Escalating poverty rates and economic instability are creating intensifying pressures for higher education. Historically, the U.S. has relied on higher education, in particular community colleges, to help solve both problems by providing educational opportunities to thousands of individuals who would have not been able to go to college and by retooling displaced workers and thus ensuring their improved employment. The study consisted of interviews with 18 low-income college students who successfully persisted to their second year of study at four community colleges. The intention of the study was to explore the factors influencing the decision of low-income Pell Grant recipient students to enroll and be successful in community college. The interview questions were designed around the research question: What influences students from poverty to enroll and succeed in college?