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Cultural Wealth and Holistic Advising: Lessons from the HOPE Initiative & LifeMap

Evans Erilus, Jacqueline McMillion-Williams, & Emily Singer

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Equality vs. Equity

The ground is not level: access to quality schools, housing etc.

Center for Equity and Cultural Wealth

bhcc.edu/cecw

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Community Cultural Wealth

What?

Knowledge, skills, abilities contacts, and histories

Who?

Communities of Color

Why?

Survive and Resist Micro and Macro forms of oppression

Center for Equity and Cultural Wealth

bhcc.edu/cecw

Tara Yosso PhD; www.tarayossophd.com

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Community Cultural Wealth

Linguistic Capital

Linguistic skills and identities shaped in a community through communication in more than one language and/or style

ability to communicate via storytelling, music, art, etc.

2. Social Capital

Networks of people and community resources…both instrumental and emotional support, to navigate through society’s institutions.

3. Familial Capital

The ways that “familia” (kin) …

carry a sense of community history, memory.

4. Navigational Capital

Skills and abilities that students, their families and communities have developed to maneuver successfully through social institutions.

5. Resistance Capital

Those knowledges and skills fostered through a community’s and racial group’s history of resistance to structural and racial inequity.

6. Aspirational

The resilient nature of people, families, and communities to hold on to their “hopes and dreams for the future,” even in the face of real and perceived barriers.

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AGENDA

Introductions
Define Cultural Wealth
Overview of the HOPE Initiative
Overview of LifeMap
Connect Cultural Wealth to Student Support
Discussion
Q&A

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HOPE

5 minutes

Overview of HOPE

The HOPE initiative is designed to examine and eliminate the social, institutional and academic barriers that often prevent males of color from achieving their full potential at BHCC and beyond
Currently aimed at transforming inequitable systems and structures so that Black, Indigenous, and Latino males can thrive, the program aims to expand in the coming years to include other ethnic groups as well as women.

Important to note, began with Black and Hispanic Males as the data pointed us in that direction, after examining several years of trends in the rates of persistence, retention, and course success for this population. Additional data steered us toward our Male Indigenous population

Quick History

Evolution of “Supporting Men of Color” to “HOPE Initiative”

The change in this language is another example of equity in action and connects to the principle of clarity in language (Bensimon et al) as well as to using asset-based approaches.
Conversation among FSA in late spring 2017, throwing out ideas… but no students were in the room
Had a dialogue featuring students, was the real impetus for student-centered action, and was placed at the forefront of all that we do
Continued Dialogues yielded programmatic insight and strategic expansion

SUCCESS

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Advising & LifeMap

BHCC’s centralized office for academic, career and transfer advising
LifeMap

Started in 2012 with a Title III grant
Pillars of LifeMap
Physical Space - LifeMap Commons

From Success to Pathway Coaching

Learning Communities
ELL Redesign (Title III grant)
Pathways (Title V grant)

F-A-C (Financial-Academic-Career) planning
Career Coach - career exploration & planning
MyBHCC - course mapping technology

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Cultural Wealth & Student Support

Aspirational - Recognize that students are enrolled with a goal of achieving something and it is our job to help them attain their goals.
Linguistic - Understand that students come with communication and language skills we can build on as we teach them the language and culture of higher ed.
Familial - Know how to draw on past experiences/skills that are transferable to their higher ed experiences.
Social - Acknowledge the value of community outside the higher ed setting that students benefit from remaining connected to for encouragement, access to resources, etc
Navigational - Recognize that higher ed is not the first “hostile” environment/unsupportive environment that minoritized students have had to navigate.
Resistance - Acknowledge who higher ed was and was not built for, our role in changing that and the purpose behind students becoming change makers (as many aspire to do).

Adapted from Lock’s Summary of Yosso’s Cultural Wealth Model

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Discussion

How do you support the maintenance and growth of your students’ aspirations?
How do you support the language and communication strengths of your students?
How do you help students draw on wisdom, values and stories from their home communities?

And stay connected to those instrumental in prior success?

How do you help students navigate your institutions?
What opportunities do you provide students to prepare them for participation in a global community?

Adapted from Lock’s Summary of Yosso’s Cultural Wealth Model

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Questions?

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Reflection

Where do I see cultural capital?
How can I uplift this in my work and help build spaces of belonging?
How do I partner within my institution beyond having a shared culturally relevant approach?
What does this look like in practice?

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References

Lock, A. (n.d.). Summary of Yosso’s cultural wealth model. https://studentaffairs.ucmerced.edu/sites/studentaffairs.ucmerced.edu/files/documents/yosso_summary_.pdf
Yosso, T. J. (2005). Whose culture has capital? A critical race theory discussion of community cultural wealth. Race Ethnicity and Education, 8(1), 69–91. https://doi.org/10.1080/1361332052000341006
Yosso, T. J. (2021). Community Cultural Wealth. https://www.tarajyossophd.com/work