My Motivation To Become A First-Generation College Student

1. Being the first-generation college bound student in my family means a lot to me. I hope to inspire my sister to attend and strive in college. This also brings a lot of stress on me because if I don’t accomplish this it could change the outcome in my sisters’ future education. With college comes debt, coming from a low-income background it is hard to see myself actually attending college. There is always a way to pay for college as an alternative and usually, it is scholarships. This something I hope to learn more about during the L.I.F.E. Program at CSU this summer.

I am a first generation college student that has made it to a higher education. I see myself as the second daughter, that has come out the land of pride and production. I am from Richmond, California, but that’s just where I geographically from, when in reality I came from a strong family of immigrants. My parents both came to the United States as a young 26, and 24-year-old parents of one child. I did not come until two years later that I came, I came into the world, and was already marked with the name of an anchor baby. As I grow up I did not really know what I was, what I did was always question myself, am I just a reason to keep my parents here longer? Why am I called an anchor baby? I felt that I did not fit in but my schools I went to school always had a mixture of students. I did not know what I was or who I was, I had not direct connection to any ethnicity. When I was in elementary school there where a mixture of Whites, Asians, Latinos, and African Americans ethnicities, grow up in a multicultural area I didn’t think about race or class as much as late in life. Race was a topic that I did not really think and talked about until I was placed into a private school that class was visible, and I began to be more aware or class and race. I would not talk about race or class at school, but I would wait to talk about it when I would get home.

In college, my desire for a career path in medicine encourages me to do my very best throughout school in order to achieve my childhood dream. The surgeries I’ve experienced throughout my life have taught me to be strong no matter how painful it may be during recovery because in the end, it’ll all get better. Not only that but of course it has helped me become more interested and knowledgeable of the environment in a hospital setting. My interests in what seems to be a difficult path to complete have inspired my siblings of mine to do better in school to someday be “as smart as Christian”. Due to my familiarization with college and what the classes tend to be like, I have encourage many cousins my age to continue persevering in school to receive the best possible outcome for their future. Although I am not the first out my brother to be enrolled in college, both of us attending STC, I myself have actually surpassed him with the many opportunities given to me at this wonderful early college and has prepared me rigorously for what future college life may be like.

Throughout my teenage years, I was the embodiment of the average introvert. The pressure to succeed and become a first generation college student in my family was overwhelming, and the constant battle of not being good enough defeated me. My parents only spoke Spanish, and were unable to help me with my school assignments. As I struggled with my academics silently, my self-consciousness and insecurities grew. The fear of speaking out in public was a lingering shadow that developed more, as I grew older. Being that English was my second language, I had always felt inferior to those who spoke English as their primary language.

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”

Being a first generation student requires more will power than I ever thought I owned. In middle school I was denied by my parents the chance to shadow a pharmacist because they saw this as an unattainable dream. It wasn’t until I began working with disabled children and tried to pursue a nursing degree, that I found the courage and determination to pursue all of my dreams in spite of my upbringing.

I am the daughter of immigrant, and I myself, am an immigrant. We emigrated Africa when I was seven for various reasons, two of them being political instability and the lack of an effective education system. I am the second oldest of five siblings, meaning I am a first generation college student. With neither of my parents going beyond a high school education, they were unable to fully support my siblings or I financially or in terms of education. Because of that, they put it upon themselves to teach us the importance of education, independence and hard work from a young age. Throughout high school, I worked 2 jobs in order to support myself, and still managed to be in the top half of my class. Through hard work, I ended up getting a full ride to UNL. At the end of senior year I even ended up landing an internship with the UNL Chemistry department for a summer, which I continued working on throughout freshmen year of college.

