My work in the field of education spans over 19 years. My first position was as an on- campus suspension supervisor. My most recent position I held was as a central office
administrator for a statewide charter school with over 50 programs across California. In every position, the student population I served was high minority, and underrepresented populations including adult learners, former high school dropouts, foster, and current or former incarcerated youth and young adults. I have worked in education on both the east coast in Philadelphia, and west coast in California. Currently, I am completing my Educational Doctorate in Leadership at Liberty University. I completed my Education Specialist degree in Leadership from Liberty in 2014. I obtained a Master’s degree in Counseling and Guidance from California State
University, San Bernardino and one in Education Administration from National University. With those two degrees, I also received my Pupil Personnel Services credential – a requirement to work as a school counselor and my Administrative Services credential for K-12
administration. My Bachelor of Arts in Behavioral Science was completed at California Polytechnic University Pomona. In obtaining this degree, I earned my Designated Subjects Teaching Credential allowing me to teach areas in vocational education. When making the decision to pursue a career in education, I knew I did not desire to teach core subjects. While I attended college immediately after high school and again while in the U.S. Air Force, both attempts resulted in my dropping out of college. When I finally began attending college with the intent to graduate, I began and completed my Associate’s degree in Liberal Arts from Mount San Antonio College.
As the human instrument, I am completing the transcendental phenomenological study in my voice. As I began this study, I knew my voice would be influenced by my past experiences, thought processes, and direct knowledge through my work duties in various positions and as a graduate of a community college. My initial opinions about community college developed as a high school student growing up in Philadelphia during the early 1980s. At that time, if one attended one of the two local community colleges, they were viewed as not being intelligent. My siblings attended four-year universities, as did my close friends during that time. While my dad earned his Associate’s degree during my childhood, it was from a four-year college.
It was not until moving to California that I set foot on a community college campus. I was working for a financial company and needed to complete a typing course as an employment requirement. While completing the course, I met a woman and we decided to complete our business degrees at the college. After taking a few courses I dropped out and would not return to college again for three years.
When I finally decided to return to college to complete a degree, I enrolled at a
community college. I was unaware of the processes for obtaining classes, completing financial aid, campus resources, transferring, or finding my way to my classes. The main difference between a student entering community college immediately after graduation and me was that I was 28 years old. I was an adult who knew how to communicate with other adults, how to advocate for myself, and most importantly; I was not afraid or embarrassed to ask students or employees questions. One thing I began to hear from students on the campus was that they had been attending the community college for two, three, four, and even five years and were still not able to graduate.
As I began to advocate for myself on the campus, as an adult, I was able to establish rapport with instructors, counselors, and other employees in offices. This allowed me to obtain the assistance and resources necessary to continue and transfer to a four-year university in two years. On occasion in the first few years after transferring, I would see other students I had met at the community college. They were still attending. This included a female student who was only a year younger than I am and who began attending before I enrolled.
What I realized as I began this study, and reflected on my life as a college student was that I had been the college student who aligned with Tinto’s (1975) theory of departure. I departed from college on two occasions due to not integrating myself in the society of the campus during my previous attempts at completing college both at the two-year and four-year colleges. Another reason for my withdrawal from community college was my challenge with factors outside the campus including family and work commitments. These issues are the basis of Bean’s (1980) theory of attrition that focuses on the community college student as a commuter student having responsibilities off campus that exceed the reward of completing community college. This reflection, processing, and scribing of my experiences allowed me to listen with intention as an explorer, analyze the data, and complete this study without biases.
APPENDIX E
Original Open Codes and Clusters
ORIGINAL CODES 1. Stable home conducive to studying
2. Traumatic life experience 3. Poor father/son relationship 4. Choosing sports over academics
5. No academic support upon graduation from high school 6. No financial support upon graduation from high school 7. Getting suspended or expelled
8. Experiencing racism on campus
9. Transitioning from high school to community college 10. Not understanding community college campus 11. Feeling supported by instructors
12. Feeling supported by campus staff
13. Family members support community college attendance 14. Relationships with friends/family not in college
15. Behavior in grade school
16. Involvement in campus activities 17. Employment on or off campus 18. Responsibilities outside of college 19. Anger
21. Multiple K-12 schools 22. Asking questions in class
23. Remedial classes in community college 24. Dropping out of college
ORIGINAL CLUSTERS 1. Anger - leading to or stemming from
1a. Suspensions and expulsions
1b. Being enrolled in special education courses 1c. Poor behavior in school
1d. Dropping out of community college 2. Poor father/son relationship
2a. Physical abuse
2b. Father absent from home
2c. Father lacks any postsecondary education 3. Excelling in sports versus academics
3a. Team building and life skills attainment 3b. Financing of education
4. Study habits
4a. Spending little or no time studying 4b. Lack of stability in school
4c. Transition from structured to unstructured learning environment (high school to college)
5. Housing
5a. Lack of stable housing (K-12 thru community college)
APPENDIX F
Liberty University’s IRB Approval
APPENDIX G