 How are folks doing today? Good. Good. I have heard great things about how engaged you all are as a community So I'm excited to be able to share space And to hopefully also engage you in a little bit of my narrative as well as engage with yours Thank you Doris for sharing the quick bio Before I get started, I do want to take a moment today to honor The land that we are on The Duwamish land and all the other communities in the surrounding area like the silage and the muckleshoot I think it's really important on today and every day to make sure that we recognize that we Are not all natives to this lands and we should pay tribute to those who are still with us and those who we have lost So I Am going to move us through hopefully an engaging experience. I Had the longer bio right which says a lot about my career and my educational degrees But I'm also a community member. I think first and foremost I'm a student always and I always feel like I'm learning so much from all the different roles that I'm in And because of that, I hope to learn from you all today So we're gonna actually begin with a little bit of a call and response So what I'm gonna do for you is I'm gonna show you a couple of buzzfeed charts And I'm gonna see if you can relate to what they are demonstrating to us And if you can relate to what the image is showing us I just want to hear a yes or a snapping or a nodding of the head to let me see who in the room Feels like this can be a relatable experience for them So Let's see there we go when you are searching for a job or a new opportunity You pretty much feel like people are qualified for a job and then there's you can I get a yes or a nodding of the head or a snapping Yes, yeah, okay What about this one? Your thoughts when someone says that you would be good for a job roller team Any any folks feel this way sometimes? No, I See some folks being unsure if they should say yes, but their heads are like slowly moving forward What about this one here Reasons why a good thing happened to you? Luck a mistake because something bad is about to happen Any relatable Experiences out there. Yeah So I'm gonna pause here real quick as a first-generation college graduate Chicana Somebody who comes from a low-income background working class This often came up for me in my educational journey Right. I got scholarships and I thought I was wanting them because they were like a prize, right? And instead of being like awarded them And I would often talk about scholarships in that way until one of my mentors was like you didn't really win the scholarship You were awarded the scholarship It's kind of this thing that they don't really tell you when you're going into education That's called hidden curriculum for those of us who are first-generation college students. We may experience this more often But I created this chart in collaboration with two students of color Who I work with who are also first-generation college students and we thought about what is a shared experience for us Which is that often times when we are awarded a scholarship or an award This is what we feel like so a very small part of us feels like we deserved it There's a larger piece that feels like it's because we're a first-generation college student And so that scholarship or award was made just for us. And so that's the only reason we got it, right? The other part of us feels like it's because we're a person of color and Then there's another big part of us is that because we're poor or we're working class or we come from low SES Right as somebody who works with programs now that actually offer scholarships and works with students The amount of times that I have heard this is amazing right tabling at the U of A for first caps Which is our first-gen services a student actually came up and said I'm so excited that you work with first-generation college students and I thought oh this is going to be an awesome conversation Next thing she said was I wish I was first-gen so I could rack up all the free scholarships Right and it made me think wow Oftentimes we think of merit like deserving and working hard and demonstrating a skill set has to be completely Separate from all of these other things. They can't possibly exist together Right so when I was talking with students, this is kind of what we came up with as a reality for us often Which is the pieces around who we are and the upbringing that we have being first-gen and not necessarily having Given or chosen family specifically given family who are related to us who went to college peeping people of color and then being low SES That we basically feel like we only get scholarships because we come from a diverse background, right? These things can't exist together the idea of deserving it at the same time and anybody relates to to this Experience and maybe applying it to other contexts, even if it wasn't just a scholarship Can anybody does anybody want to shake their head or say yes? questions maybe right so This is an interesting dynamic because it may not be true for all of us and Sometimes it's not true until we sit with it for a while and we try to make sense of what it means But ultimately in looking at some of those charts and diagrams what the students and I Really discovered is that oftentimes there's this narrative about particular communities that is so pervasive and embedded That we sometimes start believing that we didn't really deserve to be in spaces and then we get these messages Whether explicitly or implicitly that maybe we really didn't deserve to be somewhere, right? But for us and in a lot of the work that I do this is how I see it Right and if anything these should all be a kind of mix and together Which is that there it shouldn't be this distinction Between being somebody who comes from a diverse background being first-gen being a person of color