Capitalizing on Time: Place-Based Aid and the Value of Lifting the Financial Burden for Low-Income Students

In this article, we present findings from a critical participatory action research (CPAR) study of Achieve Atlanta (AATL), a place-based, need-based grant program for students graduating from Atlanta Public Schools. The purpose of this research was to better understand how the AATL scholarship and its associated services shaped the experiences, opportunities, and positive outcomes of AATL Scholars, with specific attention to borrowing and debt repayment. We argue that lifting or reducing the debt burden allowed students to accumulate additional forms of dominant cultural capital, namely, time. We further argue that time, as a largely neglected form of capital, enabled students to be college students and provided the conditions for academic success.