PASS OR FAIL: IS CALIFORNIA HIGHER EDUCATION HELPING LATINO STUDENTS THRIVE?
CSULB LIBRARY PRESENTS
PASS OR FAIL: IS CALIFORNIA HIGHER EDUCATION HELPING LATINO STUDENTS THRIVE?
A CONVERSATION WITH SONIA NAZARIO
FOR LATINX HISTORY MONTH
Sonia Nazario, the Pulitzer Prize winning author of Enrique's Journey, among the most read books in the U.S. about immigrants, will show the incredible obstacles and long odds many immigrant and first generation Latino students have already faced before stepping onto a California college campus. These students bring tremendous assets and huge challenges to California's system, where Latinos make up the largest group. And yet if Latinos make up 40% of California's population, they remain just 20% of bachelor degree holders.
This has fueled a great debate about what serves them best: are equity deans, guided pathways, programs such as the Puente Project, and measures to reduce remedial education or other approaches working? What do students who toil in one or two jobs, who take three buses to get to class, really need to thrive, and how can educators build a system that works for them? Sonia's own education often felt culturally irrelevant and distant and her struggles led her to almost flunk out of college her first semester. How does California become the leader in capturing these students and making their experiences in college meaningful, and showing others the way forward?
