Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationThis study explores how Southeast Asian American college students experience success in college despite systemic and institutional barriers. The underrepresentation of Southeast Asian American perspectives in higher education research has created a deficit in understanding this population's experiences on college campuses. This dissertation highlights four narratives of Cambodian American and Vietnamese American college students by telling their stories of racism and racialization, support, relationships, and personal and familial resilience as they strived to find educational success on their college campus. Through Critical Race and AsianCrit frameworks and a narrative inquiry methodology, a number of significant findings emerged. Based on the stories of Vincent, M, Isaiah, and B, three themes and 11 subthemes comprise the dissertation's findings. The first theme underlines the importance of intersectionality regarding social identities. The theme is broken into four subthemes to highlight ethnicity's intersection with race, first-generation college status, gender, and religion. The second theme highlights the impact of support systems. The three subthemes detailing specific support systems include family, culturally relevant student organizations, and in-class peers of color. The third theme showcases the campus climate, which includes subthemes of peers, faculty, course content, and mental health