being low SES and deserving something that those things can exist together and that despite the fact that oftentimes people may give messages that Well, you did deserve it But within the context of being first-gen and applying for that first-gen scholarship. It's like no I am first-gen. I have something to offer these institutions and I deserved that scholarship, right? That all of these things can be happening for us simultaneously So what is this idea of feeling like you may not belong or that you're not supposed to be somewhere Have you all heard of this? Right the idea of being an imposter So a fake and not supposed to be here a they the university let me in by mistake, right? Somehow I got here, but the teacher's gonna find out that I'm not really that smart I probably shouldn't be in this class or That maybe I get aid and once they find out that I don't do the best that these things are gonna take it away Because I really don't deserve to be in this space, right? And in many ways There's a lot of research that's looking at specifically imposter syndrome amongst these particular Communities at their intersection. So what does it mean to be for me a woman of color be first-generation college student? And now graduate and kind of make meaning of this So when I thought about imposter syndrome, I never actually learned of it as a concept I think I learned of it as a feeling as an undergraduate student I Am the daughter of working-class parents It was really hard for me to go to a place like UC Berkeley and feel like I belonged It didn't feel like I had a place there often and that feeling of Longing to belong somewhere and feeling merely misunderstood was really what a lot of folks will call imposter syndrome And so this didn't come to me just because I like study things like this But it actually came to me because I was feeling things like this And one of the things that I really wanted to make to emphasize in our conversation together is the fact that Imposter syndrome and other ways of feeling like we don't belong is not a coincidence, right? You all are at Highline and as Dr. Luna had mentioned It's a super diverse campus, right and the history of higher education institutions is not created for people like us Universities and colleges were not created necessarily with first-generation college students in mind And maybe we have a couple of those places who are doing the work to really transition the culture of how we teach and learn And a lot of that can be said about Highline here But historically colleges and universities haven't always thought about the belonging of Folks of color of folks from low-income backgrounds of first-generation college students, right? And so what I want for us to think about and I'm going to pose for us really quick is that we are a Group of people who are changing the face and the purpose of institutions by being here, right? We are thriving here in many ways We're demanding that we too have a place to learn skills and knowledge that helps us improve our communities and ourselves So we're really changing and transforming the possibility of what education can be and what it means And ultimately to me that means that we are scholars even if that's not something that we call ourselves all the time So I To help kind of understand a little bit about my idea of Belonging and maybe not filling that way throughout college I want to share with you a little bit about kind of some motivational factors that helped me get in to college and stay Motivated in college The reason I'm sharing these factors is because these are the same things that made me feel like an outsider or a fake particularly because college Did not value these sets of values within its community So for me home has been essential Any other folks in the room the idea of home who you turn to there who you engage with who else does that motivate to be here? I see some nodding raising hands. All right Yes, and what about family this can be given or chosen Yeah, so work ethic Right, my father is an amazing worker He does he is illiterate doesn't know how to read He does not have a high school diploma And he is the one of the hardest working people I've ever met in my life, right? He taught me so much about not giving up that I take that with me every single day into the classroom When I get to grade and engage with students to understand who they are what they're learning, right? What about work ethic? Is that something that motivates some folks here? They've seen it demonstrated. Yeah, okay So community centered education So for me as a first generation college student and for many of us Even if we don't identify as a first-gen student We don't necessarily go to college for just ourselves We go to college so that there's other opportunities We go to college so that we have different possibilities. Sometimes we go to college because of a Necessity to remove ourselves from maybe toxic places or spaces but to develop other kinds of communities around us, right? And then there's like culture For me culture was huge influential factor. I had the opportunity to take Chicanox studies in high school And that completely propelled my identity development forward meaning I actually cared about who I was where I came from, right? How many for you would you say that culture and community are something that mattered to you and being Highline and moving forward. Yeah Great and for me the other part of this is social justice, right? To me education is about liberation. It's about freedom. It's about the opportunity to Know how to create new forms of justice how to create new forms of knowledge how to build together How to learn from each other, right? How to break lots of rules how to create other systems that actually care about people What are some other values for you all that keep you motivated? So