Abstract
Purpose. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to understand the community engagement experiences of 6 Latinx students or recent graduates from a Hispanic serving institution.Methodology. This qualitative study sought to understand the community engagement experiences of 6 Latinx students or recent graduates of a Hispanic serving institution. All participants took an eligibility survey and were interviewed. The participants were over 18 years old, had participated in a course-based community engagement experience at their university, and identified as Latinx. Phenomenological analysis techniques were utilized to analyze the data through a lens of critical theories/pedagogies that included community cultural wealth, applied critical leadership, critical service learning, and asset-based community development.Findings. Four themes emerged from the data: awareness, agency, and action; positive interaction with faculty; engaging sameness: personal connection to the service; and engagement for upliftment. In addition, three significant factors emerged: personal/familial trauma, constraints, and previous experience with service.Conclusions. The Latinx students in the study benefited from the community engagement experiences because they were closely related to their own personal and political growth and development. They had supportive faculty who cared about them and whom they could relate to, and they also felt that the service they participated in helped their communities; thus, they saw themselves as agents of change with a desire to work toward the betterment of their communities. In addition, there was an acknowledgement of their intersectional identities and real-world issues that these students are confronted with based on either trauma or constraints. Academic institutions need to pay attention to these factors. Also, some participants had previous experience with service that proved to be an asset to the university and the communities they are serving.Recommendations. The study included three recommendations for replication of this study to add to the body of research on the community engagement experiences of diverse students. In addition, a recommendation for a new framework of practice, asset-based critical engagement, is offered.