Cohort Stories: Meet Jason
NYC: vol. 2, no. 6— guest post by Jason Morales
Being a first-generation immigrant and college student is a significant part of my identity, shaping my resilience through the challenges of pursuing higher education. I vividly recall the frustration of lacking guidance due to my family’s non-collegiate background; as neither of my parents attended college in the USA. Yet, despite these imperfect circumstances, I knew my parents had given up everything to immigrate here to provide my siblings and I with a better future, something I’ll always be thankful for. This fueled my determination, guided by my mother’s value:
“Si el resto puede, entonces porque tu no?” — “If others have achieved it, then why can’t you?”
Through this journey, “Perseverance” became my favorite word, a constant reminder that pushes me to chip away at my goals every day. A major milestone for me was self-funding my college education, working full-time during the initial years to avoid debt. Relief eventually came through law changes, allowing me to participate in financial aid programs that covered my expenses.
As a kid, I loved art — drawing cartoons and getting lost in flash games. Sneaking into my father’s office just to play on his computer is a vivid memory. Eventually though, I became curious and wanted to create my own games, and so a quick google search told me I’d need to learn to code in order to do that. I began to experiment with basic HTML on Codecademy, fascinated at the ability to render elements with simple “words” and change colors using “hashtags” (hex codes). Admittingly during that time, I wasn’t sure about how to set up my environment, what an IDE was, or how to even run my code (except for writing it in notepad and then saving it as a .html file)! However, this marked the beginning of a lasting fascination — an unforgettable memory shaping my journey into the tech world.
My biggest motivator is that I will be one of the first in my family to obtain a degree in higher education and show others that our circumstances should never be deterrents. I’m passionate about inspiring those from backgrounds without early access to formal programming education, showing them the vast possibilities in technology careers.
My mission is to challenge the “gatekeeper” mindset in STEM, proving that this industry is not only for those perceived as having “natural talent” due to accessible resources.
This belief is a core aspect of my advocacy within my university campus club, HACCS, the Hispanic Association of Computing College Students. HACCS stems from a vision realized — a community that empowers students by transforming shared struggles into strengths; an inclusive space where students of diverse backgrounds can network, share coursework advice, provide/receive tutoring, exchange resources, and ultimately propel each other forward in their career prospects.
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