The article “Motivating Firs-Generation Students For Academic Success and College Completion” by Tanjula Petty describes the additional challenges first generation students have to overcome while attending college. A well-heeled diversity and world of opportunities are a few of the positive outcomes of attending college. According to Tanjula Petty (2014), “Yet, the most cited and widely used definition for first- generation students is someone whose parents has not completed a college degree”. Students whose parents did not acquire a college degree, have a lack of support at home. Their family members are not equipped to provide information required for college difficulties students may have. They lack knowledge and resources that students that students with college-educated parents have. The article states that these students are less psychologically prepared for college. Many low-income families do not understand the benefits of graduating from college. First generation students spend more time working and less time studying unlike their classmates. (Petty 2014) Coming from low-income families, many of these students have to divide their time between college and working. Leading students to prioritize money before school. Many work full time while going to school. Working more hours than studying can potentially harm students ' success.

Being that I am a first-generation college student, finding guidance as I matriculate through college has been tough. I do not have any family members that have went to college, therefore I solely depend on my university for guidance in my college endeavors and my career path. Due to this, I want to be a part of the TRiO Scholars Program so that I can gain valuable advice, counseling services, and guidance to graduation. The experience that I am seeking in this program is the ability to meet and connect with other students like myself. I believe that to be able to identify with students who have come from various hardships like myself, allows for personal growth and a sense of community. I hope to gain this sense of community by participating

I am a first-generation college student. My parents never got passed high school. They were both faced with hardship and had no choice but to get a job to deal with the responsibilities of home. My dad left India at the age of 16 to build a better life for himself and my mom in America. In my household, education has always been a priority. Since my parents have felt firsthand how life is like without a degree, they made it their mission to ingrain in us a value for education like no other. However, there have been many situations in which I have found myself lost and looking for answers about college. Sadly, by being a first-generation student, my parents could not help me. Not only could they not help me, but being the first to attend college

My mom immigrated from India to America in her adolescence and later was the first in our family to attend college and get a degree. I want to follow in her footsteps and go and get a college education and prove to her that I did not take all the back-breaking hours of work that both my mom and dad put in for granted, and to prove that I am willing to work hard. My parents both came to America with a couple dollars and a dream, and they were able to provide for me with little outside help. I am fortunate for this situation, and many, like me, have not had such lucky childhoods, and this has shaped my aspirations and goals in life. I want to go into the medical field in order to one day help other people. I want to make a living out of helping

A desire for higher education is continuously increasing within the Hispanic community. The obstacles sometimes are because of tradition but many wish to facilitate and influence the community to strive for a better education. In the article "Desire for Higher Education in First-Generation Hispanic College Students”, Tamara Olive, researches the experiences of students with the desire for a higher education and a better future. The constituents, resulting from the research innate to the experience of the desire for a better education.

I grew up in an impoverished community with a lack of an educational culture. As I faced academic and financial obstacles, I realized how important education is. I am the first person in my family to pursue a higher education at a four year university. After graduating high school in June of 2016, I aspire to earn a Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing and specialize in pediatrics.

I started North Park University, a week before everyone else, within a program called COMPASS. This program is to help smooth first generation student’s transition to college and build a strong group of friends to start college on the right path. In COMPASS, I met some of my close friends. We help one another whenever we need help: we have study sessions, emotional support for one another, hang out whenever we just need a little break, and much more. A month into school I was offered a job at my school as a student worker and I gladly accepted it. Since I was living on campus my first year this was an amazing accomplishment for me: I achieved some connections and a wide variety of networking opportunities if ever need them in the future.

My mother and my aunts made sure that I graduated high school, completed college in four years, and finished graduate school. My mother believes that getting an education is the most important requirement to being successful. Some people, looking in from the outside, may feel that my family pushes me to hard; and when I was younger I thought the same thing. However, now that I am older I appreciate the push and constant motivation. If it was not for my family, I would not be where I am today. I have always wanted to follow in my aunts footsteps and become the second doctor in the family. Between her and my mother, they have support me financially and provided me with other necessities to continue to move forward. I have set my focus on many short term goals in order to reach my long term goals. There are days that I want to give up, but I know the hard work will pay off