Protecting the Path to College During COVID-19: Community Cultural Wealth and Black Students’ Aspirations in an Urban High School

The pathway to college is a fluid, multi-step process that begins with aspirations. As the environmental context for students shifts, so too might their aspirations. In this article, we examine how school personnel in one urban high school utilized community cultural wealth to nurture students’ college aspirations amid the significant uncertainty and disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings reveal that the strategies enacted by stakeholders played a vital role in protecting students’ college plans, which enabled them to sustain and actualize their future goals. Implications offer an expanded approach to fostering college pathways for Black students.