Latina/o Transfer Students: Using Their Community Cultural Wealth to Negotiate the Pre-Transfer Process

Objective: The purpose of this study is to highlight the type of community cultural wealth developed and used by Latina/o community college transfer students who encountered limited pre-transfer assistance and unreceptive cultures at their transfer institutions. Method: This study took place at Southwest State University (SSU), a Predominantly White Institution (PWI) in Texas. This study focuses on semi-structured interviews with 10 Latina/o community college transfer students who transferred to SSU. Data were analyzed using a thematic approach combined with the theoretical frameworks of the receptive transfer culture and the community cultural wealth model. Results: Students shared how they developed and used their aspirational, familial, navigational, resistant, and social capitals to gain the knowledge, skills, and contacts to make up for the lack of transfer information and resources needed to transfer to their 4-year university. Conclusion: Based on the study’s findings, this study calls for 4-year institutions to enhance or develop their pre-transfer receptive culture for Latinx students. Specifically, transfer policies, programming, and practices should be developed with Latinx students in mind in order to ensure increased completion rates for Latinx community college students who transfer.