The purpose of this study was to determine what factors contributed to student persistence, and what factors made persistence difficult. The investigator used the phenomenological method of inquiry to obtain the data in this study. The investigator interviewed ten former developmental learning community students who successfully completed developmental reading and writing courses during their freshmen semester at an urban community college. After graduating from high school, the participants did not possess at-level reading and writing skills. The participants were non-traditional students between the ages of eighteen and twenty-one years old. They were employed both full or part-time. Seven of the participants were African-American females and three were African-American males. Three of the female participants mothered small children. The purpose of this study was to determine the factors that contributed to student persistence and the factors that made persistence difficult. The findings of this study provide a theory of developmental student persistence for non-traditional student clienteles. An analysis of the data revealed that developmental students must not be disregarded during or after completing their developmental courses. This study revealed that in order to have an effective developmental program all segments of the campus must be included. The participants in this study revealed 14 major factors that helped them to persist in college. The perceived contributing factors to student persistence include: student academic relationships, curriculum/course content, campus newspaper, teachers, advisors, computer laboratories, career fair, health fair, tutoring, lectures, group projects, study groups, class assignments, and student social relationships. The participants revealed nine factors that hindered student persistence. The perceived hindrance factors to persistence include: no credit for developmental courses, lack of English 101 in the learning community, lack of flexible learning community class options, lack of tutoring time, lack of group projects, lack of student financial aid, lack of contact with advisors, lack of bereavement counseling, and a lack of advisor interpersonal communication skills with students. The findings from this study can be used by college presidents and governance boards to improve student outcome measures, thereby increasing institutional effectiveness. -- Abstract.