An intercultural perspective on Filipina/o American persistence : implications for college success

Abstract

Despite the growth of immigrant populations, only a few studies have examined college-aged children of immigrants or specific ethnic groups (Maramba, 2008a). In Hawai„i, Filipinas/os represent 23 percent of the total population of 1,211,537 in the state (U.S. Census, 2000), yet remain an under-represented ethnic group at the University of Hawai„i at Mānoa (Bail, Zhang, & Tachiyama, 2008). An underlying assumption in the study is students are not functioning in isolation, but in the overlapping and sometimes competing worlds of home and college. Using an intercultural approach (Museus & Quaye, 2009), a descriptive case study was developed to capture the first-hand experiences of undergraduate Filipina/o American students and examine how these experiences influence persistence. One advantage of using a cultural perspective to examine student departure is that it accounts for student behavior resulting from interactions on process variables such as involvement, effort, and sense of belonging (Kuh & Love, 2000). The students‟ perceptions about the college experience revealed five primary themes or process variables: finances; family; ethnic identity; sense of belonging; and social networking. The obtained results suggest these social interactions were significant factors in Filipina/o American persistence.