Celebrating National First-Gen Celebration Week en Español - Miguel Garcia, Ph.D.
Document Type
First-Generation Videos
Video Length
3 minutes, 8 seconds
Publication Date
11-13-2022
Abstract
We're celebrating first-gen students, faculty and staff during National First-Gen Celebration week! Learn more about National First-Generation College Celebration Week at https://president.georgiasouthern.edu Translation: Hi. I’m Miguel Garcia. I’m originally from Peru, and I was raised in New York. I am a first-generation college student, and I am a Spanish professor. For me, being a first-generation college student has to do with my family, with my parents. It’s like a gift I got thanks to all of their sacrifices. To arrive in another country, to be part of another culture, perhaps giving up their own dreams, so we could have educational opportunities. For me, it’s family. One obstacle of being a first-gen college student was the amount of uncertainty that I felt. Not knowing if what I was doing was correct, or if it was the only way to do something. What I realized was that it was all a learning experience, and I was honest about that, I learned that the uncertainty was all part of being a college student… not just a first-gen student, but any college student. One hard part of being a first-gen student was thinking multiple times about every little thing I was going to do. Should I go to my professors’ office hours and tell them about my struggles, or what was confusing me in their classes? This —constantly thinking “should I do it or should not do it?”— is one of the biggest challenges of being a first-gen college student. During those years, some important people for me were my professors and advisors. When they shared something with me —an interest or something we had in common, culturally or linguistically— I saw that as an open door for me to connect with them, and they then served as models that I could follow. One piece of advice I have for first-gen college students is to embrace this opportunity. When we’re the first to do something, we have the freedom to explore and try new things. And what’s interesting is that when we do that, others can identify with us, and in turn, we can help them.
Featuring
Miguel Garcia
Copyright
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Streaming Media
Recommended Citation
Georgia Southern University, "Celebrating National First-Gen Celebration Week en Español - Miguel Garcia, Ph.D." (2022). University Videos. 2795.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/videos/2795
