Stories Untold: College Preparation Through the Experiences of High Achieving Students by Stacey Price Brown

and their identities: privileged, successful, and do not seem to face adversity. The truth is, this group has traditionally been overlooked and their voices have even been ignored, but they are one of the fastest growing groups on our college campuses who experience successes as well as challenges just as any other group planning for a higher education. By paying closer attention to their lived experiences, you will learn through their personal stories the journey that they take to plan for college. These students possess some of the same qualities: determination, patience, faith, resilience, power, and confidence, that their ancestors exhibited when forced to travel many miles by sea tightly packed in unventilated boats to build their new home, our new home, in the United States of America. As these college students think about their college preparatory experiences in elementary, middle, and high school, the reader is enlightened to learn that even though they are high-achieving, middle-class, and African American, their backgrounds are still different and unique, and the characteristics that bind them together as one powerful voice is: their aspirations to go to college, to be successful in college, and to pursue a thriving career in a democratic global society. As stated previously, the larger study (my dissertation), has been translated into this ‘family friendly book on college planning’ and is essential to learning more about how to embrace voices that have been traditi