 I just want to warn you, there are like two, maybe three typos. I have my youngest sister type. I blame it all on her. Should I have proofread? Yes, did I? The story of my life. So my name is Pony White. The presentation I'm going to share with you guys today is called Knowledge of Power, the American Dream Bias. So just backtracking before I get into the agenda. So like, when I was asked to give this presentation, which was like over a month ago, maybe two months ago, I was like, okay, cool, like that's cool. I've never done a workshop before. I'm like, I'm super excited and geeked. But then I was like, I had absolutely no idea. I really went to like focus it on because we're talking about like bias. I'm like, okay, that's on my alley. Like, oh, bias, like, I experienced that. Like, let's go. But then I realized like, yeah, but like, which bias do I want to talk about? You know, like, there's so much here to choose from. So about a week ago, yeah, like, I knew about this a month ago. I got started a week ago, the college struggle. About a week ago, I finally hit me that I wanted to talk about, you know, the bias around like immigrants in academia, being an immigrant in that that was in academia. So the agenda which is kind of backwards my intro my agenda or whatever. My agenda is the intro to your moderator, the American dream exploring biases and inequities. Where do we go from here, moderate a question and then discussion. So that's me in the same shirt. I like it. This is Pony white my pronouns are she her. I'm a West African immigrant, my family and I'll get into that a little later. But yeah. So my topic is the American dream. I'm just kind of like dissecting like what does that mean right so like, when I was thinking about bias I was thinking like, oftentimes like a big bias is like this whole concept of the American dream, especially for like immigrants like myself. It's like, oh, like, you know, you have all these different accomplishments and you don't all these things like you're taking American dream, but like what does that truly mean and like what are the barriers that are up, you know, when we are talking about this. So, diving into that I wanted to first talk about my accomplishments, you know, like the first, you know, immigrant that we don't talk about me. So like I said before, I'm a first generation college student so first generation pretty much means I am the first in my generation to graduate from college. Thank you for that clap. I appreciate that. So pretty much my parents did not graduate college my mom's in the graduate high school. And so I was kind of first to do it. I earned a bachelor's in multimedia journalism and political science from Minnesota State University Moorhead. I'm an organizer. I started my work in advocacy around repo justice gender justice, early education justice and with a racial justice framework. And now I'm currently in early education policy consulting. So the numbers, another positive over 28% of college students in the US are immigrants, you know, in that percentile. Black women are one of the most educated democrats. Black women are one of the most educated demographics in America. I love that I also fit into that demographic as well. And so my big question my million dollar question that we'll come back to towards the end is with those things that I just shared being first gen being graduated being a professional. Are we our ancestors while the streams, because like we hear that a lot right we hear like oh my goodness I'm my ancestors while the stream like I just got this dream job I'm answers as well as stream I graduated college on my ancestors well the streams are we are ancestors well the streams. So I'll come back to that. So, how did I get here navigating imperialism systemic violence for racism and white supremacy before adulthood. So basically I just talked about all of the wonders all of you know the pros and things that you kind of hear about immigrants right sometimes especially in like higher education. Like, it's oh like, we have these statistics of you know, we have high college graduate rates. So we even when I was in college I used to look at the international students also you rich rich huh, because they know why America's expensive they know why my boy. So like, we have all these different, you know, thoughts about you know the immigrant experience and we rooted all around their success rooted all around like oh look at you go like you've done all these wonderful things. And we don't talk enough about the barriers. And oftentimes when we do that we also have this pull yourself up by the bootstrap mentality. So if you know yourself who was able to graduate high school and college, and it's in a career. They sometimes turn around and say well I could do it with all of the barriers that I had. Well you should be able to do it to. And we don't talk about the inequities, and we don't talk about you know the various barriers that we don't even have you know we don't talk about our privileges. So I kind of wanted to pull it back I wanted to start off by talking about my successes by myself on the back, but let's let's roll it back. How did I get here. So like I shared, I'm a West African immigrant. I am from Liberia, so I very is pretty small. We're right here. So this is where I'm from. I was born in Ghana so I was born in a craft so just like take a little scale over there. But my family for the most part is Liberia. So my family, my family, my mom, specifically, it was a refugee. So throughout her entire duration, Liberia of her life, Liberia was in the Civil War. So Liberia has been in about like a 13 year civil war. So my mom had me when she was about like 16. So my mom's like 39 right now. So not that old so that's a big chunk of her life, you know growing up in Liberia. My mom has about full five bullet wounds to show for experiencing war. Her family was displaced many times, experienced harsh poverty. Because of that my mom was not able to access an education, she has about a ninth grade level education. And then about a year after me being born, we came to the US so a 17 year old, very young, new to a country doesn't fully understand the system doesn't fully grasp the language either. And has to survive and has to ensure that her child survives. So that's a little bit of my background. And so I'm the oldest of three, and talking about that too. If you know anything about ethnic families and specifically West Africans, you know that to be the oldest daughter is to pretty much not exist as your own person, you are a character in everyone else's lives, especially your parents. And so there's a lot under your shoulders, you have to be great, you have to be successful, you have to, you know, be like a second mom, you have to be a therapist, you have to be all of these different things. Sometimes you don't get full acknowledgement, that's just what it is. And also, my family is working class, kind of like I shared before, just like with you know my mom's situation, my family is working class. Oh, one thing I forgot that, let me backtrack because I love talking about this one. I grew up predominantly in rural Minnesota. I love to say that I am kind of a naturalized Minnesotans that came to Minnesota when I was about five years old. So my mom met like my