I want you to turn to the person next to you Maybe share one or two things or you can relate to one of these and just take a minute or two to talk about What has motivated you to be in this space and to learn here? Go ahead and take about another minute to wrap up and we'll see if folks want to share Any brave souls out there want to share out? So I just like to place myself in this environment because I feel like it's filled with intellectual minds And there's information that you can like obtain from any person in this room or out there or out there anywhere really So that's why I like to place myself in this environment. Yeah, we can snap to that Thank you I come here because of my family My mom the single mom She'd be taking care of me most of my life And I also come here to represent my culture and being Simone and Polynesian Well, I decided to go back to school because I am Mexican and most of the Mexican community don't really the majority don't have a background Education so I want to get the education so I could transmit the knowledge because Knowledge is power and that's what my people need My teachers growing up played a really big role in motivating me to go to college because they just had really high Expectations for me in general. My name is Willow and my my dad is white, but my mother is German is Indian and she's native Alaskan and I'm the only one educated or getting an education and I wanted to graduate before her death. She's 71 We'll take like one more. All right, so I come back here Because I honestly feel like it's the first time in my life when I stepped in Highline that I've ever had the Chance to have my dreams intersect with opportunity and become reality. I feel like that's like Level Audrey Lord quote right there drop the mic. Yes, and you're leaving when you say, right? No, it's okay. It's just like it was like a pivotal exit. You just drop something and then like left Thank you. Thank all of you for sharing I actually am gonna kind of build off of that that was just shared So my idea of going to college was was my dream, right? My dream became a dream when I saw my niece be born to my 18-year-old brother and his 17-year-old girlfriend, right? six months after high school graduation their high school graduation and she Seeing her and wanting to have at least the option of other possibilities for her as a Chicana woman growing up in the Central Valley in California, which is a place where I had pretty much two options, which was to get pregnant or Expectations was to get pregnant Before or after I graduated from high school like quickly after or to get married That was really like the limited idea of what I was told I was possible of becoming right in high school and with her birth Inspired me to think about a different kind of dream and then I heard people say words like college and I was like What is this thing that people go to that's called college and in many ways that? Internally put me on this path of becoming college bound because I care to and look into it And I also started surrounding myself by folks who would tell me what it was about with that being said as I continued to go into college and I'll talk a little bit more about this is I Got there and then I was like oh So I'm in my dream right now right because nobody in my extended family. I have 19 cousins Had gone to a university What am I supposed to do next because I am in my dream Which is to get a college education and now I'm about to graduate and I'm really tired Do I have to have like another dream is this enough what is going on here? Right and for me in that space of being really tired one of the things I didn't realize at the time of being an undergraduate student and moving through those spaces is that I was Navigating and negotiating so many cultural worlds so many different spaces that it was taxing and it was super exhausting a key kind of feminist scholar that I often turn to to make sense of my work and I wouldn't be able to share and engage in any way if I hadn't engaged specifically with her as gloria and Zaldua It's like the only academic reference that I have for our Reasonation and it should be her so I'm gonna leave this here for a second and then I will narrate it for us But I want to bring up this concept of borders particularly around boundaries We think about school and we think about identity So borders are set up to define the places that are safe and unsafe to distinguish us from them A border is a dividing line a narrow strip along a steep let edge a borderline is a vague and undetermined place Created by the emotional residue of an unnatural boundary It is in a constant state of transition. They're prohibited and forbidden are its inhabitants What does this have to do with college what does it have to do? With being a first-generation Chicana in college and navigating spaces Right well for me. I While I was in my undergraduate didn't really understand the access to which I was crossing cultural borders metaphoric borders Me not necessarily like geographic borders like I experienced daily in Tucson, Arizona Which is only a hundred miles away from Mexico and the border there But borders as in the idea of moving between home and then moving to college going to my family And then coming into college and having conversations, right? There was this Concentration between me to make sense of what it meant to be what my family calls me Vicky Back home and then to be Vicky in college, right? It was a very different person often times And I didn't know how to make sense of those things because neither of them seemed to be welcome in either space And I'm gonna say that again because I think sometimes we focus on the college experience without also talking about the home experience Which is that I didn't know how to be myself in either space Sometimes I