Being a first generation college student and the struggles that come from being a first generation student have shaped me as an individual. My parents immigrated from The Dominican Republic with no education, no hope, and just a dream of a better life. When I was born, my parents tried to give me the “American dream” to the best of their ability but growing up was still rough. My older brother and I were being raised in a low-income neighborhood where opportunities didn’t come to people really often, and crime was considered common. Instead of joining my peers in their lives of crime, I wanted to be the exact opposite. I wanted to prove to everyone that just you may come from somewhere where crime is common, and because your parents don’t have an education that you can’t better yourself – but I didn’t really
My parents always wanted to give their children the life they never had. I am Mexican-American, both of my parents immigrated from Mexico to the U.S. before I was born. I have numerous relatives, including my older sister, who do not have the same opportunities I have to achieve success because they are undocumented. For them, college was only a dream that could never be attained. Being the first U.S. citizen out of my entire family affected the way I thought about life. It was expected that I would attend college because I was the only one who had access to all the resources granted to American citizens. Although, I agreed with my family, the pressure to succeed and be a role model to my younger siblings was overwhelming.
Being a first generation college student is a heavy load to carry due to the constant reminder of having to be a good role model for my siblings. Children of immigrants are often highly expected to excel in their academics and to be involved in extracurricular activities. His/her parent immigrated to the “Land of The Free” in order to receive a better life and to give their children a place to call home. They work from one to two jobs a week just so that we can dig through the pantry, and raid the refrigerator. We sometimes take our parents for granted unknowingly, and constantly fill our heads with a question that we all seem to ask. “How do I please my parents?”, “What do I have to do to make them happy?”. As students we should all be voicing “College!”. Yes, maybe our folks’s dreams have faded away, however that should be our motivation to aim higher; to achieve our American Dream. Throughout our years of education, our very own relatives and teachers have emphasized on the importance of receiving a higher education. I have come to realize that I should not be asking myself “How do I please my parents?”. Instead, “How do I please myself?”, “What will my lifetime goals be?”, “Will it leave my parents hard work in vain?”. Obtaining a higher education will not impact their lives, but will affect yours drastically. My American Dream has always been to become an immigration lawyer that deals with international relations or to become a professor teaching my true passion for
On Friday, January 20th everything my parents’ came here for is being destroyed by one person. They came here for us to be safe and grow up with opportunities, the ones he wants to take away from us . In Mr. Trump’s eyes every female is just a piece of meat, in my parents eyes, I’m a strong Xicana (Mexican American) and Paisa woman. I’m a woman that has ignored the hate, the racism, the discrimination all for one sole purpose, to make my parents proud. To many Americans I am nothing, to my Hispanic/Latino community I am everything. I am the future, I’m their hope, I am the one who will make them proud. I’m a junior in high school that will graduate in the year of 2018 and attend college and pursue something in the medical field and maybe get
Leaving home at the age of 18, loving on my own, figuring how to become an adult, and moving out to college, there were many things being thrown at me in which I was not fully prepared for them. Moving out at 18 is normal for any high school graduate in The United States. Being a Mexican American women it was more than just the net step to life , but a huge accomplishment. Being ascribed into a poor family increased the desire to move forward. My parents did not want me to follow their footsteps into the world of low waged labor, they wanted more. Growing up all I heard from teachers and family members was to go to college. For many it’s the normal thing for a high school graduate to do. For me it was more than socialization it was the path
I was born in New York City in Harlem hospital on July 26 1989. My parents Gwen and Donald Ames grew up in Pensacola Florida and Norfolk Virginia. They had two different lives growing up. My mom being from Florida mainly grew up around mostly African Americans and in a more country like town. My mom’s father was a pastor at a Baptist church and my grandmother worked for the state. I remember talking to my mom and she said she grew up when segregation was big. She would march and protest against desegregation. My mom went to Florida State where it was predominantly white. She said she had trouble with the transition from being around mostly African American to a school with mostly Caucasian. She felt that she had to prove something. The drive
I am a part of a community . What I believe in , may be disregarded because I am young. I am told that I am inexperienced in life but I am expected to choose a career within these two years. I am allowed to think but as soon as I contradict the people more important than me, I am wrong. I am encouraged to only think a certain way because I was born into a culture who is afraid of change. Although I know my voice is respected, I don’t know if it is loud enough. As a daughter, my opinions and beliefs are important to my parents but I do not feel like they understand the struggles teenagers go through. Given, they were a teenager once but that was a long time ago. Their problems were different than mine. The pressures they had were different too.I’m expected to do well in school and have a promising
So when they moved to North Bethesda, they knew I would have a better head start in life than most other people, African American or Caucasian. I’ve maintained over a 4.0 GPA, with a mix of A’s and B’s . I was raised as a catholic, going to church most every sunday with my father, most people in his country are christians but when he moved to america he converted to catholic. This instilled values into me, to believe in jesus christ and believe that there’s a reason for everything because he set it up that way. I’m the older sister to one (half) brother, who is only six years old with my parents working often it leaves me to be in charge of my brother, which has made me become very domesticated at an early age, and pretty talented in being able to communicate and understand with those at a much younger age than me. I can cook any dish that I have the recipe too, and can make a meal in under 45 minutes. My parents become divorced when I was 4, which instilled values in me to wait till I was mature enough, and also in a long term stable relationship before I get married because to wake up one day and realize I know longer love the person I married is the scariest thing to
Growing up I was pegged as the fag, the one who from the age of nine was “destined” to be an outcast. I was teased, ridiculed, and harassed on a regular basis to the point where I didn't want to be here anymore. I had no motivation to go to school, All I could do was cry because I knew they didn't want me.
