• Study shows how Latino students navigate between cultures
• Study included 14 Latino students at Notre Dame
• Author hopes study will help Latino students succeed
• Study created "Model of Flexible Identity"

Lisa Edwards, assistant professor in the College of Education, presented a study on Latino students who attend predominately white universities in a forum at Raynor Memorial Library on Wednesday.

The study, entitled Navigating Cultural Contexts, explored how Latino students can effectively navigate between two different cultures. About 20 Marquette faculty members attended the meeting.

Edwards said she hopes the study will increase understanding of how Latino students can be successful.

"Plenty of Latino college students are making it," Edwards said. "I want to know how students who are doing well do it, so we can help with the Latino students who are not doing so well."

The study centered on 14 students at the University of Notre Dame who identified themselves as Latino, including eight female and six male students. All but one of the participants were freshmen, the other a senior. The study included one international student and six of the students had one non-Latino parent.

According to Notre Dame's Web site, the university has an 11 percent Hispanic population.

A team of six researchers conducted several interviews with the students and evaluated the students' written work that centered on race and culture.

Edwards said the team spent three hours a week over an entire year evaluating the data.

"We spent an awful lot of time on the data, but we found it very rewarding. By the end, we were all very close to the study," Edwards said.

Edwards referred to the result of the study as a "Model of Flexible Identity." The purpose of the model is to explain how internal and external influences affect how students navigate between two distinct cultures, Edwards said.

A large portion of the presentation focused on direct quotes from participants in the study, often underlining how some Latino students feel torn between two cultures.

"There are some people (who) may have not had that much experience with people of other cultures. It's easy for me to not overwhelm them with my 'Mexican-ness,' " said one participant, identified as Jenny.

Other participants explained how they navigate between two languages.

"When I'm here, I can't just go around and be talking in Spanish because some people might feel uncomfortable or intimidated by that," said another participant in the study. "When I'm at home, its almost all Spanish."

Edwards noted living in two distinct cultures can be difficult.

"This takes a lot of effort, to live through this bicultural experience," she said. "What I'm hoping to do is to highlight the strength it takes to do that."

Leah Strong, an admissions counselor at Marquette, said Marquette has made strides in reaching out to Latino students.

"We target students in California and in Texas. We also have a Hispanic outreach program for residents of Milwaukee," Strong said.

Armando Gonzales-Perez, a professor of Spanish literature who was at the meeting, noted Latinos should not be pigeonholed as one racial group.

"Latino is a culture, not a race," he said. "We have Latino-Black, Latino-White, we have the whole rainbow."