My Path As A First Generation Hispanic Student

Coming from a Mexican immigrant family I have learned to recognize since a very young age that because of the status that my parents are placed in they cannot pursue a better future like the one I want. I have been given the opportunity to challenge myself with obtaining a higher education than just high school itself. My parents have demonstrated to me through their hard work that I have to value this opportunity unless I want to end up with low paying job. My life long dedication comes from seeing my parents make sacrifices in order for my education to continue.

Coming from a new country I had to face many challenges. All these challenges made who I am today. When I came to the United States in 7th grade, I barely knew how to speak English. The language barrier posed a serious problem for me. I found it difficult to interact with people. Adjusting to a new country was no easy task. When my family and I came to this country, we knew only one other family. It was even more difficult for my parents who knew virtually no English. They had to learn how to work and provide for me and my siblings in this entirely new country with a completely different culture. Despite having a better background in English, it still took me over two years to become fluent in English. Although coming to America and having

Moving from Jordan to the United States was challenging for my family. I was the only child at the time and my parents primarily spoke Arabic in the house. The elementary teachers I had described me as a timid student, because I could barely speak English. I had difficulty with simple reading and writing, while other students went through class with ease. Needing extra tutoring classes and years of being in ESL was exhausting. However, learning how to read, write, and speak English fluently was only the beginning of my journey.

My journey began when I was 13 years old and my father decided that it was time for me to move to the U.S in order to study. I arrived to the United State in September of 2013, I arrived in time for the begging of the school year. I attended Dover high school for my freshman and sophomore year, something that really stuck with me was the insane number of Hispanics in that town; at least half of the students were Hispanic or were of Hispanic descent. The first problem that I faced upon arriving was the language barrier; I had studied English in my home country, but my knowledge of the language was not enough to establish a conversation. I was put in the ESL, English as a second language, program. Most of the students in the program had been living in the U.S for a few years already, all of them spoke Spanish. However, all of the students had a heavy accent when speaking Spanish due to the lack of use of the language. At this point I realized that in order to learn English faster I would have to sacrifice speaking Spanish. However, I did not want to lose my connection that I had with my homeland. Therefore, I decided to take half of my classes in the ESL program and take regular classes for the rest. At first, my English improved quite fast, but my Spanish suffered as I notice that I was struggling in my Spanish class. Personally, I am not a very good writer, but the fact that I had difficulties writing my native language felt

Again I was struggling not to let myself down and to learn the concepts of the new country. At first everything was hard; I had a lot of difficulties on all my classes due to the lack of reading and understanding the language. I remember when my 7th grade English teacher handed me the book “A Child Called It” by Dave Pelzer; I was stuck in the first page “I’d never realized so many words existed!”(Malcolm X 432).I kept solving my problems by myself, using the dictionary, searching words on the internet, and comparing some Spanish words with English ones. For some reason I didn’t like when people tried to translate and when the school tried to assign me Spanish tutors. I felt that getting help in Spanish wasn’t any good and it just disrupted my learning. Even though school was hard “I refused to fail. I was smart. I was arrogant. I was lucky.” (Alexie 447).I accomplished my goal of passing 7th grade. During the summer I used to go to the library and read books, because I didn’t understand most of them, and I found reading in English innocuous for the first month. After I got the handle of reading and writing once again, I felt confident of myself, and my life came back to normal.

I'm a Hispanic student and naturally that means that I must have lived a difficult life. My mom must have been on some kind of television talk show screaming at her “baby daddy” for the child support. I’m Hispanic, so I must have crossed the border ether from Mexico or Central America. I’m Mexican, so I must have friends that are in a gang. I’m Hispanic, so I must have something to do with the increase in poverty, crime, and and teen pregnancies. And of course, when applying to the University my personal statement would about the challenges in my life and how I overcame them, because I am Hispanic and therefore my life has to be complicated. I must have had a set of obstacles that others don’t. Right?

