Transcript:

Rodrigo: My name is Rodrigo Hernandez. I'm majoring in journalism in general. And I'm minoring in photography and video 21 years old.

Ariel: Oh, very nice. As a first generation college student, what made you decide to go to college? 

Rodrigo: I definitely had a lot of support from my family just because a lot of my family members didn't go to college. My mom didn't go to college, my dad went to like a technical institute in Mexico, but he spent most of his like college years actually in a monastery but uh yeah, it's just the idea of going to get your education is a big thing. Going to get a degree, getting a nice job, so you don't have to do hard manual labor every single day for the rest of your life. 

Ariel: And then why didn't your parents go to college? Was that like my choice? Is it just like how life worked out? 

Rodrigo: I feel like for my mom it was definitely by choice because she comes from the smallest state in Mexico like rancho, farmland kind of area. My grandfather was illiterate, and I didn't know that until towards the end of his life. So I didn't know that most of my uncles had a second grade education, fourth grade education at the most so I think for my mom was like really a lot by choice especially because she moved to when she was 15. So she just, like, went to high school took a couple club courses at City College but didn't really get anything done through there, just was able to go into the nursing field through that. 

Ariel: So it was very monumental for you to be a first generation college student.

Rodrigo: For sure. Yeah, like for my dad, he came from a bigger city so he was able to have more access to it, but I suppose for him it just like worked out. He took like nursing courses here, and like got his license to be a nurse through that. So it wasn't like college. That was like another, like nursing program, kind of like, eight week kind of thing. 

Ariel: What are some obstacles you faced as a first generation student? 

Rodrigo: I feel like the biggest obstacles you face are ones that are more mental, and they're more like, obviously there's, there's obstacles. I don't know a lot of people in my family that I could like turn to for advice on the application process or scholarships or things like that. But I feel like another thing that doesn't get talked about enough to, is like there's that family support, but then there's also like it's a double edged sword – there's a lot of pressure. They expect you to do a lot, to get a lot done. Especially like if you're seen as like a gifted child. They're like, Oh, you're gonna be like so smart and all this and you're gonna help us out with all this. 

Ariel: You're like the golden ticket. 

Rodrigo: Yeah, so it kind of puts a lot of weight on you and then your here and your courses and, you miss something or not everything goes the right way and you feel like you're kind of failing everybody. So, yeah. So I feel like that's the biggest obstacles are one of the mental ones. 

Ariel: But overall, I'm guessing your family is extremely proud of that. 

Rodrigo: Yeah, for sure. No, no, no, they're great. I love them. It's really heartwarming and fulfilling for me to go back and like drive back there. And the cousins were like, Oh, my God, like, you know, we're so proud of you. Because a lot of my cousins also just decided to go to the workforce. So even though they had the opportunity to go to college, they decided not to so that they see like someone like me or two or three other of my cousins, they're in college right now, and yeah, they kind of just admire that, bit more. They're cheering us on for sure.

Ariel Gil