Community colleges are an important, yet understudied, tier of the higher education system in the United States. Community colleges serve students from all socio-economic backgrounds. As such, community college students face challenges to their educations not seen in those attending more traditional schools. This dissertation recognizes these challenges and seeks to understand what drives some students to become academically persistent and resilient. Seven hundred and eighty- nine Southern California community college students participated in the study. The study was conducted in all levels of the English Composition sequence, including remedial and college-level transfer courses. Results include quantitative analysis, descriptive statistics, analysis of variance, and multi-variate regressions to determine which factors led to students achieving transfer level courses. The statistics reveal that needing to work and financial difficulties are predictive of students placed into remedial English Composition courses. Positive family interaction and persistent beliefs and behaviors were predictive of belonging to transfer level courses. In all, respondents report hopeful beliefs regarding their futures, despite financial challenges. Recommendations for encouraging students to develop more resistant beliefs and behaviors are focused on alleviating the financial challenges reported by a significant number of students, including food insecurity and homelessness. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]