would go home and talk about college with my family and Unfortunately, sometimes the conversations would lead to things like oh you think because you're in college that you know Everything now right or you think that you know this word So then you think you're smarter than us, right? And at that time I didn't know how to make sense of those things But then I was also going to college and I would look around Anybody bent to San Francisco or Bay Area? Yeah, it's kind of similar to what Seattle is Transitioning into but when I went to Berkeley everybody looked like they knew what they were doing and like their backpacks cost like Have the price of my mom's rent right like just for their backpack, right? Their laptop was a couple months rent or my family And I was constantly getting messages in that space too that I didn't belong the way that I talked the way that I walked The reference points that I had right when people talked about like I want you to close your eyes and envision a leader Envision somebody who's innovated and like the person that was back there. I thought of my single mother. I Was like my mom she raised us She raised us by herself. She had to be innovated. She had to be created She figured out how to keep a roof over our head She also figured out how to keep me safe and help me prioritize my education like that's who I think of Right. Well other people are like Bill Gates and all these other folks and I was like I actually didn't even know who Bill Gates was except for the fact that I got a scholarship from him That's the only reason I knew who he was, right? And so I often felt conflicted about these things and I want to talk I wanted to talk a little bit about that because sometimes when we're thinking about Belonging and where we feel comfortable I want to just acknowledge that sometimes the same spaces that and people or things that motivate us like these things Can also be the things that we internalize and feel stressed from or feel like we don't necessarily Connect to or are struggling to figure out how do I make my culture matter in this new space, right? How do I take my college education? Effectively into my home communities and into my culture as a tool, right for me that has been a lot of Translation I think of it as like a translation. It's a lot of work Right the things that I read in my textbooks the things that I heard in lecture. I can never say back home not because Folks couldn't understand it because they did understand it. They actually were living we talked about social systems structures oppression inequality in the classroom I was like do you need an example because I can tell you tons of examples about how this plays out Literally on Delville Avenue and Fresno, California, which is my grandmother Street, right? I could tell you tons of examples But if I took that language back home and often felt and made me feel very disconnected From community and so I just want to take some time to acknowledge that that may be a reality for some of us And it may be the ways in which we continue to cross these borders and boundaries But we're figuring out who we are constantly in multiple spaces and that is okay It not doesn't always feel okay But it's a part of many of our struggles to figure out who we are And I will say that in this space of tension what in what I often refer to as the borderlands And use a lot of Anzadua's work is it cultivated a sense of identity in me that I was in fact a Chicana Educator and a student right that my political identity my gender my Race ethnicity that they were all tied up into who I was as an educator and as a student And then I'm not gonna be somebody who's willing to separate those things, right? And I'm trying to be my authentic self and all the spaces that I move through And I want students who are also maybe thinking and struggling with some of these things To also feel like we belong and sometimes that means we carve out other spaces to belong to or we create Other opportunities of belonging for ourselves and each other Without forgetting right who we come from where we are from and the people that we care about most So I'm gonna pose these big questions to us because they have a lot to do with what I'm talking about I'm just gonna let them sit here. So where does knowledge come from and who gets to create knowledge? I'm posing these big questions because I think these questions are tied to the conversation around belonging Especially when you think about college. So come folks talked about the idea of college providing opportunities to intersect with dreams and possibilities, right? We learn here. We engage in knowledge formation Easier maybe question to ask is What is a scholar or maybe a more difficult question to ask is what is a scholar? What I want you to do on your index card is to actually write down the numbers one and two and what I want you to do We can give you another one is I want you to think about two people that you would consider a scholar So having not really defined that Who are scholars to you at least two options who are scholars that you know you can be personally Yeah Just jot them down or hold them in your mind take note. All right, let's take some Some Responses here. So who are some of the people that we have? Did everybody catch that I'll say it one more time. She said that I am and she is and we all are Scholars the other volunteers Professors and your brother. Okay. Thank you. She said her mother was a scholar. Yes Do you mind saying that one more time into the mic? It's a beautiful story my little sister. I consider her as a scholar because in her homeworks her teacher puts like Reference to her students as a scholar Yeah, and she's in kindergarten Thank you all so this question here I tried to figure out pretty succinct way of fate of creating a definition of what a