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This chapter describes a case study of a teacher, Mrs. L., whose teaching incorporates culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP) into U.S. and World History classrooms in order to meet the academic and linguistic needs of her specific student populations. The examples used in this chapter come from two settings in which Mrs. L has worked – an alternative high school for pregnant and parenting minors and a junior high school. Both settings were located in a diverse region of Southern California. Mrs. L’s methods for incorporating CSP into her U.S. and World History content were based foremost on establishing and building relationships and rapport with each girl in her class. Mrs. L incorporates CSP as she teaches her students about first and secondary sources through Richie Valens, develops critical thinking as she teaches about the Westward Expansion and the Lewis and Clark expedition, and develops technology skills as she teaches about various cultural views of death.

In this narrative, five adult siblings bring their voices together to tell the stories of their interwoven college experiences—how they influenced, supported, and relied on one another and other family members. As the stories unfold, they reveal the strengths of the familial ties that provide meaning and purpose to the college experience, the considerations that drive college enrollment choices, the pain of confrontational and unsupportive college environments, and the joys of success and self-discovery. By linking their stories in this essay, the grown children of the Jimenez family paint a portrait of the centrality of tradition, culture, and family in their atypical success story.