Promising Futures celebrates first-generation students

The National First Generation College Student Day was held for the first time on Nov. 8. Photo courtesy of Clarissa Cordova

Clarissa Cordova, a first-generation student at Chapman, said her mother didn’t set foot on campus until her sophomore year because the university intimidated her. When Promising Futures, a program at Chapman especially created to offer resources to first generation students, held a first generation family social, her mom finally got to experience the campus in a welcoming, low-pressure way, she said.

Nov. 8 was National First-Generation College Student Day, the first time this day has been celebrated at Chapman, and Promising Futures sponsored events during the week ranging from a student resource fair to a pizza party.

“(Nov. 8) is like my holiday,” Cordova said. “First-generation is such an identity of mine … I love to tell people because I’m so proud of it. I feel like everybody comes together, all your family, to celebrate with you.”

Crystal De La Riva was a first-generation college student. She graduated from Chapman in 2009 with a degree in psychology, and is now an academic advisor and head coordinator of Promising Futures.

“My family didn’t necessarily feel comfortable here. A lot of the times, if the parents didn’t go to college themselves, they have that understandable trepidation,” De La Riva said. “I want to make them feel comfortable to reach out to me, and to the university.”

De La Riva said that many Chapman employees are first generation students themselves, including Jerry Price, dean of students. None of his parents or siblings went to college, Price said in an email to The Panther, and he is the youngest out of four children.

Ashley Lee, a sophomore anthropology and public relations and advertising double major who is also a first-generation college student, had a lot of questions during her first year at Chapman that she couldn’t ask her parents, she said. Her mother and father are immigrants from Vietnam and Hong Kong and they both started working as soon as they arrived to the U.S. Though  they both value higher education, they weren’t able to pursue it themselves, Lee said.

“In the beginning, I felt alone because I didn’t understand what I was feeling,” Lee said. “ I just felt like college wasn’t for me … until I started talking to more people gradually and realizing some of my problem correlated with being first-gen.”

Inspired by Promising Futures and De La Riva’s leadership, Cordova said she wants to pursue a career working with first-generation students. Though Cordova loves the program, she feels that De La Riva should be a full-time faculty member to keep up with the fast growing first generation student population.

“I wish we got more support from the university. We should have been celebrating National First-Generation College Student Day every year,” Lee said. “It’s very important, and I’m grateful that we’re establishing it now.”