The Lives of First-Generation Students

Interview Videos Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EyUQr5L1vQ0N9HwBVt581DQA0oXeei_9/view?usp=sharing

For this project, I interviewed four different people, each of them being first-generation college students who all come from a similar background as me, all of us being Mexican and coming from low-income households. All of our parents immigrated here seeking the American Dream, and unfortunately, the pressure of working hard towards achieving a professional career has been placed upon us. The path to even attend college has been long for us all. For this reason, I chose to do my project on this specific matter, that being the struggles we have had to encounter to currently attend this prestigious institution. Many students at this institution do not realize the vast conflicts we have undergone to now be sitting in the same lectures as them. To this, I noted that it was essential and is of value to share our stories.

I began this interview by asking each of the interviewees to share their backgrounds, in which each of them shared where they and their parents were from. Having to share about your background is something that I believe is crucial in understanding the story of someone’s life, and for this reason, I decided to ask this question before any other question. My first interviewee was Christina Herrera, a Business Administration major born and raised in Boyle Heights, a predominantly low-income Hispanic community in Los Angeles. Christina is a second-generation Mexican-American whose parents were also born in the United States, grandparents initially being from Chihuahua and Zacatecas, Mexico. My second interviewee was Denise Sanchez, who was born in West Covina, California, but since then has moved to Huntington Park, but shared explicitly that her parents own a small business in the neighborhood of Lincoln Heights, calling that place also home because of the time she has spent there. She is a Cognitive Science major whose parents are initially from Tepic and Jalisco, Mexico, something that she is immensely proud of due to the rich culture in those states. My third interviewee was Jaqueline Monzon, a South Central native majoring in Neuroscience and who’s both Mexican and Salvadorian. Lastly, my last interviewee was Valeria Lopez, a Sociology major from the community of Little Village in Chicago, IL, a community that I know very well and that is known to be the Mexican epicenter of Chicago.

Relating to the question that was asked prior, I decided to ask them to share about their childhood, more specifically to share about their neighborhood and how their parents had raised them. When asked this question, what really stood out to me was how much of a relatable story we all had. Some of the interviewees went in-depth with how much of a struggle it was growing up financially or simply expressing what it was like to be raised in such a neighborhood. A story that really stood out to me was that of Denise Sanchez, who shared that having to grow up with parents that owned a small business was difficult, not necessarily because of money, but because her parents had to, like any business owner, spend lots of time in their business, meaning that at times she would have to go to school events by herself, and was never that close to their parents. This phenomenon is something that is common within our culture, our parents grow to give us the most the possibly can, give us all they unfortunately did not have growing up, and at the end of the day they forget to show love and affection to their children because they are too busy trying to give them a better life Another comment that stood out to me was that of Valeria and Christina, both similar in addressing the conflict of money. Many people in their community struggle and live paycheck to paycheck, meaning they work to get enough food on their plate. This is crucial because growing up in such communities can make a person realize how much they have to be thankful for, which is where the ideology of remaining humble comes from, something that is common in our culture, especially when you are , and which was mentioned by two of the interviewees. As first-generation students, I can assure you that the majority of us have matured from a young age, many of us having to take care of siblings when parents are working to give us the most they possibly can, but also just having to translate newspaper, which was something that was also mentioned by interviewees, is something that no one but a child of an immigrant that does not speak the English language can understand.

Next, I asked the interviewees to share their process to get into college. What I meant by asking this question was if their parents were supporting them to pursue a college degree not only financially but also emotionally. To this question, many of the interviewees shared that their parents did want them to pursue higher education, this being because they believed that it would fulfill the American dream they have worked so hard to achieve. After having shared this, it stood out to me how they all had something similar to share, and that was the amount of pressure they face being the first in their family to attend college, the number of expectations that exist is infinite, and you have nothing to do but accomplish achieving that degree and not disappoint your family by actually pursuing something, for example, you may enjoy doing. Another thing that was also of great relevance was the fact that all of the interviewees were hesitant about the decision of attending a four-year university because they believed they were not financially stable enough to afford one. Many of these parents did not save a single cent for their college tuition, and simply being the first generation, it was emphasized by the interviewees that they had to do all the financial aid work by themselves because, for the majority, their parents had a language barrier that prohibited them from helping fill out needed documents such as the FAFSA, and so on. Of course, the financial side of attending college is something that alarms most parents, but being first-generation and knowing nothing about the process, is beyond nerve-wracking. As an interviewee, Christina stated, “just the idea of taking loans was something horrifying.” Since many of our parents do not even have a high school diploma, it is evident that they would know little to nothing about how financial aid works. Therefore, it is up to us, their children, to figure it all out ourselves, figure out how we will be paying all of this tuition, whether it is by getting a job, relying on our parents, or applying for scholarships.

Lastly, the last question I asked was how they felt being the first in their family to attend college, what they want to achieve by pursuing higher education, and what motivates them to keep going. They all had similar responses to all the questions, being proud that they were the first in their families to attend a university, but also felt very stressed and nervous knowing they have a huge responsibility in their hands, that is to succeed since everyone in their family is looking up to them. It was shocking that they all had almost the same answers to the question regarding what they wanted to achieve by pursuing a higher education, which they all shared that they want to do this for their parents, so at the end of the day, they can let their parents rest and support them financially. This perspective is ubiquitous, especially within us as first-generation students because growing up seeing our parents suffer to do the most they can to give us everything, we feel lots of guilt leaving home and want to do nothing else for them but recompense them with everything they have done for us. To finish this off, I wanted to end with this last question which I specifically chose because I sort of felt that everyone was going to have a similar response, one that’s response was exactly what I had thought and is the same exact response I would’ve had, that question is what motivates you to keep going. All, without any second doubts or hesitation, shared that their family keeps them motivated to keep going forward. This is crucial because absolutely none of them thought of themselves first by simply saying that they are doing this for themselves, but instead, they are motivated. After all, their parents have always looked up to this point, a moment in which their child has to face no longer the struggles they once had to face.

To conclude, this was my analysis for the interviews I had with students from similar backgrounds as me, and I hope that whoever is reading this gets a bit of an insight into what our lives are like and what struggles we’ve gone through to be at the point we are today. It has not been an easy path for myself and thousands of other students, but we are constantly working towards achieving everything we ourselves, and our families, have ever dreamed of.