Researchers studying “Why Hispanic Undergraduate Women Persist in Higher Education” in spite of intense cultural pressure have concluded that their major reason for going to school was to create a better life for themselves and their families.
The final report by researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and University of Alabama at Birmingham will be published shortly.
Dr. Brent Cejda, associate professor and Dr. Sheldon Stick, professor, both in educational administration at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and Dr. Nataliya Ivankova, associate professor in human studies at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, studied 63 Hispanic college students, both female and male and all U.S. citizens, at Texas Southmost College and the University of Texas at Brownsville.
Poverty, early motherhood and family bonds were some of the key themes that worked against Hispanic women getting and education. Fiercely independent and proud, the women referred to themselves as Hispanic, not Mexican American or American Mexican, the researchers noted."
