Central Valley Region Interdisciplinary Symposium on Education Research

There are more than two million undocumented individuals living within the state of California (Hayes & Hill, 2017). When attempting to transition to higher education, many undocumented students encounter barriers that inhibit their passage. Undocumented young adults between the ages of 18-24 attend higher education at lower rates than their documented peers (Passel & Cohn, 2008). In order to evaluate the educational resources available to undocumented high school students and their impact on their access to higher education, 3 undocumented college students were interviewed by undocumented college researchers. Interviews lasted between 40 minutes - 60 minutes and were recorded via Zoom. To protect the anonymity and confidentiality of the participants, pseudonyms were used. Questions were about the resources available to them as undocumented students. What we found was that all participants mentioned that having a supportive figure such as a mentor/counselor, was imperative in their transition to higher education. As a result of these findings, the researchers began development of the Rooted in Education Mentorship, a mentorship for undocumented youth from undocumented college students and are conducting further research on the resources available to undocumented high school students.

Nahui Gonzalez Millan, Student Researcher, CSU Stanislaus