Abstract
The purpose of this study is to explore Latino/a student motivational factors that support successful participation in college academic success programs. Research has proven that low literacy proficiency skills may create many socioeconomic boundaries, which inhibit Latino/a families from obtaining the American dream of a higher education and sufficiently providing for their families. Latinos/as with reading and writing deficits are more likely to drop out of school earlier than those without deficits. Due to these substantiated literacy risk factors, those Latinos/as who do manage to attend a four year college are resistant in asking for help with their writing due to either embarrassment or low self-esteem which further increases the amount of Latino/a college drop-outs and or low test scores. In order to increase academic success among Latino/a students at Sacramento State University, it is vital that the connection of language developmental risk factors be examined and how they express themselves among Latino/a students be explored. Academic programs at California State University Sacramento such as the Science Educational Equity (SEE) program and the College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP) were explored, by the collection of secondary data collection and two focus group questionnaires and demographics, to understand how they have managed to break the cycle of literacy oppression among the Latino/a students and to successfully increase their academic graduation rates. In addition, the study identified Latino/a student strategies for overcoming risk factors such as personal hardships and socioeconomic disparities. In addition, the study identified protective factors that lead to the development of motivational factors and resiliency. Results indicate that students utilized such motivational and resilience factors as academic building blocks to enhance their academic success rates. Research findings may help substantiate the need of the development for academic programs that successfully fulfill the needs of our Latino/a students.