This is an out-of-class activity completed by HSTEM students in response to the reading materials provided. Here, an HSTEM student’s responses to this activity are shown as a sample of what an HSTEM instructor may expect.

Materials

1. Meanings of Mobility: Family, Education, and Immigration in the Lives of Latino Youth. Schmalzbauer, Leah.
   • Intro: pp 1-23

Jigsaw Reading (read and complete summary, reflection, and quote pulling for just the
chapter assigned to you.)

1. Meanings of Mobility. Schmalzbauer, Leah.
   • Chapter 2:  A New World pp 48-74  [total 73]
   • Chapter 3: The Price of Mobility pp. 75-103 [total 75]
   • Chapter 4: Siblings pp 104-133 [total 76]
   • Chapter 5: Covid-19 Ruptures 134-162 [total 75]
   • Chapter 6: Redefining Success 163-181 [total 65]
   • Chapter 7: Moving Forward pp 182-196  [total 61]]

Beginning of Module Work

Please complete these to help build your academic foundation and prepare for active participation during our discussion.

Part 1: Summary

Please capture, using bullet points, your top 2-3 key points for each article.

Introduction & Chapter 1: Pathways to Amherst

• Latino students are one of the most underrepresented groups, but inclusivity/diversity
  initiatives are reshaping the future of college admission for them
  • We lack research on the their experiences with higher education and social
    mobility
• College is not as synonymous with upward social mobility as these students were led to
  believe, rather is largely defined by family support and geographical location factors
  • College does not fix all: still face poverty, racism
  • Immense pressure to repay parents for the sacrifice of immigration
• Place plays a huge role in the ability of Latino youth to tap into support and
  recruitment networks: city-born students have greater access to these cross-class
  support networks than students from rural areas
• Many students noted resentment that their parents could not help them or interact
  with their education while parents lamented about sacrificing their opportunities to be
  educated in favor for a better life for their children
• Teachers (and other cross-cultural actors) play a critical role in helping students and
  even whole families pursue education and prepare for the transition from home to
  elite spaces
• Double consciousness is the ability/need for Latino students to evaluate their own lives
  in the context of the privilege assumed at Amherst
• Contrast and difficulty to explain realities of being poor and having undocumented
  parents because at home everyone just “got it”
  • Structural inequities lead to not feeling properly prepared for academic
    formalities, underutilization of resources like office hours

Part 2: Reflection

Reading these chapters of Professor Schmalzbauer’s book in addition to last week’s “The Privileged Poor” has enlightened me to a whole world of nuanced demands on low income and first generation college students that I hadn’t considered before. Building on last week’s topic of how the privileged poor students are prepared for entrance into elite colleges in a massively different way than the doubly disadvantaged, my jigsaw chapter expanded on the systemic and structural factors that bar poor Latino students from success at Amherst. The students in this chapter shared their experiences about having to change their outward presentation, feeling humiliated in the classroom for not knowing things deemed “common knowledge,” and feeling like they had to create a perfect facade in order to fit the cultural script of Amherst College. I am slightly ashamed to admit that I never considered that students would feel forced to do this, and that I never noticed. This really made me reflect on my own experiences in the classroom, and I feel like perhaps I have also had to pretend to avoid shame in the classroom, though maybe not with the intention of harm. Kimberley’sstory about recalling feeling humiliated for not knowing an important figure in her humanities class really stuck with me– in my own experience, I feel that I would have conformed and faked understanding the bio or chem concept to protect myself. It is difficult to imagine this vulnerability and fear that comes with transitioning from the safety of home to an elite institution without any preparation like the Latino students that shared their stories were brave enough to do. This is just one example of the systemic pressures on students to abandon their true selves, whether it be Latino students pushing down their identity to fit in, or STEM students abandoning their universal curiosity of toddlers.

Quote:
“With no teachers or staff at her school who spoke Spanish, it was difficult for her parents to
engage with her education. ‘I kind of had resentment towards my parents for not being
involved in school, and helping me when I needed it.’” page 32, Meanings of Mobility
“‘My childhood was really difficult. . . . I wanted to continue studying. I wanted to be a
teacher. But there was never an option because I had to work and help with everything at
home. (crying) . . . I always tell Noel that my sacrifice is not for me, it’s for him’” page 30,
Meanings of Mobility

I selected two quotes for this prompt because I wanted to highlight the parallel between children’s resentment for their parents’ lack of education, and parents’ grief over sacrificing their education to give their children a chance to have opportunities they couldn’t. I think Noel’s story highlights one of Professor Schmalzbauer’s main points about how we know so little about the nuances of being the child of an immigrant and the immigrant bargain at Amherst College. I would like to further discuss this parallel with the class, and how it may lead to greater snowballing issues for students at Amherst. With parents that were forced to give up their education, by no fault of either party did these students miss the opportunity to learn implicitly considered lessons like financial literacy? How can Amherst as an institution and greater systemic forces like government programs work to support both parents without education and their children?