By engaging in complex discussions about the diversity of the U.S. experience, students will gain an understanding of how their racialized, cultured, gendered, classed, familial and non-familial backgrounds have shaped their experiences and perceptions of the world, and in relation to the Chicana/o experience.  For example, students will be able to articulate both various social, economic, political, and cultural factors for disproportionately high Chicano high school dropout rates, and possible solutions to this problem.