My First-Gen Experience

By: Vivian Rodriguez

All throughout my K-12 school years, there were few classmates that were not the first ones in their immediate and extended families attending school—meaning first generation students. With each grade passing by, the number of first-gen students would increase. Despite this, by the time it was senior year, there were only a handful of students that were thinking about college and were eager to apply, in fact I might be able to count them on both hands. I had no support from counselors, principles, teachers, and family. When I committed to UC Berkeley, and finally made it to campus, I was stunned by the students who were sitting around me, hearing conversations involving money with comments I’d only ever heard in movies.

I was born in Berkeley, and grew up less than 20 minutes away from the university meaning I had grown up going to the school for field trips and frequently seeing all of the highs and lows of the city, especially inequity. 

I had been working since I was 17 out of necessity, but the way I heard folks having jobs because they were bored and “just for fun” was a huge shock. Not just this, but I would overhear conversations of students calling their parents asking for hundreds and sometimes thousands on end. The experience that sticks with me the most is the amount of people I’d met that had professors as parents—my peers would easily call their parents for help when they had questions on their upper division courses. 

On top of folks growing up with immense wealth and high achieving CEO and white collar parents, there was the culture shock I witnessed folks having when coming to Berkeley. With Berkeley having a housing crisis not just for its students, but also local inhabitants, this is something many were not used to. To ignoring folks on the sidewalk, to grossed out faces, to making rude comments and laughing. 

All of these factors combined made for a very isolating time in college. I felt unprepared and alone with no ability to tell my parents what was going on. My classes were especially difficult coming from an under-resourced high school. I know for a fact I wasn’t the only one who felt this way and I encountered many similar experiences. First-gen students in higher education deserve the better!