dad, my stepdad who lives, who was living in Minnesota at the time. And so we moved to Minnesota when I was about five years old and at the time I lived in the Twin Cities like the metro area. And so I was around people who looked like me and who sounded like me, a culture that I understood. And at one point, especially during that period, Minnesota was like one of, you know, had one of the biggest populations of Liberians in the country, we rival with Philadelphia and Atlanta. So it was, it was home. I saw people that are like me. And then over time, I was like, yeah, we're just going to take you out of your safe little environment. And they moved me to rural Minnesota. I grew up in East Grand Forks, Minnesota. Do you guys know what it is? I was like, I love to rip my set. I really do. I, I drag them a lot, but I love to rip my set. But yeah, I grew up in East Grand Forks, Minnesota. And that's a little bit of my background as an immigrant. So exploring biases and inequities. Immigrants are not a monolith, right? So back to like what I was saying in the beginning, oftentimes like a huge bias that we have is that immigrants in higher ed are monolithic. So like all immigrants, even the ones who experienced similar like, you know, systemic inequities have the same experiences, meaning like, Oh, if we're talking higher ed and you see like, you know, certain populations are succeeding and you know, graduating and going through this idea that like all immigrants are, you know, successful or like they're good at this like if they're in this higher ed space. And that puts the burden of not fully understanding like what the inequities are and how we're navigating this. So with this immigrants are not a monolith. It actually recently came to me when I was talking to my boyfriend's dad. So my boyfriend is Nigerian. Anybody that knows, anybody that knows West Africans know we've ever got these with each other, but it's all love. But my boyfriend's Nigerian. And I jokingly I'm like, I'm like, you're like a middle of a class like West African like you know your family comes and we like joking about it sometimes but um his dad was like talking to me and his dad said, you know, I think you should apply for like one of the ideas like you should throw ahead and try to apply for like Harvard you should apply for this. And I was like, I don't know, you know, whatever, like, you know, listen to it to get it appreciated that. But then I sat and I thought and I was like, never in my life, did my parents ever say you should apply to Harvard. They never said that to me. And it's not that they didn't think I'm brilliant. And it's not that my parents don't want me to do all the wonderful things in this world, my parents, especially my mom is like my biggest cheerleader. But my parents didn't have the same access to that knowledge and understanding that his parents did. Like, my parents can acknowledge that like we want our child to be successful. But as far as we're talking about a Western system that we've never had access to we've never navigated. What does that success look like? What does that mean? I couldn't tell you step by step by step, like, what exactly I think my daughter should do or go. I just know like I want my daughter to be successful. And so we're not having those conversations, whereas like we're talking about another, you know, another country that has like currently right now Nigeria is one of the richest countries in Africa. Liberia is one of the poorest countries in the entire world. We're not like when I was looking up my stats for this like Nigerian Liberia stats we're not even in the same page, because they're like top 10 richest countries. So we're like, you know, like, no, you're not on this page, we don't even we're not centering them like please get off our website. So I had to like trap down this information on separate pages because we're talking about separate experiences. And for me it was really interesting because I think we know this a lot and we talk about this a lot in like policy or just in academia and analyzing things. We centered around like our Asian American Pacific Island population, we centered around them we say, Oh, we know like some of our Asian immigrants come from you know countries and families that are more wealthy and have a better economic mobility. And then some don't so therefore like we were talking about like how we need to serve them who we need to help, we can't just lump them all into one group, because we're talking about different issues. And I never realized that for like myself being like African or West African, because I always think like oh we're like we're one people like we have similar cultures like we love the same things like it never dawned on me until that conversation with like my boyfriend's dad who you know is literally a dean of a college like his mom is a psychiatrist like his his parents you know they went to college they did all of that like they put all their kids through college it was the thing that was a part of you know their household it was a part of their lives there was an understanding of it. My family, my mom didn't even have access to you know, like formal like high school formal education, so she couldn't she wasn't able to have that type of conversation. So that's kind of like about when we talk about immigrants are not a model in a bias in it of itself is the belief that immigrants and higher ed are monolithic, not even immigrants who are all POC are exposed to racism. Have the same experiences of inequities. So, thanks to consider recently arrived immigrants hold an even higher completion rate of a bachelor's degree or higher at nearly 50%. This data suggests that immigrant students are more successful when they come to the US for a higher education like a bachelor's degree or higher in college, and less successful when they begin their education in the US in grade school or high school. This, this can be attributed to having more access to resources on campus and being able to adapt to us schools more easily at an older age. So again, talking about how we're not monolithic. This is a perfect example of your first gen and your international students, which sometimes we can play our stats completed when they talk about the successive immigrants in higher ed. They're mixing in our international students. They're mixing in our students who had, you know, the economic ability to come to the USS study who, you know, have the family support to be in these kind of spaces. And that's not always the same when it comes to our immigrant populations that were born and raised here like me. A lot of the immigrant populations that were born and raised in the US do experience high poverty rates. And that's like, like a big thing that needs to be, you know, taken account of when we're when we're looking at inequities and we're talking about bias, because if we don't center that, then we kind of frame ourselves we frame our talking points just around those who are doing well. So being from the same continent does not ensure the same experiences. To my point earlier, Nigeria is currently ranked as one of the richest African countries, and a country that is on a global economic rise. Nigeria is one of the poorest and least developed countries in the world. And I just