| Increasing college access and educational equity for underrepresented students is a pressing concern in American higher education today. The federal government, state governments, universities, and private organizations have invested a significant amount of resources into outreach programs to undertake this work. However, our understanding of outreach effectiveness, in particular in the long-term, remains limited. This qualitative study used longitudinal interview data from nineteen outreach students to uncover the long-term influences of participating in a university outreach program. Informed by a peer cultural wealth framework, which identified 'low status' peers as assets within contemporary ethnic/racial contexts, this study examined outreach peer relations to determine if and in what ways outreach peers affected students' college application process and first year in college.; Findings indicate that participating in outreach has far more benefits than originally anticipated. Specifically, students in this study identified a distinct outreach peer group that developed during students' outreach experience and that these peer relations continued post-program. Students' experiences showed that these outreach peers provided emotional support and exchanged college information during the college application process. Findings also illuminate the long term influence of outreach peers that extend into the college years as once in college, students' reconnected with their peers who helped them adjust and navigate the first college year. These findings have implications for outreach programs, higher education researchers, and educational policymakers. |
