Building resilient undocumented Latino students

In 1982, the Supreme Court ruled that undocumented immigrants are afforded Fourteenth Amendment protections, which includes access to public K-12 education. While approximately 65,000 undocumented students graduate high school each year, only 5-10% attend college. This study examines the barriers in their pursuit of educational attainment to determine how to build resilient, high achieving undocumented Latino students that perform well, graduate high school and pursue a college education. An online questionnaire was used to determine common attributes of resilient undocumented Latino college students from around the country. The results of the study suggested that while each student had various levels of encouragement in school, everyone had someone in his or her life that played a major role in his or her success. This person (mentor) provided continual support in the school, home, and/or in the community and encouraged each student to fulfill his or her dream to attend college