want to say that just because I'm like, you know, stating this and saying like these are the big differences between these two different, you know, cultures. Doesn't mean that it doesn't also apply to the people in the country as well, because there's definitely areas like we can look at like India is a great example like India has areas where it's highly populated by like extremely wealthy people, people who have means and access and ability. And then we can, you know, travel a few miles away, and see that there's people they're experiencing high levels of poverty. But that's also a great this is a great example to about talking about like not thinking of people as monoliths not thinking of immigrants as monoliths, because when we do that then we say things like, oh well you're from this country that's super successful so that means you should be successful and you should be wealthy not or you should be able to like make it here and you know not have these types of barriers like what do you mean why aren't you doing it pull yourself up by the wood shop. So how can we challenge biases and systemic inequities when one, we think when we one thing all immigrant experiences are the same, and two don't center those most at risk. Again, for this, um, for this presentation, I kind of racked my brain like okay, who do I want to center like who do I want to talk about, as far as like immigrants because that's a big thing like I could talk about immigrant women, I can talk about, you know, black immigrant women, and I generally tend to focus my lens because I'm a black woman, the racial justice and black experiences, but I kind of racked my brain and I kind of came to this, you know, conclusion that I was like, I think I want to center the immigrants experiencing a lot of bias. And the reason I want to do this is because when we talk when we talk about when we center when we talk in policy spaces about like how we should tackle you know policy issues. We always said we should center the people experiencing the most harm, because if we center the people at the bottom experiencing the most harm that trickles up. A lot of times people think it's the other way around that if we center the folks at the top, it'll trickle down, but it doesn't, it hasn't, it won't. So that's a little crash course. So it's a really big thing or whenever we're framing or we're talking about like policies like oh how are we going to support these communities. There has to be several people in the room saying like if you say something like we should give all students laptops, someone has to say, do they have Wi-Fi at home. Because if we give all students Wi-Fi laptops we're starting from middle class we say we are assuming that everybody has Wi-Fi at home we give everyone laptops. The students who don't have Wi-Fi at home now cannot access it so they're still struggling they're still left behind. So we've given them and said, okay, you don't have Wi-Fi, you don't have a place to really, you know, study and work. You don't have a laptop, we're going to ensure that all of our students have all of these things. The kids already have that are fine. They're not like, oh my goodness you're trying to make sure I have Wi-Fi and I already have it. Shucks like they're not losing anything. They're not losing out on anything. But we're ensuring that others who don't have that are centered. So I decided for this that I would try to center immigrants experiencing the most bias. And I also wanted to just throw it to the group if there if you think there's any demographics I'm missing there is a demographic I'm missing and I just want to see if people are you're up on it you're thinking about bias and inequities in this world. I feel like there's some educators in here and I'm calling out. Well, I would say a demographic that I'm missing is immigrants with disabilities. So we have first generation, we have women and gender non-performing people. We have Muslim immigrants. We have non-Englishers first language speakers. We have queer immigrants. We have Black and non-white passing immigrants. And then we have our working class immigrants. So immigrants experiencing low income economic issues. So my normal advice that I want to talk about today is access, lack of access. So a fast fact about 4.2 million students in the US may be considered first generation low income college students. Only 9% of them will earn a bachelor's degree by age 24 compared to 77% from high income families. I just want to say I'm a part of that 9% will stop. But that's that's the reality right and that's due to a lack of access. So I'm going to get into that more. Lack of access looks like financial support. So whether applying for loans, scholarships, or just affording college, many low income first gen students can't afford college and lack the resources and support. The next one is lack of access, understanding college documents. So college documents are inaccessible, not English as a first language speakers struggle accessing documents in their native language. This is especially true for folks who language is not European. So that's our Spanish, our French, our English, our Portuguese, you know, the long list. And then internet and technology. I missed the COVID-19 pandemic, many K through 12 schools realized the need of supplying students with laptops, iPads and briefly, some were able to offer students broadband services as well. It was really interesting. I do that in there kind of as an example, because it was interesting that during the pandemic is when a lot of schools were like wait a second, like, things are not equitable. Like we have students who can't turn in assignments because what they say they'll have laptops at home. What they say they don't have Wi-Fi what they don't have a place to do homework. And I'm like, it's crazy because that's always been persistent. That's always been a thing, but it seems like we only cared about it when it what when it impacted everyone, right, when it became a thing that impacted those who are important. And so sometimes we ask the question like, who matters who doesn't. And when we're talking about policies and we're talking about these issues, like who are we saying like oh we're okay with them struggling, we're okay with them not understanding their we're okay with them you know just not being able to do what you know they need to do to be present in the classroom. We're fine with that, but they're students that we're not okay with. And so I have a story about that actually. So, during my, I literally never talk about this because it's like, and it's like game court and hi. During my junior year of high school, I was about 17 years old. I took this online psychology class. Now, if you know me, you know I'm like an overachiever I'm a perfectionist. I like always want to do good, I, I'm not kid, and I'm always doing too many things at once. So I took this online psychology course, and I liked it. I didn't pass it. And the reason I didn't pass this class, which I don't talk about ever in my life. But here we are today all my people Stephen between us. It's because I didn't have like a laptop that was accessible at home, like the laptop that my family had was I think about like, I don't know like 80 100 bucks like this is very basic like laptop on the my