Ed Ray - Impact of 1st Generation Students
From Natalia Fernandez
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Well I think it's like any degree of diversity, you know, what does anybody bring to the bargain? I think all of us are unique individuals. You're as different from me as we are from each other, as you two are from each other; so the more perspectives in life that are presented at the university, the better off everybody is, everybody wins. I mean having first generation students here, they come from incredible backgrounds. I remember talking to a group of CAMP students, and these are the students that are children of migrant workers, it's a tremendously successful program. And I remember hearing this one young lady who's talking about she's majoring in genetics and molecular sciences and she's pre-med and she wants to go to medical school. So we start talking about, “well where did you come from, what's your background?” Well it turns out that she grew up as a child of migrant workers, moving all over the south west following the harvest of the crops. And she told this very compelling story about how she remembers one of her first memories as a little girl was that they were picking, you know, fruit from an orchard and she just remembers that her hands were so cold they were numb and the sun was beating down on her and her back was hot. So, she was hot and cold at the same time. Well, just think about knowing someone like that; she was a first generation student but I think a lot of other students could have benefitted, and probably did, from having a chance to get to know her and talk to her, and appreciate the kind of experiences she had, that they never would have imagined for themselves, you know, it made them, it helped them get a broader perspective on what reality is like for people who are not like them. And the same for first generation students to the extent you meet people who are third generation college students, you get, by getting to know them, you get insight into what their world is like, something you never did or ever will experience. Well everybody's worldview is enriched by having that opportunity to meet people who come from very very different experiences, and I think a lot of the variety in terms of life experiences that people can benefit from. I mean I'm sure it's richer and deeper among first generation students than it is for students who've come from the middle class or upper class; they've already arrived at a certain level of reality that most people don't have access to. So, the richer array of backgrounds and experiences to share with others I think probably disproportionately comes from first generation students so they really enrich the lives of others they get to know to a very substantial degree.
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