Although many consider higher education to be a noble pursuit, for minority students like Elroy Johnson, it is a struggle – a struggle he shares with a group of students thousands of miles away.
The Roma people, sometimes called Gypsies, are an ethnic group that faces extreme prejudice in Europe, despite their wide dispersal across the continent. Roma students are currently overcoming bias and educational redlining in Hungarian universities, and Dr. Jason Morris, assistant professor of higher education, examined the sources of their motivation and strength last spring.
According to Morris’ report, Roma immigrants throughout Europe have finally entered the “Decade of Roma Inclusion,” after centuries of oppression, poverty and discrimination. Hungary, home to many Roma communities, has stepped up its efforts to increase minority opportunities for education and employment.
Now that a few Roma students are beginning to enter universities, Morris traveled to Hungary to research how Roma students have been progressing and what experiences, behaviors and factors have contributed to their achievements.
With the aid of Hungarian educators, Morris put together a 30-question survey examining students’ backgrounds and experiences in the education system. About 15 Roma students participating in a support program called Romaversitas told their stories through essay answers, Morris said.
Their stories highlighted the stereotyping they often faced from the majority and the conflicting pressures they felt from their families.
“I had to convince my classmates that I am not like other gypsy kids,” one Roma student wrote. The Roma endure the stigma of dishonesty and stupidity, and many Roma children are assumed to be mentally disabled and placed in special education schools, Morris said.
Roma also struggle with their identities as they enter college. Many are ashamed to identify themselves as Roma, Morris said, and some Roma wrote they did not receive support from their families in pursuing education.
But, despite these obstacles, Roma students from different backgrounds and philosophies are indeed working through college, Morris said.
This qualitative study did not produce a list of criteria indicating who can or cannot succeed in higher education – nor was it meant to. Morris said its real purpose was to tell the stories of Roma university students and foster hope in Roma communities. He plans to continue studying this question in the future.
Johnson, junior marketing major from Frisco, has no experience with the particular Roma students involved in this study. But he and some students he knows have faced similar obstacles in pursuing higher education.
He is a scholar in the McNair Scholars Program, which prepares low-income minority and first-generation college students for doctoral education by helping them conduct primary research in their fields of interest, according to www.acu.edu/academics/trio/mcnair.
Johnson said he believes community support is a key factor in the broader question of academic success, despite daunting social and economic barriers. Financial aid is another factor. But even more vital, he said, is an inward passion that recognizes the value of education when others do not.
“I know people who literally fight their family to go to college,” Johnson said. “It’s their passion to have better opportunities for their children or more rights for others.”
This passion was reflected in some of the responses of Roma students. One said he joined a Roma support program to be able to do something for the Roma.
The desire to give back is also a motivation for Morris. He was a first-generation college graduate and has been actively supporting students from similar backgrounds since his days as an undergraduate. He is now the director of the McNair Scholars Program, and his background motivates much of his work – and, it seems, his research.
“I love it,” Morris said. “It’s really cool to work with students who are the first in their families to go to college and get them to think about what’s possible to do with their lives.”
