Cynthia Bottrell

A Study of Vietnamese-american Community College Students: Vietnamese-american Students at Midwestern Communitycollege: Their Experiences and the Relation Toheuristic Knowledge Cynthia Bottrell

Community colleges have seen an increase in theproportion of minority students in their enrollments. These minority students include individuals who haveimmigrated to the United States. This trend isoccurring as the country is working to determine howto properly address the issue of immigration on alarger, national, scale. The Vietnamese-Americanpopulation is one of the most recent Asian groups toenter the United States. The purpose of this study was to discover howheuristic knowledge is evident in the academic andsocial journeys of Vietnamese-American studentsenrolled at a community college in the midwesternUnited States. Vietnamese-American students wereinterviewed in an effort to understand theirexperiences while attending the college. Theinterpretation of their experiences is reported usinga narrative approach to produce a more complete imageof the experiences of the students. This research mayhave implications for community college faculty, administrators, and staff. This may affect the designand delivery of student services such as advising andstudent development programs, and the teaching andlearning perspective of faculty members.