DAC watch like ESPN clips on. And I remember constantly going back and forth with this like professor who was like, virtual, and she'd be like, you need to turn it in and at this time I didn't even know what these words meant. She's like, you need to turn it in as a Microsoft Word, like you have downloaded, then like change it into a PDF and then send it into me, and I'm like, No, like it's here like it's in the notes I sent it like I can't like my computer can't do that. I don't have Microsoft, I don't have Excel, I don't have the things you're talking about. I can't do that like, and it's like a back and forth like I sent it she's like no that's not what I want to send it this way. And I'm just like oh my goodness and this should be like you know it's past the due day like I'm not taking it like it was just this constant back and forth, and I didn't have any form of support. I wasn't going to, you know, a school that was supporting me and to backtrack into when I talked about, you know, going to school in rural Minnesota. One thing about rural cities, especially in Minnesota, they do kind of lack support, like by our policies by our politicians. They don't get the funding that they deserve and need. They don't get that you know, equitable, so equitable support to actually support students. You're a small rural town that's fighting policy politicians for you know, funding to basic things. And now you have to deal with like, you know your students of color who are like 1% who are like oh you know my parents can't help me you know because they're not home it when I get home like oh there's a language barrier there's this they're not bringing that to the table, because they look at you as like, we don't have time for this we were begging them to just give us a little bit we don't have time to now negotiate about your needs. So, being a black student in rural Minnesota, I literally got kicked to the side. I didn't have that support. I was able to do psco because I had good grades I tested great. And they're like yeah you want to like I mean college cheaper you know that's cool. So that's why I did it, but I didn't have any guidance there was no one that was like hey I see that you're struggling I see that you're lacking. Oh you might need a computer at home or hey maybe you should do your work at the library like there was none of that. So, I feel that once. Number two, racial bias racism slash anti blackness child you knew was coming. Hello. We ain't gonna talk about bias and I'll talk about racism. So racial or ethnic minority groups make up more than a third of first gen students as such they have to overcome racial disparities and discrimination. What influences academic performance context of reception to new phrase that I learned while I was doing this, putting this presentation together is a phrase used to help explain how immigrant students perform in us schools, based on how they were received by teachers and their fellow classmates, if they are discriminated against immigrant students tends to perform more poorly in school. On the contrary, if an immigrant student is welcomed and embraced, they feel more comfortable in their learning environment and perform better. These are two things that I talked about previously. So, like this, talking about you know, if students are treated better they perform better. That could be said across the board. I don't feel like we need staff and studies to tell us that that like if you ostracize students if you make them feel small, if you make them feel inferior and excluded. Where is the teaching happening. They're not going to be present trying to learn that equation on the board they're not trying to learn their spelling, they're trying to survive that classroom, because they feel hostility. They feel like they're not welcome here they don't want to be here why are they here. What's the point of learning, if it's not fun, if they don't feel like you even care. And I feel like that's across the board. Same as I'm just that tracking some of these lack of access. I mentioned these and something that was interesting was putting this together is like I'm like, this can be separate anybody, like, all my friends across the board to say yeah financial support that's that's rough colleges or awful when it comes to finances. College documents being as inaccessible, who really read any of these contracts that we signed. Did you really like raise your hands. Did you understand the full words, you're 1718 year old brain like reading like, are you sure you want to apply for this college like whatever. I'm not sure that technology like we know right and our parents have to roll out if we have that support we have their support. They got to roll out a lot of money to make sure that we have laptops to make sure that we have I've had to make sure that we have all the things that we need to be present in school. So, the next slide that I had was there's no such thing as a single issue struggle because we do not live single issue lives. Whenever I talk about racism, and like, and center it and any type of you know, equity conversation, or policy conversation. It's because oftentimes times people think that they can exit they can talk about an issue and not talk about race, because it's like this, you know, sub doctor, but it all rolls into one another. And then I see that amongst like immigrant populations. There are oftentimes like immigrants will be like, Oh, like, you know, there's the black experience and then there's like my immigrant experience. And I'm like those two things just are not separate for me, like my experience as a black woman in the inequities I deal with, always somehow correlate and get interchanged with my experiences and immigrant, because we don't live single issue lives. Number three, economic bias lack of affordability. So 45% of immigrant families are considered low income. That makes it really really hard to access higher ed when you're low income. Most secondary attainment rates of young people who come from low income households and regardless of income or immigration status, whose parents have no college experience are low across the board, exacerbating the financial constraints is the reality that low income students and those whose parents have little education are frequently ill prepared academically to succeed in college. Number four, interpersonal bias. So lack of support. This one, I kind of always talk about because it's very integral to like my experiences. The header is you can't teach what you don't know. So again back to like what I was saying about my experience on having a mother who did not was not able to have the full education that she wanted. It was really difficult my high school experience and we had we'd have you know I went through highs and lows of you know feelings in real time being a young person like why can't you help me why don't you know this what you know like why am I all alone in this. And now I'm at a point where I can kind of like sit and be like I get it I get the full picture of things. But when I was growing up, I didn't have help, you know, doing homework, I didn't have help, you know, doing a project together, but I have West African parents who expected excellence. And if anybody knows anything about ethnic parents, you better