Before I turned four years old, my mother and I moved to join my father in Berwyn, Illinois. My sister ended having to stay back a couple of months so that she could finish her school year. We arrived to a nice apartment in the suburbs, it was a complete scenery change than what I was use to. Everyone seemed to have giant yards, bright green grass, large fences, and freshly painted houses. Back in Fresnillo, we had our large home, but it was rare for houses to have such large yards, so close to the heart of the town. From the time of the move until my first year in kindergarten, I had a bit of time to adjust, watching cartoons in English, I am not quite sure how I picked it up but I did. At that time my mother only spoke Spanish, my father is bilingual, but he would speak to us in Spanish.

Being Hispanic means coming from a culture that has much pride and an undying want for a better life. I know, without a doubt, that if I were not Hispanic the person that I am today would not exist. Unlike many people who do not pride themselves on being “beaner” I like to live up to what I am. I love the Mexican traditions that run through Hispanic families such as, the delicious food, dedication and most importantly the strong family bonds. I love knowing that the culture which I experience is quite different from that of my peers. Being Hispanic is beautiful, but just like everything it has an ugly side. Unfortunately in the era that we live today racism, discrimination and unequal opportunities still exist. Especially against those whom

Being separated from English speakers in Pre-kindergarten, translating English to Spanish for my family, ,making scavenger hunts at La Pulga to find affordable clothes and furniture,looking for books in Spanish for my Abuela so she could have something to read, waiting for my parents to come home from long work days, watching I.C.E vans appear at my neighborhood on my way to school, being told that I'd end up pregnant before I even got a chance at going to college and that I shouldn't speak Spanish because I'm in America, I was very conflicted with how I saw my family and background.To be Hispanic was no different that realizing that once the word is broken down, His-Panic, was nothing more than something shameful.This was my world, my childhood

When I was little I used to collect piggy banks. I remember the first one I owned which was pink and made out of plastic. People would ask me what I was saving for and I said college. Since I was 6 I was dreaming of attending the University of Southern California.

I was forced to come to America at the age of 13, knowing only Spanish. My junior year career was not pleasant because of that factor. I started off with four classes that were meant to teach me English. I was distraught and confused. I left my friends, my dad, and my life to come here. I was not comfortable at all. I felt alone, but I was not alone, there was another 12 students with the same obstacles as me. Now at the age of 18 I am proud of what I overcame and I can truly say these three strategies assisted me while overcoming my obstacle, Lifelong learning, develop mutually supportive relationship and believing in yourself.

Growing up, I faced many of the challenges; I was a first-generation Mexican-American college student whose first language was Spanish. I grew up in a suburb of Los Angeles, and I did not have any support system to think of an educational career beyond a high school degree. It was up to me to learn how the post-high school education system was structured for individuals who were not the ideal college candidate and to uncover opportunities for myself in the educational world. I went to East Los Angeles College and it was there that I obtained my social network of individuals that assisted me with the transfer process to a four-year institution. I joined many programs, clubs, and community services events. The Puente Program was one of the programs I attended, which provided

My family moved 3 times when I was young until we finally settled in The Woodlands, Texas. I was in the 2nd grade whenever we made the move to the United States and I had a very limited knowledge of the English language. I remember that first day of school when I walked into the red brick building that seemed so daunting for a small seven year old girl and there was no class for ESL and I was freaked out because I heard all this noise around me but I understood nothing.

I was born in Guatemala City, Guatemala. For the next twelve years, Guatemala would become the only home I ever knew. When I was five years old however, everything changed. My father left Guatemala to come to the United States and plan for the rest of his family to also move to the States in the correct way. He would work three jobs for the next six years to get enough money and prove that he would be a good provider for his family and even himself. This meant that we would have to be apart for six years, one month, and ten days. Meanwhile back in Guatemala, my mother took the role of both parents. She worked not only as a full time English Coordinator at our school, but as a part-time student, and full time mom and dad as well. I had the pleasure of attending a highly educated private school while I lived in Guatemala. All students that attended said school, were required to take English classes. English has been part of my life since I can remember, and both of my parents made sure that all their daughters had a substantial knowledge of the English language before moving to the States.

I was once a studying in Mexico, but in my 8th grade I moved to the United States to start my studies and had to adapt to a whole new system. I had to learn a new language, adapt to the new schedules, and honestly even bullied due to my “accent”. Either way I did not care, I knew that I had to succeed in whatever I was doing. I kept learning English as time passed. I made it to High School and while I was a “Honor Roll student” I developed