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78 who is a first - generation college student ? Her father and mother were strong advocates of education because they understood that their limited vocational opportunities at the factory were a result of their never having finished high school. As Kathy noted, My father quit his education as a 5th grader and my mother, she ended her education as a 10th grader in high school . . . that was really the main reason they were telling us to “complete your high school, complete your high school” because, you know, you’re gonna end up in a factory [if you don’t]. The foregoing comment is another example of one of the Three’s parents aggressively promoting education by using harsh life experience to expose the dire consequences of not finishing high school. But like Kim, for Kathy’s parents, college never entered the dialogue as it seemed a faraway dream. Kathy explained that to her parents “college was so expensive they knew they were not able to afford college so they just wanted to make sure we completed high school.” This is very similar to what scholars have learned about Black student sensitivity to college costs and the distortion of college costs in their mind that come from a lack of college knowledge about scholarships and grants (McDonough & Calderone, 2006; St. John et al., 2005; Vargas, 2004). For all of the women in this study, a high school diploma was the acceptable level of academic achievement and job preparation in the eyes of their parents. Additionally, education was promoted as a way to avoid a life of heavy labor and low wages. Since all of the women I interviewed are high school graduates who have gone on to full employment and single- parenthood, their parent’s efforts could be considered a success given what they understood about education and work. What can we learn from their lives that can instruct us about how to help today’s generation of low-income, working, poor parents target college as part of their children’s education and postsecondary planning? Discussion: College Choice Theory and the Involvement of a Past Generation of Low-SES Black Parents The findings from this study seem to support what other college choice and education access and equity theorists state about the way families influence the college choice process. Each of the Three moved from childhood, through their teens, and into adulthood with solid support from their parents to exceed