Bridging the gap: Cultural wealth and college transitions for Upward Bound students

Often when assessing the success of minoritized students, deficit models place the weight of low achievement on students’ cultural identities, thus blaming them for their lack of success. However, many minoritized students combat this erasure by using their cultural capital, wealth, and identities to transition and persist through college. Using Yosso’s (2005) Community Cultural Wealth model, this study explored the ways that 20 first-generation, low-income, Black and Latinx Upward Bound alumni implemented their cultural wealth to transition and persist through the postsecondary pipeline, and investigated the role of an Upward Bound program preparing them for college. Through artifact/photographic elicited, semi-structured interviews, this study found that these Upward Bound alumni used their cultural wealth, comprised of their (1) Familial Influence and (2) Resistance to transition and persist through college. This study also found that this Upward Bound prepared them for college, by illustrating the importance of forming (3) Community and the development of their (4) College and Culture Predisposition. These findings significantly contribute to transition and persistence literature, as it furthers research surrounding the complexities of navigating the educational pipeline for first-generation, low-income, Black, and Latinx college students. Additionally, this study adds to the discourse on Upward Bound programs and the necessity of providing students with holistic college knowledge, comprised cultural and academic provision. This study can be used to inform policies, practices, and programs with best practices to support the success of minoritized college students