get good grades, you're never going to get told like good job I love that you got an A, but get a B, I dare you get a B it's like so what are you doing with your life. You don't shame us so you don't care anymore about yourself. So that's kind of how it was it was that energy but also it was like, my parents did not go help you a school or so like I don't feel I'm so fresh and I'm like how dare you like I'll show you the map did you help me with that but you want me to give an A like what do you mean. So that's that's kind of what it is you can't fully teach what you don't know and the reason why sometimes our families can't come into that space is not that they don't want to. And I went through that a lot with my mother because my mom is like my biggest cheerleader and she loves me so much, but she couldn't teach what she doesn't know. She didn't have that experience, and no one when she came to this country like held her hands. There's also a huge lack of access around communication when it comes to like immigrant families and parents. So she's like this mom that's like I would love you know to be able to support my child but I literally cannot. I cannot help her apply for college. I can I don't I also don't know what FAFSA is like I'm also sitting here like huh like. Okay, what does what does that mean, and a lot of it was literally me being like I'll just I'll just do it myself to figure it out. And I remember me my mom had a lot of tough conversations towards my senior year, and even when I got into college where she's like, I just feel like sometimes you think you can do it. Like you don't ask me for help. And I just feel like useless as your mom, because I'm supposed to be your mom, but I can't help you, and you and I feel like you know it because you don't ask me for help. And I had to be like, no, like I think we're also the most amazing people ever and I saw this a billion times over, but I'm like no I think you're so wonderful and you're so amazing. You're this great person who's on all these wonderful things. And I hate that you're made to feel inferior in this system that didn't help you that didn't support you. And, you know, again back to the school system just not having the support that they need to adequately you know be there for parents in that way. So I'm not going to school and teachers saying oh I get it I see you know you're a student, you clearly have good grades you clearly test well things are clearly you know you clearly have good parents, but your parents just can't support you in that way, because they're always working because they're low income, and so they don't understand the system. This is their first round to when I went to college for the first time was also my mom's first time dealing with college and learning the new thing. And when I would call frustrated like, well they said they're not going to process this because you didn't do this and she's so heartbroken. And she's like, I'm so sorry. And I really felt that for her because you can't teach what you don't know. So the unfortunate reality is that many first gen students are left behind, because to support them academically would require knowledge of a system that many of their families are unfamiliar with. Family pressures. Once immigrant origin students are in school, their dropout rates tend to be higher because many come from poor households. They double multiple responsibilities which makes it more challenging for them to stay in school and complete their degrees on time. This is the total, but over said if there is a health or family emergency, they lack a safety net fall back on that interferes with attending classes and completing assignments. And that's also extremely true. And I have like two big points on this one, we're going to sit on for a second. So my second year of my undergrad. So like I said, overachiever always doing the most in like five million tech activities during high school. I was jam packed I had, you know, I was a part of, I was an RA. I was working at Walmart. I was a full time student. I was running the campus feminist organization and the black student union. There was one more thing, oh, I was a part of this organization and I was also doing campaign organizing work. So I was doing seven things. Yeah, it's real life. Teachers, teachers, we'd be out here in these streets. So I was really doing all those things. And I remember I got in when I said second year, second third is because your girl got her degree in three years. But I was doing all these different things and I remember I got a call in December and my mom crying and she was like, um, you know, like, like your dad got to take my ice. Here's this family conflict that now is shifting everything that's shifting like you're, you know, like how you can show up in classes, how you can do your work, how you feel about yourself, how you feel about your family like what pressure is it now putting on you to be there for your family, like emotionally financially whatever it is. And you have all of these five million things flying around you, but here you are trying to like support your family in all the ways that you can. And I remember I started like doing really bad I had this like policy staffs class, and had this professor who's like a professor that doesn't like you like we all know that professor like he's really angry he hates his life like you just know it like he hates y'all like he loves like he loves teaching, but he don't like y'all like. I was one of those guys, and I remember I had like missed a class and then didn't turn something in. So I had scheduled to go to an office office with him, but I had to like, like, go like have a meeting call with like one of my dad's like a term lawyers with everything that's going on. And then I was like late to it when I showed up he's like, I don't care, you shouldn't have been late. It is what it is, you're my time valuable x y and z. And I remember like, this is a guy because I was always a teacher's pet so I would try to be really nice like my teachers even though I hated me I was like, I like me. Um, but this is a guy who was just like I've never ruffled his feathers but I remember that day I like snapped at him I was just like well I'm sorry that I had to go meet my dad's attorney because he's a nice attention. I was just starting out like just so angry like, like, one of the first teachers that I said anything to remember that later that day I got home, and like, I got this, like this whole mask email from like all of my professors. They're like, Hello. I'm like, let me get a reinforcement because I'm not about to deal with this I hate these kids but somebody out there needs to talk to her because she's so fooling it. And so, as all my teachers be like hi, so I'm you know what's going on in your life and like we just like we heard like what's up, like, let us know if you want to chat like here's a link just to let you know you can take time off if you wanted to. Um, and that's when I finally like, you know, was vulnerable enough to talk about what was going on in my life to my teachers, but there were so many times during my college experience that I was like, What if I just didn't do college, like, what if I was just not here because how am I supposed to be there for my family emotionally, mentally, you