I am a woman of color. I registered to vote the day after my eighteenth birthday, anticipating my first ballot the way a kid anticipates Christmas morning. My parents want me to have the best education I can get, which means I plan on attending graduate school after my four years at UC Berkeley. I live in the dorms; my floor is home to both male and female students, some from foreign countries like Turkey and Hong Kong, others less than an hour’s BART ride away from home. We live in a beautiful country where people are not turned away because of race or gender, and while we still have some issues to work out, there are many freedoms that I take for granted having lived here all my life. It is easy for me to forget the struggles of so many people before us, people without whom this nation would not be as free as it is.
I despised myself for being different. All I ever wanted was to fit in, but I couldn't even do that... Because in my mind it would taunt me constantly, just saying I'm worthless and everyone thinks I'm weird or ugly, a show-off... It just seemed to never end. All this feeling caused was poison to relationships with friends and family, low self-esteem, isolation, shyness, and mumbling and simply not enjoying life as a kid. Even though after years of going through therapy and fighting with my parents a lot and having to grow up too soon. It felt as if I were being trapped in a bird cage while the outside's beauty just mocked you, while you're just cooped up in misery and desperately wanting to fly away. Majority time I always had this current state of mind thinking of just wanting to fade away from this world and not looking back and wondering if people would even notice when I'm gone.Rather than allowing this awful depression to spiral my life out of control, I decided that I was not going to let it get in the way of my goals for the future. The decision I made 4 years ago to start appreciating life still remains today and my outlook has changed on the whole situation
For as long as I can remember, society has condemned me for not fitting into their depiction of normality. The reasoning behind this is that I am not a born American citizen. As my parents, I was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, surrounded by others of the same color. The community I lived in was a highly supportive of one another despite their faults. Acceptance is a large section of the community's approach to any and all situations. Though the community optimistic, the reality was a cold shower my parents had to accept. Despite the positives the Haitian community provided us, we moved to America for a foundation for my future. My parents knew as a female in Haiti, it would be difficult for me to progress into something great. By moving, I was given a new chance to help my progression into something great.
As consistently illustrated in the literature, family support and education as a family value have been positively related to students’ persistence to graduation (Hrabowski, Maton, & Greif, 1998; Moore, 2000; Taylor, Hinton, & Wilson, 1995). Family members can provide guidance, encouragement, and reassurance about college challenges and the student’s potential for success. Hrabowski and Maton (1995) established that parents and other family members were instrumental in helping African American students adjust to college life at a predominantly White institution.
Living as a white woman in the United States, people often find themselves labeling one another with identities in order to group people together. Yes, the color of my skin is white and although it would be easier to just say I am simply that, my identity goes past that. I am Greek, Armenian, and Irish and my physical features portray just that. Growing up my family had just enough money to live with luxuries and being an only child helped the money situation. However, I was not considered wealthy, but especially when applying to colleges came around last October, I finally realized what it meant to have money. I appreciated what my parents were able to do for me and I couldn't fathom what someone without money would do by not going to college. As previously mentioned, I identify as a woman, and the pronouns I go by are “she” and “her”. Having said that, I am a heterosexual and I am interested in men. However, I support anyone and everyone who would identify differently than me. As for religion, I must admit that I am not religious, and for someone attending a Franciscan school, that might sound strange, but it is true.
I am not a part of the dominant culture in which I grew up. Girls married at the age of sixteen and did not finished their education. We did not divorce in the family. Girls wore dresses and boys could wear whatever they wanted to wear. We were not allowed to speak unless spoken to or we would receive a lashing. I worked for my education and remarried and have been married for almost thirty years. My family believes I forgot my family culture and am not ask to any family events. I am a southern woman with an education and believe children should not