Can you hear us now? Amplifying underrepresented voices through advising and mentorship initiatives

Abstract

Retention and transfer initiatives in higher education frequently emphasize measurable outcomes such as grade point average, credit accumulation, and degree completion while offering limited insight into how students interpret advising and institutional interactions during moments of uncertainty. This qualitative narrative inquiry examined how first-generation Black male students at a two-year college in the Southeastern United States narrated their experiences navigating advising, mentorship, and preparation for transfer to four-year institutions. Grounded in Yosso’s Community Cultural Wealth framework, the study employed narrative interviews and Photovoice to explore how individuals leveraged aspirational, navigational, social, familial, linguistic, and resistant capital while interpreting institutional systems not originally designed with their experiences in mind. Findings indicate that advising encounters functioned as interpretive and relational sites where students assessed belonging, translated institutional messages, and negotiated persistence decisions. In response, this study introduces the Story-Conscious Advising Framework (SCaF), which extends Community Cultural Wealth by illuminating how cultural assets are narratively activated within advising relationships. Implications highlight the importance of relational, culturally responsive advising practices that support persistence and transfer for first-generation Black male students in two-year contexts.