less successful throughout school. She states that
disadvantaged students are four times more likely to drop out of college after the first year and
that overall they encounter more academic problems like lower grades.“Low-income
first-generation students are nearly four times more likely than their more socioeconomically
advantaged peers to depart after the first year of college (Engle and Tinto ​2008​).” This also goes
into family support and how it tends to be that if you come from a more economically stable
background, parents play a more active role in where the person chooses to go to college, while
with more disadvantaged people, parents usually let their child make those decisions on their
own, but still emphasize working hard. They usually give the motivation to the student.
“Studying first-generation Latino students, Auerbach (​2004​, ​2006​) argued that parents play a
crucial role in facilitating college pursuits by conveying the message that hard work, studying,
and college attendance are the steps children need to take to improve their lot in life.”
This journal also talks about the psychological side too. She describes that it has been
found that when parents and other family members or friends are encouraging of the person to go
to school and do well, that there is a greater sense of belonging and students feel more
motivation to do well. “In light of the prior literature, we expect that family support will be
related to two aspects of students’ college experiences: (a) engagement and (b) psycho-social
adjustment.” This goes to say that the relationship with family is almost always directly
correlated with academic success.
This doesn’t necessarily agree or disagree with what I am arguing for,. Since I still don’t
know exactly how I feel or what my take on the topic is yet. Doing this research is getting me
closer to finally figuring out exactly what I would like to do though. I can definitely use this in
my thesis, whether it is for support or to refute. I think that this article has given me more clarity
as to what direction I want to go in with my inquiry thesis and how I want my paper to look,
which is great! This was a good source to look over and I am glad that I was able to read this.

Summary #3

Lightweis, Susan. “The Challenges, Persistence, and Success of White, Working-Class,

First-Generation College Students.” ​College Student Journal​ 48.3 (2014): 461–467.
Print.
This is a journal called “THE CHALLENGES, PERSISTENCE, AND SUCCESS OF
WHITE, WORKING-CLASS, FIRST-GENERATION COLLEGE STUDENTS” by
Susan Lightweis. This was a research journal and is peer reviewed. Because of this, we know the
intended audience was for scholars and that this is highly credible. She has lots of citations
herself, so again we can see that this is credible and well written.
This journal was research on white, first generation college students. It talked about their
struggles in college as well their experiences. It also talked about how the universities tried to
help them out throughout their experiences and give them the tools to be successful and enjoy
their time at the universities. These students had a hard time talking to their parents about how
college was going. They had a harder time facing challenges and overcoming obstacles. This was
largely due to the fact that they did not feel like their parents could help them with their problems
since they themselves never had the problems or struggles that the kids are going through now
with college.
This agrees with what I am going to argue for because I am leaning towards looking at
how first generation college students deal with their stress and school work and whether they are
successful or not. I am arguing that it is more difficult for first generation students to be
successful because of all of the challenges they have to face, which agrees with the article. This
article also explains how the parents not having gone to school can cause
“​This reluctance to participate in campus life may be due to the lack of knowledge and
experience about college from their working-class parents” This describes how students have a
harder time participating because their parents don’t have the same experiences and they have no
way of knowing what college life is like because of this. This also shows that since they don’t
have parents to look to on what to do, that it makes it harder for these kids to follow in their
footsteps and allow themselves to try something new.
 “​Additionally, these students struggle in communicating with their parents about college
as parents do not possess experiences encountered in college.” Kids have a hard time talking
with their parents about their experiences because their parents do not share that with them. They
then do not feel that they have anyone to communicate with or reside in to talk about their
experiences or what they are dealing with or going through.
“While a few participants felt alienated or did not feel they fit into college life, other
participants overcame these feelings and became motivated and continued on with purpose (p.
123).” This talks about how through the programs that they instilled for the first generation
students, that even though some still felt left out, that most were able to find a place at their
college and to fit in more with what they had going on.

S​ummary #4

Stephens, Nicole M, Hamedani, Maryam G, and Destin, Mesmin. “Closing the Social-Class
Achievement Gap: A Difference-Education Intervention Improves First-Generation
Students’ Academic Performance and All Students’ College Transition.”
Psychological Science​ 25.4 (2014): 943–953. Web

