Path to college: critical reflections of Filipino American students

Filipino-Americans are the second largest group of the Asian American population as well as the second fastest growing minority group in the United States (Maramba, 2008). However, there are limited studies that have been focused on Filipino-American students' entry in higher education. This study focuses on understanding how families, school personnel, and peers have supported first-generation Filipino-American students' entry into postsecondary education. Particularly, this study will explore the following research questions: 1) What role do family members play in supporting Filipino-American students entry into higher education? 2) What roles do teachers and other school personnel play in supporting Filipino-American students' entry into higher education? 3) What role do peers play in supporting Filipino-American students' entry into higher education? This study shares the stories of seven first-generation Filipino-American college students who successfully gained admissions to Research University of Northern California. The data were based on the participants' responses from semi structured open-ended interview process. The study utilized triangulation to investigate and discover common themes about the role of family, school personnel, and peers in the educational success of first-generation Filipino-American students. Parents, peers, and school personnel played significant roles in the academic success of first-generation Filipino-American students that contributed to this study. Parents as well as immediate and extended families ingrained the aspiration to pursuit academic excellence through the achievement of higher education as way to honor the family and oneself. However, despite being supportive of the participants many parents, even though they hold college degrees from Philippines, are not familiar with the U.S. educational system. As a result, tension between the participant and their parents surfaced due to the misunderstanding of the participants' college and major choice. Despite this tension, the influence of peers and school personnel played a key role in the academic success of the participants in this study.