know, financially like I could really help if I like could just get another job I could really help but just through college away like like what's the point of this. That's a lot of like the stress that a lot of first generation immigrant students deal with, especially coming from collective cultures that are like, we are family, we are one like we hold each other up. When you're in a space where being in, I would say Western culture and being in like an academic setting, there's a lot of independence there is a lot like me myself. And that's that's how I felt in those moments. And anytime there was a family conflict, I just felt like I'm being so selfish right now. Like, I don't want to leave college because of me, like, because of my success because of like what I want for myself but like my family needs and thank goodness and this is a privilege in itself and I love to suffer my privileges. My mother is one of my privileges, because she was a mom that was like, No, like, we need you to get that degree, like, we need you to do better and be better, like not for us, but for you. So I can be like, yes, I did that, like, I'm proud and my mom always says because she feels like there's there wasn't a lot in her life that she got to fully grasp on to with her experience. But she always feels like I was the one thing she did really good. And so she's always like, when I graduate when I go through life, she's like, Yes, good. So sometimes I'm like, like, girl, you know, you just try to brag like. But yeah. And then on the other hand, the other thing I want to talk about about the family pressures and our families is not knowing exactly like how they can fully support us. Immigrant families will say, get good grades, you know, go be this will be a doctor go beat that. But then they will also expect that you're going to come home and take care of your siblings. They were like, I want to do everything under the sun I wanted to play I want to run track. I want to do volleyball. I want to be on speech. I wanted everything. I wouldn't be in the musical. And my parents number one thing was like, you can do it if you can manage your sisters like you can find a way to still watch your sisters, whatever. Okay, I was like the kid in my town, everyone knew that I was always moving around my siblings like the parents, like during games, like my youngest sister she's nine, which was born during games that the parents are like hold her to pass her around. When my mom would even come because my parents would always work so like when my mom would come to like a few games, they'd be like, Oh, you're this person. Oh my goodness, we love her. We love your baby. And like, and even when my sister reached out to these people, I was like, why is my child. Why is she running to that man. We don't know that come here. And he's like, Oh, I hold her all the time. So that was, that was my experience of like, I wanted what I wanted. And I also like, managed to juggle two jobs in high school I was working at someone old Navy. And I said, I'm always doing five billion things. Next year, I promise I'm going to do two billion. But, um, but yeah, so like, that was really it. And it's those two things don't correlate right. Like when we talk about like, you're saying you want your child to be successfully within half straight days. But then you're also like, Oh, you better come home and clean up, you better do this, you better stay up like, Oh, you need to wake up and you stop doing homework and come fix this or come take care of your siblings or go to work like you're requiring two things that just don't correlate. And the reason why is because they don't, they don't fully understand the system like I said, they don't have access to the system so they don't fully understand it. An example of that I experienced at my job, which is in childcare policy consulting work. We were recently in Charlotte, and we were interviewing families for deliverable that we're putting together. And one of the moms, the question that we have for her is like, what do you want for your child. And she's like, Oh my child to be successful and these are these are early like parents of children like early education. She's going to be successful. And we're like, what does that look like, because like, you know, we want detail it let's write it. And she has this long pause. And she says again my child to be successful and she also has a language barrier. And we're like, yeah, I'm so we restate it in a different way like so like what like what that take that look like pause. She starts crying. And I'm like, I saw her, I felt her I knew exactly why she was crying. And so like everyone's like, I'm like, I'm so sorry and I was like one on one from like, I'm like, the interpreter might tell her I think she's amazing mom, she's amazing she loves her kid, she's doing every single thing. I cannot tell us what success looks like. Because all she knows right from the outside looking in. I want my child to be successful. And I see the top is you graduate, you go, you go to a good school or you get a good degree, and you make money. I've never been allowed in the room. I've never been allowed in the room to see that Oh, you have to spend X amount of time studying. You have to take these courses you have to AP, PSEO, you you have to network, you have to write essays, you have to, you know, do all of these different things. I've never been in the room to see that. I don't know what that means, even if I said those words, it would go over your head you'd be like what are you talking about like you're, they're not allowed in the room, so they don't even know. I just know, like the bare minimum. I want my child to be happy and successful in this system that is so foreign to me that doesn't make any sense. But at the same time, like one thing that I always like to say, our families know exactly what they need, and they know exactly what's wrong. So, when she started crying, it's because it's almost like the same thing as my mom was like, my mom knows they can tell people like I want my child to be successful. My mom also knows that she doesn't know what that entails, like what that entails, and that hurts her that breaks her heart, because she doesn't know if it's going to be. Wow, my kids stayed up like for four days straight in college and she's so angry and she's so sad and she you know, and sometimes when I have those weeks where I'm like so stressed with work my mom's just like honey. So sad because like, this is the thing that you wanted this was like what success was supposed to be like, and this puts me now in a privileged place where I'm in a different economic standing than my family, then my mother has ever been in. But also, it kind of creates a barrier where there's this like, how do we now understand each other how do we pull each other into spaces when we get there, rather than saying pull yourself up. And so you can't and not acknowledging all of these privileges. I tell my mom you're my number one privilege, because if not for that woman that girl who was 16 and experience all those things, I couldn't be me at all ever. And so that's that's the real family pressures. So number five, systemic bias, which is like the biggest, the biggest bias like the system just holds us down forever it