Beyond Admissions and Financial Aid: Demystifying the College-Going Process for Latine Students Through Relational Engagement

College access programs are well documented to build procedural knowledge of admissions and financial aid, yet less is known about how they demystify the hidden curriculum of college-going for Latine students. To address this gap, we examine a four-day college access immersion program for Latine high school students in North Carolina. Guided by a relational engagement framework, we analyzed 205 open-ended survey responses from 96 Latine high school juniors and seniors, collected through the program’s anonymous daily evaluations, using a two-cycle iterative coding approach. Findings reveal five forms of learning through which participants described the program countering dominant narratives of exclusion: (1) reframing identity and culture as assets, (2) building confidence through intergroup exchange, (3) enacting agency for college access, (4) uncovering the hidden curriculum of financial well-being and college persistence, and (5) disrupting exclusionary assumptions about college access. The study extends relational engagement theory by demonstrating how culturally sustaining programmatic networks render implicit institutional knowledge visible and accessible. Implications for research and culturally responsive practice are discussed.