Full Description
This volume is about a student group whose particular needs are not well understood: students without legal residency status, better known as undocumented students. Student affairs professionals may know that undocumented students are on campus, but they often know little about them. For many of these students, this is by design: they choose to exist in the campus shadows to avoid sharing their secret and jeopardizing their status. Their fear of being discovered is understandable: they believe that they could be deported if their residency status were disclosed. This volume provides a broad overview of the factors that contribute to the experiences of undocumented students. It examines the applicable federal and state laws and policies, the students' precollege experiences, their academic and socioemotional experiences on campus, and their lack of professional employment opportunities after college. However, when it comes to understanding the experiences of undocumented students, the whole is greater than sum of its parts.Understanding these students-their experiences and their needs-requires more than simply understanding the individual components of their social, cultural, and legal environment. This volume also contains the actual stories of undocumented students, graphically illustrating the cumulative effect their legal status has on their day-to-day lives. This is the 130th volume of the Jossey-Bass higher education quarterly report series New Directions for Student Services. An indispensable resource for vice presidents of student affairs, deans of students, student counselors, and other student services professionals, New Directions for Student Services offers guidelines and programs for aiding students in their total development: emotional, social, physical, and intellectual.
Contents
EDITOR S NOTES 1 Jerry Price 1. Serving Undocumented StudentsCurrent Law and Policy 5 Ryan Evely Gildersleeve, Corey Rumann, Rodolfo Mondragon Student affairs professionals need to be familiar with the laws and policies of their state that relate to undocumented students and understand how these laws and policies shape the experiences of undocumented students on campus. 2. Precollege Contexts of Undocumented Students: Implications for Student Affairs Professionals 19 Ryan Evely Gildersleeve, Jessica J. Ranero By understanding undocumented students precollege experiences, student affairs professionals can develop effective systems of support and advocacy to assist these students in navigating higher education. 3. Cursed and Blessed : Examining the Socioemotional and Academic Experiences of Undocumented Latina and Latino College Students 35 William Perez, Richard D. Cortes, Karina Ramos, Heidi Coronado The legal status of undocumented students can create significant academic and emotional hardships. 4. Tenuous Options: The Career Development Process for Undocumented Students 53 Anna M. Ortiz, Alejandro Hinojosa The legal restraints that create difficult hurdles for undocumented students as they enter higher education greatly diminish their professional opportunities after college graduation. 5. Sharing Their Secrets: Undocumented Students Personal Stories of Fear, Drive, and Survival 67 Susana Hernandez, Ignacio Hernandez Jr., Rebecca Gadson, Deneece Huftalin, Anna M. Ortiz, Mistalene Calleroz White, DeAnn Yocum-Gaffney The firsthand stories of five undocumented students illuminate the cumulative effect their unstable legal status has on their day-to-day lives. APPENDIX: THE DREAM ACT OF 2009 85 INDEX 95