persists. So this is an anti immigrant policies. So anti immigrant policies affect first and by pop students disproportionately. So those look like, you know, I see for station so like literally putting together ice undocumented, undocumented students lack of access to aid, or just undocumented students being at risk of being separated or you know, removed from schools and losing you know scholarships and funds. And then an example that I love to use, because again it goes back to what I said earlier like, who is disposable. Who do we care about who we don't when like it was like, 2020 summer I think like July, when Trump went ahead and release that executive quarter was like, all international students coming from X countries like could not come back to the country like, you can't come back in session you cannot come to the country ball. And you saw all these huge universities Harvard over here freaking out like we will sue the US government like everyone's like panicking like what do you mean like our students can't come back like there are the black phones they pay for the lights in the school. That's really what it was. That's really what it was. So all of these big schools got together across the world they all had you know, they released statements my school sent an email like we stand with our international students Yeah, we heard it like they all sent those out and quickly the Trump administration like we won't have that and don't. And why bring that up is because that was an example that for years now right, we have seen like anti immigrant policies that harm our students. And these schools never thought to collectively get together and show that level of power and demand that you cannot do that to our students. And whether they want to admit it or not. It boils down to who matters and who doesn't. We're talking about Harvard's international students, big spenders, like you're talking a lot of money. So we're saying oh so you're trying to you're trying to take our income away from us essentially. That's really it if we will come down to the basis. Because when all of these different policies are happening over the years we didn't see this level of action. We didn't see this. And across the board, we stand in solidarity with our immigrant students and not just saying it not just sending out a little memo, but being like yo we will take actions against the US government if our students do not come back to school in August. So, who matters who doesn't whose education doesn't matter. Our first gen immigrant students are low income who maybe they got here from a scholarship they're just getting by they have all these other things they have to support their families, and whatever if they're low income who cares. But if our students who have you know the economic mobility and the money to be in these spaces, and they have the connections and networks and their parents are diplomats how dare you. But why. So this is a quick fact sheet that I just thought was really cool. So I try to look at it. It feels like all students in higher education, who are right now, first generation immigrant students. I was a part of that I'm not currently. We'll get back to one thing about. So that's like about a million, and then our undocumented students about 42, 427,000. And then our second generation immigrant students is 3 million and then our international students is 914. And break out was like so, like, I don't know, for me it was, it was really amazing, because I, you know, I know so much about the experience, like, you know, being an immigrant, I know about, you know, Doc, I know about undocumented students I know about, you know, different policies that impact immigrant families and communities, but to see that number I was like wow. There's a lot of us like, despite everything, despite all of the barriers, and even bigger barriers and I experience like we're still here we're still persisting. So the numbers to my point of us persisting nearly 33% of immigrant students attain a bachelor's degree or higher. Hey, and that's including you know, like I said that's including our international students so that number is not a complete shape down to what I've been talking about but still pretty cool. And yeah, and still we rise, despite the biases inequities and other barriers to success. We're still doing the damn thing and I know that's right. So where do we go from here so I made just a short list of ways that you can support immigrant. Push back on immigrant bias and support immigrant students. So educating ourselves, even as immigrants, I think it's super important because when, when my dad was attained by my family is very I was deep in politics I always had this like weird phobia where I'm like something that's going to happen to us. And my family go chill, like, just go do that policy stuff over there like we good like nothing's going to happen I'm like something's going to happen. And so when something happened I was just like, told y'all told y'all. So it's important to just educate yourselves on know about the communities different immigrant communities, especially like by black immigrant communities. I think a lot of people don't realize that black immigrants face a lot of harm, and there's a lot of policies that are literally put together to kind of like push them out as well. So support student organizations and organizations within our communities that prioritize ensuring all immigrants have access and equitable support in academia. And so that's also with your pockets to like yes get to know about these organizations yes show up to their different events. I would support one when they're doing you know, like, write a letter do this, but also like these organizations exist off dollars, because we exist in capitalism, so we pockets. Assist offer guidance assisting immigrants, especially first generation immigrants with navigating various systems I would have loved I always think this and that's so so big to me to kind of be a support system for other young people, because I would have to have somebody be like, I know that you don't have a computer at home. I know that your parents work every day. Like, I know you need the support that your school is not able to give you. And how can I help you, or even in college, like you might not know what your parents might know your parents might be whizzes at FAFSA. And that might be something you brag about, because we all like faster sucks. And there's always that one kid that's like my dad doesn't want me like if your dad's doing it for you clear data like hey like buddy what's number three a like what does that mean like so have those type of sessions. Advocate advocate for that see that's the type of my sister did advocate for policies that support immigrant rights advocate against policies that harm or bring more barriers to immigrant access. So like I said my million dollar question in the beginning is. So, are we our ancestors for all the streams. Now I know some of y'all, because I said this. So that's one of the organizers like, it's gonna be so funny when I'm in a room for the people who are not the demographic I'm talking about. And I asked, so are we our ancestors well the streams like but but overall just from everything that I shared I shared you know the good the cool