While reviewing The Power of Realistic Expectations last class, I decided to make my stance as part of the group of students the article talks about: first generation, low income and minority students. I am not technically a first generation student because my parents did attend college, but in my home country, Cuba. My dad went to university and received a bachelor’s degree whereas my mom went to what could be called Community College according to U.S. standards. Given that in order to be considered a first generation student in the United States my parents would have to have earned a bachelor’s degree within U.S. territory, I am a first generation college student in this country. I am also categorized as a low income student because my single parenthood household income falls below the state average of a family of three. A minority student is another characteristic that distinguishes me from others because I am Hispanic. My first post contains more information about my background for further details.
Transitioning from high school to college or university is not easy for all students, but it is in fact harder for first generation, low-income and minority students than for other groups as stated by Ian Chipman in his article. Coming into college as a member of these underrepresented groups has made me become one of the many students in these groups who face feelings of belonging socially and intellectually in the college setting. The fact that Geneseo is a prominently white college does not make things easier. I currently live in the 4th floor of Seneca Hall and there is not much diversity. Out of the 18 students currently residing in my floor, 16 are white, leaving me and my African American RA as the diversity. I have also noticed that this is the case in the majority of my classes. I believe that Geneseo could do better in integrating more diverse students to the school because Geneseo is a great school for everyone, despite their racial background. What I am trying to say is that many minority students might feel unwelcome or out of place if they do not see other faces with similar characteristics to theirs. I confess to feeling this way last semester because I was not accustomed to seeing so many people different to me since I was coming from a high school with 96 percent minority students.
Although I always tell myself to go and hang out with people from different backgrounds like my floor mates, I tend to be shy and let my feelings of insecurity overcome me. That is why I always fall back to my friends who are none other than Hispanics for the most part, with whom I feel more comfortable. The language barrier is another factor that stops me and many other underrepresented individuals as well from breaking the insecurity barrier that is keeping us away from letting ourselves effectively interact with other groups of people. I still do not feel confident enough with my English level to act the same way I would with a Spanish speaking individual. I am aware that sometimes I have to get out of my comfort zone and most of the times that I do it is because it involves class or something that requires me to actively communicate. It is not common for me to form a conversation with a stranger or someone that I have not had a normal conversation with before. This happens to me in both languages because I am a relatively shy and quiet person, but I do admit that it happens a lot more often in English than in Spanish.
I have also been struggling academically, not to the point where I am on academic probation like the students Rob Urstein was experimenting with, but to the point where my 13 year old self who would cry if she did not receive 100 in everything would not be proud of. Well, today I would tell the me of 6 years ago that back then I did not know all the struggles that I would be going through later on and that life is not easy. At that age I would not even have dreamed of being in the United States, so I should be proud of myself for just being here. I also had no idea of what college was eventually going to be like because my parents did not attend college in this country, therefore college as well as high school in the U.S. was, is a completely new experience to me. But no matter how hard it is I plan on making it worth it.
My transition into college has not been the best as the one of the students in the experiment. However, that does not mean that every first generation, low-income and minority student goes through the same struggles I or the nearly 10,000 incoming freshmen of Stanford University that participated in the experiment have been or went through because regardless of having similar backgrounds, we are all different.