What is your hometown? Garden Grove, CA.
What colleges did you attend? Degrees earned? CSULA - B.A. in Spanish (1991), teaching credentials, M.A. in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) (1995)
USC - PhD in Educational Policy (2001)
Cal Poly Pomona - MA in English and Rhetoric/Composition (2008)
What motivated you to go to college? I wanted to have choices in my life. I wanted financial security. I wanted a life different from the life I was living and different from the one my neighborhood peers and cousins seemed destined to live.
Describe your college experience as first-generation. Neither of my parents went to college. My father was really troubled by my outspokenness, assertiveness, and independence. When I was about to graduate high school, my father told me I would not go to college. He said, I needed to get a job. I knew that if I wanted to go to college, I would need to pay for it on my own. I spent the next 3 years applying to as many scholarships as I could find. I had to piecemeal the scholarships to pay tuition and books every quarter. I could not get academic help at home because I was the oldest and no one in the home could help me. Fortunately, I did not have to work full-time, and I did not have to contribute financially to my household.
What unique challenges did you face? Even though I was accepted at my first choice college - Occidental College, my family could not afford it. I had to go to CSULA, but I did not have money to pay for it, and I did not want to get into debt.
How did you overcome those challenges? Every single quarter, I was in the scholarship office reviewing all of the new scholarships they received. I was such a frequent visitor that the office staff knew me by name and started setting aside scholarships for me for which they thought I would qualify. I organized my scholarship material once I realized that the applications asked pretty much the same question. With each application, I would revise a previous essay so that I did not start from scratch. I was not 100% successful, which meant I had to apply to many scholarships in order to get enough to cover my school expenses. I never turned down an opportunity to apply for a scholarship, no matter how small the amount. I figured even $50 would cover one book.
What did you advise other first-generation students? First, I would advise other first-gen students not to give up. There are so many resources available to help students through school. Unfortunately, most students are unaware of the resources, which leads me to my second piece of advice. Students need to speak up. They need to let people get to know them, especially their professors and counselors. The only way we can direct you to the resources on campus is if we know your story. I have helped students with their financial aid problems, food insecurity, and academic records because they let me know they were having a problem. As a professor, I was able to access a person that the students did not even know existed and get them immediate help. Most of the time, I learned about the problems by accident - the student was simply sharing their story or I overheard them talking to a friend. Had I not known their situation, I wouldn't not have been able to help them. So, my main advise is don't give up and share your story with people.