scholar means to me That's informed heavily quite honestly by a woman of color Women of color feminist and a lot of other knowledge creators that I know as well But these are the kinds of things that I think of when I think of a scholar, right? So I want us to just quickly We're gonna I'm gonna read these and I want us to think about How the people that we've mentioned are definitely embodying a lot of what we have here Which is scholars are knowledge creators, right? They create ideas theories research narrative stories and so much more They take risks to learn more in order to become even better scholars and Scholars who take what they create seriously and they try to put it into practice are the special Kind of scholar right because they show us that what we study and learn can and should inform our actions Meaning that it shouldn't just be in a textbook, right? It shouldn't just be something that we carry here, but we should actually be doing something with it And that's not necessarily everybody's definition of scholar Maybe your kindergarten sister is figuring out how she practices that every day, right? She probably gets a little bit more fun homework than some of us get So she has a little bit more creative freedom to figure out who she is, but she is acting upon that She's building and she's learning and she's growing, right? The types of theories of the flesh meaning the lived experiences that my mother carries and teaches me every day They're not written in any book more so now right because Folks like myself are writing books, right? We are choosing to tell their stories in many way, but she has always been a scholar, right? Many of us are here today So as I said earlier, I would argue that all of us are scholars In fact, I said this earlier and I'll say one more time, right? We are changing the face and the purpose of education institutions by being here by thriving here and demanding that we too have a place to learn skills and knowledge that help us improve our communities and ourselves All of us are scholars, right? We are contributing to knowledge creation constantly and I don't really want for you all to doubt that as a possibility Even in those moments of tension when we're figuring out where we belong and where we matter So I know Thomas Bowie really well And so Thomas was like this would not be a workshop at Victoria if there wasn't some kind of other activity And he is definitely correct. So we're gonna actually do an activity now together And I'm gonna find some folks to help me pass these out So There is a worksheet it is a fairly familiar Worksheet it's called where I am from has anybody done an activity or a poem or something. That's listed that way. No Yeah, okay, so I have one sorry, thanks So it's actually been edited and updated to include Some reference to critical race theory particularly community cultural wealth, which is terry also as concept So it's shifted if you've done it before what I'm gonna ask so just hold on a quick sec That this is gonna be a silent activity. We're gonna take about eight to ten minutes to individually fill this out What I encourage you to do is to not overthink it, right? I am not a poet at all My idea of performance is teaching like that's my that's what I do. I do not Have a rhythm to how I speak like this is this is not my forte and Because of that, I encourage you to just immediately respond to the prompts to not hold yourself back And if you feel like you're slowing down at some place then skip to the next one, okay, and just keep filling it out This is for you to do on your own I will see if folks are willing to share and I also have examples of students who are willing to share Here today So knowing what we have talked about right knowing about the ideas of imposter syndrome But knowing about also the ideas that we too are scholars. We have lots to say and lots to offer I want you to take this opportunity to reflect and think about the skills and assets that you bring with you to these spaces So I'll play a little bit of music to kind of keep us on track and then we'll check in in a couple minutes okay, so Before I ask for folks share out on my cell with a cleaning agreements here one We are Going to make sure that folks do share that this is an affirming space We let them have their narrative and be able to share that in the ways that they wish So if everybody can agree to kind of snap or applaud when they're done to offer that yeah Is that cool with folks? Yes, okay The other part of this is that the way that we will read this is that I really want you to Not stop yourself and say oh wait. I didn't mean that or oh I meant to say it in this way right kind of edit out our voice I really just want you to kind of read through what you have and You have to promise to make sure no matter if you left some things blank that you still finish with the last line The last line is I am a knowledge creator and scholar so even if there's some other pieces that you didn't get to you're gonna end What's saying that okay, so before I take volunteers? I want each of you to read to yourself What you wrote take a moment to just listen to read to not judge Doesn't need to rhyme doesn't need to make sense or sound like a complete thought just needs to be so take a minute to do that So to help us. I'm actually gonna start with an Audio from a student and then we will take one to two volunteers from the room This is a current a really great student who just finished last May right? She's a college graduate first in her family also to go And she was more than happy to kind of say my name is Anna Gabrielle Hernandez Amodio and I am a knowledge creator and scholar I am from veladoras for la virgencita and sewing kits and cookie containers from the house on Calle quinze De Nero yellow tall familiar I am from pasteles Aztecas in a