ABSTRACT

Francis enjoys being outdoors, and tries to stay as active as possible. In fact he has been training to run a marathon, which is something that he had always wanted to do. Francis works part-time as a coordinator of a volunteer reading program that reaches out to local neighborhood elementary school children. Francis talks about the importance of maintaining “high contacts “ in order to succeed academically. As mentioned in chapter two, this is an example of what P. Dimaggio and J. Mohr refer to as a mode of gaining cultural capital, where an individual strives to increase the frequency of interactions with “high status” individuals in order to improve one’s opportunities for college. As Francis continues to progress through school, it is certain that he has learned from his earlier mistakes of taking school too lightly.