Post-Katrina Student Resilience: Perspectives of Nunez Community College Students

Abstract

This study examines the phenomenon of student resiliency as it relates to Nunez Community College students who returned to attend school in the community of St. Bernard Parish following Hurricane Katrina. Nunez Community College is located in Chalmette, Louisiana, fifteen miles east of the City of New Orleans. The community is adjacent to the Lower Ninth Ward. This study seeks to answer the questions of why the students returned to a disaster-stricken area to continue their studies and how the students coped in the aftermath. There is a significant gap in the literature on post-disaster resiliency and in particular, the role of education in post-disaster recovery. Twelve students who returned to Nunez Community College post-Katrina were interviewed using a Student Resilience Model as a conceptual framework. The perceptions of the students\u27 post-disaster experiences resulted in five themes which included Individual Resilience, Post-Disaster Academic Integration, Post-Disaster Social In

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