What is your hometown? La Puente, CA
What colleges did you attend? Degrees earned? Mt. San Antonio College (no degree earned)
University of Southern California - BA Anthropology, BA Political Science, BA American Studies & Ethnicity (Emphasis in Chicano/Latino Studies), Masters in Education (Emphasis in Post-Secondary Administration & Student Affairs)
What motivated you to go to college? What motivated me to go to college was seeing my parents work so hard day in and day out. I was privileged in that my parents encouraged my siblings and I to go to college or the military (“Choose one so you can be somebody!” my Dad would say). Even if they knew nothing about how to get there, how to apply for, how to fund, or how to graduate with a degree, my parents both knew they wanted more for their children and that an education was the key to that. Given they did not have degrees themselves (as teenage parents they went straight to work to support their young family) they were limited in their career choices and had to take on multiple jobs at once to provide for a growing family. I do not remember my dad ever having just one job…for the majority of my life he worked two full-time jobs and picked up overtime, part-time work and a side “hustle” whenever he could. It is something I did not really understand growing up – why he was always gone – but his wishes for us to never have to work that hard were a deep motivation. Additionally, as a teenage mother my mother’s opportunities for higher education were stripped from her. She was taken out of her honors courses and placed in home economics by her high school counselors. As a secretary, I saw her run her office every day like a BOSS! but miss out on raises and promotions because of her lack of formal education. She never wanted us to hit a wall in our careers or face being questioned about our qualifications because we did not have a college degree.
Describe your college experience as first-generation. I felt like an imposter. I wanted to quit and tried to. I walked around every day full of doubt, believing those who had told me I had only gotten in because of Affirmative Action. I literally walked around campus telling off everyone in my head, feeling as if they were staring at me wanting to say, “Why are you here? You don’t belong here!” I had to find my own way and it was a very lonely space because everyone walked around as if they knew what they were doing. Me? I was lost and drowning. I knew nothing of college life, dorm life, how to act in a classroom, how to speak with a professor, academic culture, etc. The tiny bit I knew about college I had only seen in movies.
What unique challenges did you face? My biggest obstacle was just not knowing and not knowing what I did not know. A self-imposed feeling of inferiority was something I struggled with as well. Going to college, I expected to be challenged by the work, by my assignments and writing research papers. But it was so far from that – it was the culture of academia that through me for a loop and the obvious inequities in socio-cultural capitol I had yet to understand that really affected me. My trajectory to successfully graduate with a triple major and go on to graduate school was so hard…and it did not have to be. However, as a first-generation college student I had to seek out resources I did not even know I needed.
How did you overcome those challenges? Find something to motivate you – to ground you and center you in those moments when you feel lost, out of place and on the verge of giving in. For me it was thinking about my father, how hard he worked and how one day while I was visiting home he asked me to rub his feet because they hurt him from working all day. When I went to rub his feet, I noticed they were raw – bloodied and blistered. I asked him why he did not notice and he said he just had to keep working. It was in that moment I made a promise to myself to let nothing stop me from getting my degrees and to make all of my parents’ hard work and sacrifice worth it. Although my parents did not have knowledge about how to be successful in college, and even though they could not help me with my papers or with tips on how to talk to my professors, they did give me great examples of work ethic – and once I tapped into that, nothing could stop me!
What did you advise other first-generation students? Do not ever give up! I am the reason my grandparents left their home country – for an opportunity to have an education, to live in a safe place, to live a better life. I am the living embodiment of their sacrifices. I know my parents are smart enough to have earned degrees but they did not have the access to the opportunities I have. As such, you have to take advantage of your educational opportunities because once you KNOW…no one after you will ever not know how to be successful in college! You single-handedly will change the trajectory of every generation that comes after you! KNOW HOW POWERFUL YOU ARE!
Also, find a support system. For me I found support at my university’s El Centro Chicano (student cultural center). It was there that I learned I was not alone and that I deserved to be there. I gained confidence and started asking questions, sought out a mentor and joined student organizations. Becoming engaged at the University helped me feel connected and in feeling connected, I felt like I belonged.
Lastly, know that you bring a unique perspective to the classroom. Professors are vying for your input. Do not be scared to speak up in class and challenge what you are reading. More often than not what you read, hear and learn will not include a perspective that represents you, your parents or your ancestors – use this to your advantage to add to the academic narrative.