competition of who makes the best tamales amongst my Diaz PS it's my mother but don't tell the rest of my Diaz I am from two cities 60 miles apart a home And a dream and a wall and a longing for the canales that flow through my abuelita's backyard From mariachi's and cuidado con la llorona. I am from hedion Dia a plant my grandmother used to scare away Los novios from my onesa and boom boom by kumbia kings I am from echale ganas to fight but to not forget to love yourself I am from teaching others from accepting what I call my chingones and Nongoing internal battle to eradicate the feeling that I am not worthy when in actuality I make the ground tremble I am from families belong together because it's a 14-year-old I should not have become an expert on visiting loved ones inside detention centers from the understanding that self love has a Ripple effect that starts with us and heals generations. I am a knowledge creator and scholar Ana is the one student that I have the privilege of working with Had the privilege I still talk about as present but I squeeze so connect but are there any other Folks who would be willing to share their narrative. Let's give this person a round of applause some snacks Okay, so mine wasn't that long but So my name is Jason Guerrero and what I call home is Lengua, Nahuatl, Mexico But I also call home further away because I was raised in further away What I remember from Mexico is that It was a very small city was a community where people interacted a lot more than here Here are people just on their phones and stuff like that a food that I that represents my family's seafood because my dad Used to own a seafood restaurant in Mexico and it was actually pretty it was a business that went pretty good So that just reminds me home something I feel connected to is my phone because that's where all my knowledge and my friendships rely And I feel like I could call my family from Mexico or any of my friends to just like, you know socialize A song that really motivates me. It's called me against the world by Tupac It just feels like it's always been that way that I only got myself really to go against the world being like a first-gen student So just kind of motivates me to like keep on going one thing I learned was from my father his work ethic He's a really hard-working person. He it was a point in my life where he worked day and night So he had three jobs. So like he just showed and I worked with them So I just showed his ambition and his hunger to put food on our table. So Yeah One of the one of the challenges I overcame was learning English I felt like a sense of more belonging here once I learned English Because when I didn't know English, I felt like I don't know I was very small and and I was like I thought English was the only that I mean Spanish was the only language in the whole world And I didn't realize that it wasn't so I felt like I didn't belong here Something I still stand for or it's myself the people I love in my Latino community Because I feel like a lot of people don't have the skill or confidence to really speak up Matters that actually matter and I like to just go against the grain and really speak on what I believe from my heart One experience I learned that really helped me was it actually shaped my mentality in life because my neighbor's house got burned down and I learned that Mentality is everything like you need you can either like if your house burns down you have the option to think like You can just panic and not do anything or you can think about what you're gonna do tomorrow to like, you know get out of the situation I am a knowledge creator and scholar. All right. This will be We'll do two more My name is Willow rainforest I'm from I am a knowledge creator and scholar. I am from a car in the parking lot I am from Nespars, Apache, Alaskan and white mountains I'm from I'm from dear bear and Okay, the food that represents I am from dear bear and rabbit I Am from the valleys of Alaska when went mountains and mountains flowers my family's cooking of deer and My grandma making muckluck shoes. They're made of seals. They're seal slippers From Native American and peacemaker. I am from rushing river waters flowing and ever-changing From the heart and song of my mother. I am from surfing Paku Nana Cooley adrenaline and stinging salt water spray from the oceans of Wahoo, I like to swim I Am from art portraits From dyslexia, I am the girl who needed the mirrors who broke them all I have overcome I am from the voice of reason I stand up for people and animals I have a heart of peace and humanity and I'm a believer of freedom and an advocate for children Because I cannot stand hate and purposeful evil acts. I'm from the bridge. I studied and refused to give up I am knowledge creator and seller My name is modu. I am a knowledge creator and a scholar. I am from the Atlantic Ocean The blue waves of the beach the smiling coast of West Africa. I am from fast Not bank the Gambia I am from the Talapea face the Jalaf rise the land of Kuntekinte the Warriors and the freedom fighters I am from the school the hood and the youth center From wall of the land of bourbon Jalaf. I am from the giant mahogany tree the songs and lyrics about Marley one love I Am from tolerance of my other let negotiate compromise and stand up I am walking with trauma-informed youths on a client-centered approach From first I am the first to complete high school The feeling was happy grateful Accompanies and joy. I am From social justice and human rights Because it's both a moral and public health issue to me from the lessons of Growing up in a madrasa school to the role that women has played in that process I am a knowledge creator and a scholar. Thank you all I know that there's a right many of you are headed to your class and things And I really appreciate you sharing