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Community colleges have seen an increase in the
proportion of minority students in their enrollments.
These minority students include individuals who have
immigrated to the United States. This trend is
occurring as the country is working to determine how
to properly address the issue of immigration on a
larger, national, scale. The Vietnamese-American
population is one of the most recent Asian groups to
enter the United States.
The purpose of this study was to discover how
heuristic knowledge is evident in the academic and
social journeys of Vietnamese-American students
enrolled at a community college in the midwestern
United States. Vietnamese-American students were
interviewed in an effort to understand their
experiences while attending the college. The
interpretation of their experiences is reported using
a narrative approach to produce a more complete image
of the experiences of the students. This research may
have implications for community college faculty,
administrators, and staff. This may affect the design
and delivery of student services such as advising and
student development programs, and the teaching and
learning perspective of faculty members.

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Cynthia A. Bottrell, Ph.D., is the Dean of Arts and Sciences atHawkeye Community College, Waterloo, Iowa. She has more than 20years of community college teaching experience, along with morethan 6 years of administrative experience. Dr. Bottrell is agraduate of Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado.

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