First generation Latine student experience and the COVID University

Keywords: Latino, Latinx, Latine, higher education, COVID-19
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Friday
Session Start / End Time: 2/25/2022 08:00 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/25/2022 09:20 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 65

Abstract

Educational sites often serve as locations where minority students can organize themselves towards shared interests and goals, a process particularly important in the transition from high school to college. However, for first- and second-year Latine university students the virtual requirements of COVID-19 constrained and in some cases undermined this process. This study examines how first-generation first and second year Latine students at the University of Nevada Reno experienced the transition from high school to college during the COVID-19 pandemic. Early studies reveal that the pandemic disproportionately impacts students of color and first-generation students, worsening socio-economic and racial inequities. Through a qualitative phenomenological study with students at the University of Nevada Reno 2020-2021, this paper examines the institutional and cultural boundaries that students navigated in their transition from high school to the COVID University, an educational space rebounded in spatial and temporal ways. The year 2020 was also an election year marked by a racial justice reckoning that significantly affected students. We discuss how students defined and experienced the COVID University and reflect on the changing role of Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI) in a COVID world.