This is a journal called “Closing the Social-Class Achievement Gap: A

Difference-Education Intervention Improves First-Generation Students’ Academic Performance
and All Students’ College Transition” by Nicole M. Stephens, MarYam G Hamedani, and
Mesmin Destin. It was published February 19, 2014. This article is about how academic
performance can be improved and how they can feel throughout college. The intended audience
was more than likely scholars because this was peer reviewed.
This journal was about different ways that universities can work to improve the college
life for many first generation students. This talks about how they want everyone to have to
opportunity to be successful and feel like they fit in with the rest of those in college. This also
showed experiences done between different socio-economic groups and how one’s race, ethinic,
or economic status can bring up different challenges and different positive things.
“Compared with their continuing-generation peers, first-generation students are
especially likely to feel left out and to have trouble finding their place” This quote explains and
again validates all of the other research that I have done. First generation students are not as apt
to being social and fitting in with everything college related as non first generation students are.
“Compared with a standard intervention that provided similar stories of college
adjustment without highlighting students’ different backgrounds, the difference-education
intervention eliminated the social-class achievement gap by increasing first-generation students’
tendency to seek out college resources (e.g., meeting with professors) and, in turn, improving
their end-of-year grade point averages.” This shows what the experiments were trying to
accomplish and find out.
 “On the other hand, college students who do not have parents with 4-year college degrees
(i.e., ​first-generation​ students) receive lower grades and drop out at higher rates than students
who have at least one parent with a 4-year degree (i.e., ​continuing-generation​ students;
Pascarella, Pierson, Wolniak, & Terenzini, 2004​; ​Sirin, 2005​).”

Summary #5
Davis, Jeff. ​The First Generation Student Experience Implications for Campus Practice, and
Strategies for Improving Persistence and Success​. Sterling: Stylus Publishing, 2010.
Print

This is a book called “Student Experience. Who TheyAre, Their Characteristics, and
Strategies for Improving Their Persistence and Success” by Jeff Davis. This is about how there
are about 40% of college students that are first generation and how if the graduation rates and
success in them can improve, then it would drastically improve the rates of the university as a
whole. This was published on June 5th, 2010 but is not peer reviewed.
“I am not suggesting that first generation student status should be regarded as the same as
ethnic minority status when considering the composition of a person’s identity. I am suggesting,
however, that it should be regarded as similar in the higher education sphere.” This quote
explains how they think that there should be a title for those who are first generation students to
specify who they are since they are different than others and their college experience will be
different because of this. He thinks that students should enter the level of college that their
parents received as part of their application.
Overall, this book talks about plans that can be done to help aid first-generation students
through their college journey to make their college experience as successful and good as
possible. These programs can help them with success as well as just feeling like they fit into the
college world as a whole.

Summary #6
Fruiht, Veronica, and Chan, Thomas. “Naturally Occurring Mentorship in a National
Sample of First-Generation College Goers: A Promising Portal for Academic and Developmental
Success.” ​American Journal of Community Psychology​ 61.3-4 (2018): 386–397. Web.

This journal is titled “Naturally Occurring Mentorship in a National Sample of

First-Generation College Goers: A Promising Portal for Academic and Developmental Success”
and was written by V Fruiht and T Chan. This is research that was done to see the kind of
support that relatives, educators, and community members have in whether a student will go to
college or not. This states that if a student is a first generation college goer, that they are
significantly less likely to go to college. This specifically talks about mentoring and how this can
help guide students to choose to go to college.
 “​Specifically, young people whose parents did not attend college are about one-third as
likely to enroll in a four-year institution after high school graduation (​Choy, 2001​) and are nearly
30% less likely to graduate in 6 years compared to their peers with a parent who holds a
bachelor’s degree (​DeAngelo, Franke, Hurtado, Pryor & Tran, 2011​).” This quote is important
since it describes the actual statistics behind the rates of graduation and chances of going to
college if one if a first generation college student.
“Even upon enrolling in college FGC students are still more likely to face financial
struggles” By FGC, they are talking about first generation college students. This quote just
describes another hardship or struggle that some first generation college students may face and
have to deal with.
“FGC students spend fewer hours studying, participate in fewer extracurriculars and
special programs, and spend more hours working for pay than continuing generation students
(Chen & Carroll, 2005; Pascarella, Pierson, Wolniak, & Terenzini, 2004; Terenzini et al.,
1996).” This quote again shows some struggles that these first generation students are more
likely to face. This also goes into how they are less capable of grades since they have less time to
study and often do not have as many friends to get the college experience that many students
have.

Summary #7
Means, Darris, and Pyne, Kimberly. “Finding My Way: Perceptions of Institutional
Support and Belonging in Low-Income, First-Generation, First-Year College Students.” ​Journal
of College Student Development​ 58.6 (2017): 907–924. Web

Summary #8
Gleeson, P. (2018, July 1). The Average Salary Without a College Degree. Retrieved
from https://work.chron.com/average-salary-college-degree-1861.html