Community cultural wealth in general chemistry: how students from historically marginalized groups leverage their assets in first-year chemistry

General chemistry is widely recognized as a “gatekeeper” course that disproportionately impacts students from historically marginalized groups (HMGs), contributing to their underrepresentation in STEM. While much discourse focuses on deficits, limited research examines the strengths these students bring to chemistry classrooms. This qualitative study employed the community cultural wealth (CCW) framework to examine what forms of cultural capital 28 students from HMGs drew upon to navigate a first-semester general chemistry course at an R1 university, how this varied by academic outcome (High pass, N = 9; Pass, N = 11; unsuccessful, N = 8), and which course structures supported students in leveraging their capital. Nearly all participants utilized aspirational (96%), social (96%), and navigational capital (93%), with familial (68%) and resistant capital (29%) also widely reported. Spiritual (4%) and linguistic capital (0%) were rarely or never reported. Determination was reported by 39% of participants. We also identify perseverance, an emergent construct not previously captured in CCW literature, reported by 36%. Capital utilization varied by performance cohort, challenging deficit narratives: unsuccessful students reported different configurations of capital, not less, including disproportionately high familial (100%), perseverance (63%), and resistant capital (38%). Office hours and peer interactions primarily supported navigational and social capital; remaining capitals were largely unaddressed. Recognizing cultural wealth can transform chemistry classrooms from gatekeeping spaces into asset-affirming environments. Implications include embedding post-exam reflection to build on perseverance, redesigning course touchpoints to recognize capitals unaddressed by formal design, and providing differentiated, cohort-responsive support that honors distinct capital configurations across performance levels.