Orr's (1995) case illustrates well Harker's (1990) point of taking on an identity and changing group membership. Orr describes how she rose from a working class background to become a doctoral student. Her parents had come from poverty backgrounds and her father's parents had limited English proficiency (L. Orr, personal communication, November 11, 2003). During her childhood, her mother had accepted a menial job at the local university which offered library privileges and the Orr family went to the library nearly every week to borrow books. Orr became a voracious reader by her own volition. Later, she earned university scholarships, which she described as her escape from her working-class life. As she said, "it's facing a lifetime of poverty without hope of change which is soul-crushing" (L. Orr, personal communication, December 4, 2003).

Clearly, Orr is intelligent and ambitious, but she attributes her success to hard work. She explains, "Are brains any use without hard work?…I know diligence was very important to my success" (L. Orr, personal communication, December 4, 2003). Personal goal setting was a critical factor for her academic success, as was her:

passionate desire to never be poor again…to never again have to forego medical treatment because of lack of money, to never again be embarrassed by what [she] wore or where [she] lived, to have a job where [she is] treated with some respect, to escape that constant daily worry over dollars that [she] remember[s] so well from childhood. (L. Orr, personal communication, December 4, 2003)

Orr made choices and set her priorities, while never losing focus on her direction (L. Orr, personal communication, November 11, 2003). Her parents were also supportive of her goals, which eventually led her to a tenure-track position as a university English professor. Orr (1995) referred to her "former life…her divided self [and although she was now] living like a member of the middle class…[she was engaged in negotiation of her identity and acknowledged that] a part of [her] would never leave the working class" (p. 17). Her continued ties to the working class illuminate the complexity of the process of identity formation.