Guiding Urban Youth Across the High School/College Divide: Insights From a Community-Engaged Research Project

Abstract Authored by a university-based researcher and practitioners in an urban high school, the chapter highlights youths’ perspectives on academic support systems in an Early College program through Sen’s concepts of freedom and unfreedom and Nussbaum’s capabilities approach. Data from student questionnaires and focus group conversations suggest that students’ choices on whether or not to utilize academic supports are influenced by external and internal unfreedoms. Their internal unfreedoms were: (a) their sense of belonging/not belonging in a college-environment; (b) fear of judgment; (c) social anxiety; (d) cultural scripts for what it means to ask for help and who asks for help; and e) a lack of meaningful connections with college-based people and places. The chapter grapples with the divide between high school and college; and between equity-centric programs and what students actually need to have the freedom to achieve in such programs.