Community colleges in the United States serve as social, cultural, and intellectual hubs that take the role as gatekeepers by committing to opening up the doors of opportunity to the public (Vaughan, 2006). Community colleges prepare their students for the workforce by providing credit or non-credit courses, certifications, or degrees. Depending on the community, programs are established to provide access to postsecondary programs. The purpose of this research is to investigate the successful experiences of six Hispanic immigrant women, who are English Language Learners, as they journeyed through a southwestern community college in the United States. The women have continued their educational studies regardless of the language barriers they faced. Learning English as their second language has been their greatest challenge in higher education. When language issues are addressed in higher education, the ideology essentially revolves around English-only instruction. English proficiency has been a requirement to successfully complete college level courses, yet absent is the methodology that focuses on other supportive factors for English Language Learners. The participants' lived experiences are shared through a narrative format. They immigrated as adults to the United States from Mexico and became first generation students in higher education. Their purpose for attending community college was based on their desires to learn about early childhood education while working toward an early childhood certification. The overall guiding research questions were geared to inquire about their success, challenges, and barriers during their educational journey. Portraiture was used as the instrument in conducting this qualitative research study. Portraiture aimed at highlighting the participants' voices in this study. Field notes, semi-structured individual and focus group interviews, journal writing, and photography were identified as the multiple methods to collect data. Themes were established and crystallization was the tool used to analyze the data. In summary, the greatest influences that led to the participants' successes were generated from relationships with their families, friends, colleagues, and professors. [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://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]