| This phenomenological study explored protective factors that students with a history of trauma utilized to persist in postsecondary education. The investigation sheds light on ten participants who were recruited from a 4-year public university located in the western region of the U.S. A preliminary survey was used to help identify study participants who were: 18 years of age or older, were enrolled or planning to enroll in college, had completed three or more years of undergraduate course-work, have completed the online survey in its entirety and indicated qualifying traumatic lifetime events as measured on the Life Experience Checklist (LEC). Each participant had a zoom interview per COVID-19 social distancing protocols. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed using Moustakas (1994) phenomenological reduction method. Data from the interviews revealed the following central themes: identity, experiencing trauma, navigating academic success, and participant’s experiences with posttraumatic growth in their postsecondary journey. Key Words: trauma, posttraumatic growth theory (PTG), persistence, retention |