your narratives and I actually just want to end my time up here Taking an opportunity to not only affirm some of the narratives that we share today But also express some information to our educators in the room. So I'm gonna leave This on the screen again and hope that you all take a moment to believe this even if it is just for a second And to let me give you some words of advice or wisdom as my mentor would say Which is first to our students right be a scholar who uses your work to better your communities Make a commitment to doing that That's not always going to be an easy commitment, but I encourage you to think about how what you're learning what you're doing is serving Others but also serving you your passion your love and your interest and your way of change and your way of being So be an active student right as a first-generation college student. I created my own resources I created my own resume builders I created my own all these things one because I didn't know that those things existed on my campus and then when I found them I was like, thank you because I've been so tired trying to figure out how to do all these other things that Everybody else seems to have figured out right so be active ask questions Don't worry if your question sounds like you don't know it's okay Lots of people don't know and you asking that one question may help others also feel like they're getting an answer to something that matters to them But it's really important for you to stay actively engaged in your education and to the experience that you want To build community Right at the U of a part of what my charge is is to actually have our first generation college students Not just think about their experiences as being the first to go to college But also to think about all the other intersectional identities that they have and how that plays out when they move through the classroom And when they move through campus So it's really important for you to build a sense of community and a literal community with others as you navigate these spaces So for some of you you're here for class right and so maybe you're taking a step to think about how your culture Identity is closely tied to who you are as a student And I would say hold your culture identity close to you as you continue to defy odds The fact that there is the survey to better understand what you all need and want to engage in particularly around ethnic studies is super amazing Right, and it's really important for you to think of your identity and culture as a tool to really overcome and resist Some narratives that they already are out there about who we are and what we're capable of Last is the trust that your resiliency should not be taken for granted Let's say that one again. So trust that your resiliency should not be taken for granted I don't know how many times I moved through situations and instead of somebody helping pave the way They just told me well there's gonna be a bump and then there's gonna be a roadblock and then there's gonna be this But you're gonna be fine And I was like, but I am tired already Why can't it just be different right and I would say to you that do not let folks take resiliency as this test to keep Checking if you can keep being it if you could keep doing it if you could keep practicing it The reality is is when you come from communities and I can only speak to mine low-income working class folks of color High concentrations of poverty the idea of resilience is literally surviving College campuses should not be testing this of us at a constant And it should not be taken for granted that we do in fact have that skill And then these are the things I want to say to our educators So if I'm gonna pose this to our students Then I'm gonna pose these to our educators So if you see students use the tools of advocacy self-authorship leadership etc support them Don't stifle their energy Don't stop the same tools that we want them to use you should be proud and probably feel challenged Because it hurts sometimes when they direct that self-authorship at you because you have not done your best at serving them Okay, you need to listen to our students We also need a clear pass right do not simply explain why bumps in the road exist But it's not our role as educators We're here to create other paths to create other journeys to create clear ways for our students to maneuver these institutions And then honor their resilience, right? Don't throw another trick in front of them and say perform figure it out Give the information support them guide them We are not here to test that our students are actually in fact resilient We live that every day and we should trust that every day The last thing I want to say is that I really want and hope for you all to Take this as an opportunity to never really doubt your ability to be a scholar to be an advocate for knowledge Formation that has been forgotten that has been yet to be created never a doubt that you are worth taking a risk for Never a doubt that we as educators and scholar comrades should support you in your journey because that is who we are and what we commit to Never a doubt that your questions your story your cultures deserve a place here in college You are the scholars many of us have been waiting for and we need you to embrace your own power to stand in that power To know that the abilities cultures histories and families that you bring to the table are exactly what we have been waiting for to transform these places Thank you for spending some time with me today and This is the hashtag that I often use which is mi hasu college Fact of first generation college graduates latina chicanas are some of the highest rates of that sub community and so Feel free to use this to tie to the top today And i'm totally happy and excited to answer questions. Thank you for your time