LBCC students received encouraging advice of perseverance and community from successful first-generation college students like Student Learning Outcomes Coordinator and Subcommittee chair Trisha Wilging, Long Beach Community College district’s Associate Vice President at TTC Dr. Alisia Kirkwood, and others at the I-AM-FIRST-KICK-OFF Celebration on Nov. 5.
Kirkwood shared her story on being a first-generation student.
“Born and raised in Riverside, California, I, too, am a first-generation college student on both sides of my family. My mom’s side and my dad’s side, neither of them went to college, no degrees, but the one thing I always had about me was the audacity and courage and here I am now many years later speaking to other first-gen students here in Long Beach city,” Kirkwood said.
Wilging explained the hump she had to get over to where she’s at now in her journey.
“When I was in college, I was pursuing the (physical therapy) route but then I got pretty sick. I was taking a lot of units that was a lot of working hours and I got pretty sick and it made me stop and consider what direction I wanted to go and when I got sick I wasn’t enjoying school that much, I wasn’t enjoying the puzzle, I wasn’t enjoying the grind the learning, and all the things that had made it so worthwhile. Through getting better and through encouragement of folks on campus and folks at home, I just kept going. It speaks to the community and the people around me that strength made it continue,” Wilging said.
Community Advocate for SJIC, Emily Ramon, shared her story of coming from immigrant parents.
“I grew up in Anaheim, California … I am a daughter to parents who immigrated from Mexico, so my parents were undocumented for a lot of my life coming up but that was a lot of what my story started off as being a daughter of immigrants and navigating the world as we speak Spanish and English. Growing up in education was always something I was interested in so I decided to attend community college in sociology and I got my associates, then transferred to UCI where I got my bachelor’s in sociology,” Ramon said.
LBCC’s College student adviser, Andrew Hernandez, shared advice he would give to the students here at LBCC.
“Definitely take advantage of all the programs and resources at school because there may be help you don’t even know you need that you can get,” Hernandez said.
LBCC student Precious Scoot shared how the I-AM-FIRST-KICK-OFF Celebration has helped her.
“It’s very educational and informational to people who are barely coming into school or barely enrolling into school. There’s different programs like EOPs, there’s also a program for foster youth kids who have been in foster care or are in foster care right now. There’s Calworks, there’s free food assistance, there’s counseling. Just a lot of different programs here that the school offers, so it’s really helpful,” Scoot said.
