First-generation students LEAD

By Katie Powers

Growing up in poverty, Zeebah Aleshi remembers nights where gunshots woke her up. School was her own little heaven, she said.

Growing up in the San Jose area, she dreamed of coming to Santa Clara, but because of her parents' financial hesitations, she applied without telling them.

Aleshi, a sophomore and a mentor for the Leadership, Excellence and Academic Development (LEAD) Scholars Program for first-generation college students, is just one example of someone who overcame more obstacles than most students in order to come to Santa Clara.

At Santa Clara, 15 percent, or 187 students from this year's freshman class, are first generation, according to Provost Lucia Gilbert. Out of the 10,129 applicants for the class of 2013, 1,809 have identified themselves as first generation, said Sandra Hayes, dean of undergraduate admission.

First generation wasn't always recorded at admissions, said Hayes, who noted that the number of first-generation applicants is self-reported and may change as they review the applications.

"Just in our day-to-day work and our interactions with students, it was apparent that we were talking to a number of first-generation families," she said.

Knowing that their experience might be different, she said it was valuable to be able to discern if a student needed extra support though programs like LEAD.

With the number of first-generation students attending college increasing in California, according to Diverse Issues in Higher Education, programs like LEAD are intended to guide these students with less resources and social capital than continuing-generation students.

More so than for continuing-generation students, these students can be affected by a unique kind of culture shock, said Cheryl Brown, LEAD program coordinator.

Part of the program's mission is to help students deal with that issue.

"Any time you enter a space where there are fewer people that you can connect with, based on where you come from, based on your culture, your language, your race, your religion, it just adds to the level of adjustment that is required of that person," Brown said.

Compared to the national average, Santa Clara has a very high retention rate of first-generation students, said Laura Nichols, chair of the sociology department, who studied first-generation students at Santa Clara in 2001.

"I think cultural shock is hard," she said. "It doesn't mean that people drop out because of it, but I think it can be really isolating for students to experience that."

The 60 freshmen students in LEAD meet in weekly seminars to discuss issues they might be dealing with. But much of the program is focused on collegiate success, as it also provides students with resources like academic advising and planning.

Some first-generation students at Santa Clara see their experience as no different than any other student. For others, however, it marks something very special.

"I went through school thinking I would go to college, but I moved here and learned that not everyone gets that chance," LEAD Mentor Ana Romero said.

"Now that I'm here, I feel like I was the one Latina in all my AP classes and all my honors classes, and I never took notice. Even when I graduated, I was the one person from my school to come here. I didn't realize it was a big deal until I got here," she said.

Many issues that set first-generation students apart from other students is not based solely on them being the first person in their family to attend college, but on bigger issues that may affect any student in a minority.

Often linked with being a first generation-student is the likelihood of being a minority and of a lower income level than continuing-generation students, said Nichols.

"It's hard to talk about first generation without talking about race and class. Those things tend to intermingle," she said.

Brown said among the 60 freshmen students in LEAD this year, there is a diverse range of minorities, including Latinos, Asians and African Americans.

Depending on how diverse one's high school was, studying at Santa Clara, which is about 50 percent white, can be a major adjustment, said Brown.

Some, like Sandy Phan and Joel Gaspar, who are both from the Bay Area, say it was not a problem because they were used to being one of the few minority students at their high schools.

But for others, like Yaya Morales, the lack of diversity required more of a transition. Morales, who was born in Ayutla Jalisco, Mexico, went to high school at Mount Eden High School in Hayward, Calif.

Students spoke more than 50 languages there, she said. Morales had culture shock when she first came to Santa Clara.

"At first, being here was a bit overwhelming. Sitting in a class where you are the only person of color is kind of intimidating at times," said Morales, a LEAD mentor. "You don't know whether they're to see you as a voice of your culture, like they're going to generalize everything you say."

Morales comes from a community where she was the only person she knew to go to college. Getting here was hard, she said. With parents who can barely read and write, she relied on programs in her high school to guide her through the application process.

"I didn't even know what SATs were," she said.

For most first-generation students, the college application process is challenging.

"It's just hard because you have no one to ask for advice," said Gasper. "My mom really had no idea. She bought as many books as she could find about the application process."

Once in college, programs like LEAD help provide support for students.

"They have someone else, with experience, telling them they can do it," said Nichols. When continuing-generation students are having trouble in a class, they can call their parents since they have that experience.

"You know some students would talk about how they heard their roommate talk to their parent and they'd say, 'Uncle John did bad on his first chemistry test, and look where he ended up and look where he is, he's an orthopedic surgeon!' First-generation students don't have that same system of support," Nichols said.

At a high-priced school like Santa Clara, where tuition is $34,950 this year, a lot of students also experience economic culture shock, said Brown.

"Sometimes more than race, class becomes an issue, and this isn't unique to these students," she said. Hayes noted that sticker shock from the tuition may even deter first-generation students from applying to Santa Clara in the first place.

Aleshi at first found it difficult to be around students with more luxuries than her.

"I'd see people walk around in their Coach purses and Coach shoes, and I'm like, 'How can you walk around in Coach shoes! It gets muddy!'" she said.

Knowing that she had worked so hard to get to Santa Clara and seeing students who already had all the items she was working for, Aleshi was discouraged.

These subtle things, like what kind of purse you carry or the kind of jeans you wear, "communicates something in terms of a campus norm," said Brown. "It adds to why I'm different and not fitting in with that."

In addition to a certain economic cultural norm Santa Clara breeds, the university maintains very upper-middle class values as an institution, such as individualism, said Nichols. She said professors here expect students to put their exams and grades first, while for some students, being with family may be more important at times.

While family is an important cultural value, sometimes students need to be here on the weekend for a project.

This can cause tension between parents who have not experienced the same demands of college, said Nichols.

Romero's parents expect her to come home every weekend, she said. Though she happily spends her Saturdays with her mother or Sundays helping her father keep the books for his contracting business, it's hard for her parents to understand the independence of college life.

"If my parents had gone to school, I'm sure they would understand how difficult it is, and that not everything comes easily. Even if you study hard, it might not happen," said Romero.

Students in LEAD say joining the program was the best decision they've made so far at Santa Clara.

Even though Aleshi may have endured more than a typical student at Santa Clara, she said her struggles make her who she is today.

"Yeah, someone else may have Coach shoes, but they don't know what it's like to hear a gunshot," she said. "Hearing that gunshot made me as strong as I am today. And the strength I have now is something no one else can experience. And to me, that's more valuable than some Coach shoes."

Contact Katie Powers at (408) 554-4546 or krpowers@scu.edu.