This unique collection of testimonials, critical essays, and first-hand accounts demonstrates the significant contribution of campus service workers in supporting the retention and success of first-generation college students. Using a Freirean framework to ground individual stories, the text identifies ways in which campus workers connect with students, provide informal mentorship, and offer culturally relevant support during students’ transition to college and beyond. Drawing on a range of interviews, case studies, and research studies, emphasis is placed on the unique challenges faced by first-generation and minority students such as cultural alienation, imposter syndrome, language barriers, and financial insecurity. Ultimately, the text dismantles notions of social hierarchies that separate workers and college students and encourages institutions to invest in these workers and their contribution to student well-being and success. This book will benefit researchers, academics, and educators with an interest in the higher education and student affair practice and higher education administration more broadly. Those specifically interested in multicultural education and the study of race and ethnicity within US higher educational contexts will also benefit from this book.

Table of Contents:
Part 1: Paradigm Shifts: Critically Reframing Campus Service Workers’ Roles in Student Success Seeing Ourselves on Campus in (Un)Likely Places: Campus Service Workers’ Ethos of Care and Horizontal Mentorship of First-Generation Students, Andrea N. Hunt and Alyson Bergner Custodians of Student Success: Campus Citizenship in the Borderlands, T. Mark Montoya We Do Way More Than Just Clean Up Puke...We Connect with Students: Custodial Staff as Informal Mentors at a Large, Public University, Yolanda M. Wiggins To Boldly Go Where No One Has Gone Before: What Captain Picard and His Mentor, Boothby, Can Teach Us About the Future of Student Support, La’Tonya Rease Miles Part 2: Testimonials and Counternarratives: The Roles of Campus Service Workers in Supporting Student Success A. Validating Identities "Heyyy, sis!": Black Women Breaking Barriers Together at a P.W.I., Jada DaMae Anderson "Call Me Young Chan": How a Campus Housekeeper Taught Me to Be Korean Again, Young Chan Lim Siempre la Hija de una Campesina: My Journey from the Central Valley to Los Angeles, and Back, Susy N. Puente From Nobody to Somebody: Finding a Friend and Mentor in a Campus Worker as an International Student, Yuhang (Doris) Cai B. Forming Cultural Counterspaces Latinas in the Chemistry Building: Making and Reclaiming Space, Isis Frausto-Vicencio Social and Cultural Exchange as Means of Counterhegemonic Education: How A Campus Groundskeeper Helped Me Discover My Agency and Sense of Belonging as a First-Generation, Nontraditional, Reverse-Transfer Latina Student, Saraí V. Kashani Dropping Anchor in Unfamiliar Spaces: Reflections of a First-Generation Black Woman’s Search for Community at a Predominantly White University, Penny S. Seals C. Mentorship, Belonging, and Community Empowerment Community Educator, Institutional Ally, Custodian: Lessons from Señor Mauricio’s Pedagogy of Care in UCLA’s Academic Advancement Program, Ifeoma A. Amah and Cindy Raquel Escobedo ¡Aquí, Allá, El Pueblo Vencerá!: Examining a Campus Service Worker’s Role as Activist, Mentor, and Inspiration, Martha N. Xuncax Primera Generación, Pero No La Última: Finding a Support Network as a Student Worker in the Campus Dining Halls, Nancy Valencia with Tara Prescott-Johnson Two Chicken Wings, an Apple, and a Bag of Chips: The Impact of Food Service Workers on the Retention of a First-Generation, Single Mother, Kimberly Walker D. Supporting Post-Completion Success From First-Year Student to Professor: Growing a Social Consciousness and Learning Life-Long Values From Campus Residence Hall Workers, Georgina Guzmán Confessions of a First-Gen Professional: How I Learned to Survive the Professional World in the Break Rooms, Loading Docks, and Supply Rooms of UCLA, Stephanie Santos Youngblood Becoming a First-Gen Lawyer: How Service Workers Shaped the Advocate I Am Today, Daysi N. Alonzo Becoming Middle-Class Faculty With Working-Class Sensibilities, Jennie Luna La Fille de Léonard: What Québécois Cultural Sovereignty Taught Me About Working with Historically Marginalized Students, Nancy-Jean Pément Part 3: Call to Action/Praxis: Successful Projects and Justice for Campus Service Workers Building Horizontal Relationships Through Spanish Community-Engaged Learning: Voices of First-Generation Latinx Students, Carla Suhr Beyond the Bottom Line: Layoffs Leading to a Reflection on Transformational Resistance, Lindsay Romasanta and Belinda Zamacona During a Pandemic, Who Protects the Protectors? LaShyra Nolen