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74 who is a first - generation college student ? Lena At the time of our interviews, Lena’s daughter was a senior at Airport High School, a good 30 minutes east of where her mother worked as an adminis- trative assistant in what is called the Mid-Wilshire area of Los Angeles. Lena attended high school in the late 1960s and in what was a predominantly Black area on the border of South-Central Los Angeles. She took some col- lege classes at the local community college. Her father and mother migrated from Louisiana to Los Angeles in the 1950s, in order to pursue career oppor- tunities for themselves and educational opportunities for their children in California. They chose the area they grew up in ostensibly because of their Black population; however, a closer examination of Los Angeles history in the 1950s would reveal that Blacks were channeled toward this area due to extreme housing segregation in other parts of the city. Lena came from a large family. She was one of seven children and one of five girls. We met on three occasions at a Starbucks close to her work, one of the many franchised by former professional basketball player Earvin “Magic” Johnson as part of an effort to accelerate economic development in the Black community. Kim Kim was a manager for a program providing services for Black women and Latinas in the same area that Lena grew up, a suburb on the border of South-Central Los Angeles. Like Lena, her 11th-grade daughter attended Airport High School and was college bound. For Kim, college was a goal dreamed of, but one she was unable to pursue. Her parents were separated, but both lived in the Los Angeles area after relocating from Mississippi in the 1960s. Kim’s mother made the decision that, although they were separated, it was useful to have the children in the same city as their birth father. Being in the same city as her biological father made it possible to share childcare responsibilities while strengthening the bond between daughter and father. Kim went to high school in the 1970s when gov- ernment programs like the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) (which encouraged summer work for low-income youth) were the norm; she took full advantage of these programs; completed high school; and attempted, but did not finish, community college. Kathy Kathy’s mother dropped out of high school in the 10th grade, and her father only completed the 5th grade. Accordingly, it is understandable that