Experiencing extreme adversity — such as homelessness, abuse, or incarceration — creates barriers for educational success. Yet, there is a dearth of literature on the higher education pathways of students who experienced adversity (SEA). A researcher-practitioner collaboration aimed to understand the structural challenges SEA navigated on campus and the factors promoting their resilience and retention. Ten SEA-identified students participated in semi-structured in-depth interviews. Using thematic analyses, we constructed three themes describing challenges they encountered, including experiencing a lack of community, safety concerns, and stigmatization. We also noted four themes reflecting resilience, including how SEA found a sanctuary through a campus program, gave back to similar others, reframed stigmatization, and gained personal strength through networks. An anti-deficit framework helped identify how SEA are leveraging their community strengths and past experiences to thrive in institutions still not fully prepared to serve them. We offer recommendations for how institutions can be more inclusive of SEA.

经历极端逆境——例如无家可归、虐待或监禁——为教育成功制造了障碍。然而，关于经历过逆境（SEA）的学生的高等教育途径的文献很少。研究人员与从业人员的合作旨在了解 SEA 在校园内面临的结构性挑战以及促进其弹性和保留的因素。十名 SEA 认定的学生参加了半结构化的深度访谈。使用主题分析，我们构建了三个主题来描述他们遇到的挑战，包括缺乏社区、安全问题和污名化。我们还注意到反映弹性的四个主题，包括 SEA 如何通过校园计划找到庇护所，回馈类似的其他人，重新定义污名化，并通过网络获得个人力量。一个反赤字框架有助于确定 SEA 如何利用他们的社区优势和过去的经验在仍未完全准备好为他们服务的机构中茁壮成长。我们就机构如何更加包容 SEA 提供建议。