Abstract
Is a winner mentality acceptable? This chapter will present a brief description of a winner mentality, opportunity gap, and the good, the bad, and the perplexity of the educational pipeline for Latinos. Hispanic women/Latinas in higher education have been affected or have benefited during the process of entering institutions into higher education by the recruitment, retention, and promotion of the organizations. As a growing and developing society where income is related with access to education and job opportunities, Hispanic students in the United States have seen how different their educational outcomes are from their White classmates. Overcoming every step of the way many have become Jefa/Supervisor and others Profesora/Professor by exercising positive human interaction while understanding institutional hierarchies and innovating ways to work the system.
TopWinner Mentality
There is not a manual for how to react to every event that happens in our lives or even futuristic vision as soon as we open our eyes in the morning to know exactly how to handle each day. The only thing we know is that every morning it is a new opportunity without mistakes and we have a blank slate to go through that day. Sport coaches uses the winning mentality terminology when they do ‘a pep talk’ to their teams for them to remain focused, stay positive, give all their effort, and inspire other team members to persevere while on the field or court, because everyone has the ability to win (Shikati, 2018). In reality this attitude should be in all of us. However, in life unexpected problems sometimes impact us, and there are emotional setbacks that can take us back to ground zero or into the beginning of a labyrinth. Researchers who have conducted studies on Latinas in higher education found out that those who have a winner mentality (self-confidence, self-determination, goal-oriented) are able to mentor others (encourage others develop new skills while improving their performance), keep multilingual and multicultural roots (Bilingualism and celebrations) and give back (always looking for an opportunity to help and serve their community) (Campbell, 2013; Crespo, 2013; Rivera, 2014). We often do a great job of encouraging others, but sometimes we forget to be a positive voice to ourselves. In order to develop a winning mentality we have to work with our own mind, helping ourselves to be the difference we want to see around us and we must relentlessly pursue improvement in finding a way to turn adversity into a fuel we can use to win (Shikati, 2018).
Empower yourselves with a good education, then get out there and use that education to build a country worth of your boundless promise. -- Michelle Obama
TopOpportunity Gap
The academic funnel has been hunting women, especially Latinas in the United States who are dropping from undergraduate enrollment as well as from doctoral programs. Latinos constitute only 4 percent of faculty in higher education and only one percent of all professors in U.S. institutions (Caplan, 1987; Ponjuan, 2010; Saldaña, Castro-Villarreal & Sosa, 2013). Higher education institutions have to work inside of the ‘cracks’ to make a difference in how bureaucracies operate in order to create fairness and to innovate ways to remove pressure points (Caplan, 1986; Collins, 2000). Until now, there has been a lack of research on how to teach the socially constructed nature of inequality, as well as how it occurs within a multifaceted network of power relations where the students can actually be active collaborators in the production of knowledge and to be able to apply it to their personal lives (Berkowitz & Monohar, 2010). Milem, Chang, Antonio (2005) research shows that campuses that want to be more diverse tend to be more welcoming to students of color and they have more resources for cross-racial interactions. It seems that what is missing is the opportunity gap instead of reaching the achievement gap. Economic factors (living in poverty), language barriers (limited English proficiency, missing opportunities for social support and cognitive development), acculturation (understanding of the cultural traits and social patterns) are opportunity gaps to help Latinos through the pipeline (Alvarez de Davila & Michaels, 2016).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Opportunity Gap: Generally speaking, opportunity gap refers to inputs—the unequal or inequitable distribution of resources and opportunities—while achievement gap refers to outputs—the unequal or inequitable distribution of educational results and benefits (Education Reform, n.d.).
Winner Mentality: The ability to remain focus, positive, give all one’s effort, inspire others to persevere. Everyone has the ability to win (Shikati, 2018).
Perplexity: The inability to deal with or understand something complicated or unaccountable (Oxford, 2020).
Academic Funnel: Is a metaphor used to categorize the stages prospective students move through on their path to enrolling at a university. The funnel has historically functioned as a useful model for enrollment planners seeking to develop the best recruitment strategies for each stage of the admissions process (StonyBrook, 2020).