things the accomplishments the reasons people say I my ancestors all the streams. And then I shared the struggles that we're so experiencing. So from everything like, would you say we are ancestors while the streams and feel great. I work with a lot of old like ex teachers, and they taught me that like back in the day they just think a lot silence just go for like ever silence makes me uncomfortable like. I mean I mean I'm even just to answer questions that have nothing to do with me or like to forward input I'm like let me just reiterate with that person said just you didn't hear but I know you heard it but it's from states uncomfortable. So, but yeah I'm just I'm going to let it rest I'm going to take I'm going to take note from them to see. Yeah. To be getting to the accomplishments and not having to go through the barriers to get to that. I really like that. I, I, yes. Yes, so that's not having to go through various because listen I deserve, I deserve rest I deserve softness. I'm anyone else. I'll tell you my tea I'll tell you my synopsis. So, when I came up with this question. It was it kind of came on because two summers ago, I have this like inner thought I have a lot of thoughts I think a lot. I have this like moment where my great grandmothers were very instrumental to like just my identity and who I am my mom told me all these wonderful stories about them. One of them died of a heartbreak real real deal real family team real story it's really sad love her to pieces, just one of the kindest people on the planet. And yeah. And so I always heard about her and I literally as a kid that these women were heroes to me like my identity is so like connected to them I feel, and I grew up in a major so I just love all the all the women in my life life. But one of my great grandmothers was just fall love and all these good things and that's my mom always sounds like I feel like we inherited a lot of that. And then the other one, she never had access to education. She was abused like her entire life. She was married to the kids that she would raise like everyone because they saw her as less than and the person she was with made that a thing that she was a punching bag of everyone. And my mom and her super close and so my mom's pregnant she would like pray and talk to my mom's belly just me all the time. And she'd always kind of say like, she's going to be my next coming like she's going to do all the things that I get to do she's going to like, you know, be be smart enough because you know what people make her feel like she was stupid like all these wonderful things. So my whole life because it's almost like something that I would hear all the time. I was always like I'm gonna make them proud. Like everything I did was like, am I doing it is this what she wanted like I graduated like is this what she meant is this what she wanted. And I had this like epiphany moment where I was like, my great grandmothers who are sitting, my great grandmothers who are sitting in like Liberia in a rice farm, who are experiencing violence. We're not thinking about Western education. Like they were not thinking about Western accomplishments because they didn't exist in, you know, Eurocentric them they didn't exist in Western ideals yet. That wasn't for them. That's not and I was like I don't think that's fully what they meant by you know, wanting me to be everything that they weren't able to. I think that's a part of it. I think my happiness my joy my success and the place that I'm in is definitely a part of it. But I think it's also like to truly genuinely like reach a point where you're fully liberated. And when you're fully liberated, you don't forget to ensure that others can experience that, that you can pull them up that you can hold on to them like my grandmother who was loving people to literally the end and always making sure everybody was good. You don't fully get to, you know, like, you don't get there if you don't think in that way. And so I have that realization that when people say we are ancestors wildest dreams, I feel like oftentimes it now has kind of been commodified. And so we centered around like some type of like accomplishment within, you know, Western standards. And I'm like, No, I think it's for us to think bigger and broader, because our ancestors are not thinking about these college degrees and these GPAs and, you know, that's not what they're thinking about they're thinking about full blown radical liberation. And I feel like to your point, it's getting the things that I'm talking about with being liberated right like not having to be like oh my God like, huh, I did all of this and now I finally got a crumb. I'm literally experiencing life and being and being enjoyed and then supporting others as well. So to that to my answer for this would be, I don't think we're fully there. I think we shouldn't limit what we think our ancestors dreams are because I think their dreams are so big and so bold. And I think we have to be just as big and bold when we dream. So yeah. Thank you. My name is Mel's here, my Facebook and LinkedIn's here. My Instagram is here, my Twitter is not because of my business. But if anybody has any questions, I will take them until they got a big yellow. Do you help your siblings along through the process. Yeah. Oh, I'm so big on it like my, my second sister who's 16. She's way cooler than me, like I was very like, I need to be perfect. So she's like, we got heads and I'm like, why don't you, why don't you want to take like three like extra college courses like you have the time and she's like, dude, I'm going to sleep. Like, I'm like, do you want me to help you like write that paper, I can write that paper for you. It's just like, nah, I'm just gonna turn it in. I'm like, what is it like you didn't have a comma like, so I like in my heart I was like I was waiting for this. I was like, make sure my sister's perfect like they're great like they're so successful. And I was just like, nah, it's not something I'm chilling. And I love that for her too because I also think that's, you know, part of what I'm saying like, that's her. She's not stressed in school. So yeah. Just thank you. Thank you. I just wonder if you could explain like what you do now as like a policy person for education. Yeah, so I work at a early education, like policy consulting found. So pretty much we just go in. It's, it's, it's an amazing experience. I'm so honored. I'm sure when I'm like 40, I'm like, wow, I get that. But like, right now it's what I'm like. But pretty much what we do is we just go around either being contracted or just supporting other work and ensure that like policies are implemented effortlessly. If, for instance, what I said about, you know, giving computers, like, if some estate entity gives, you know, a certain amount of money, or if the government gives, like a state X amount of money. And they're like, make sure it's like, like you distribute this money equitably and you make sure it's used in a way that's equitable. We come in and we're just like, okay, like, what's your plan, like, how are we going to do this? We're talking to who are the communities that are part of this, like, how did you use this funds, like, let's put together focus groups and talk to communities, how would they like to see distributed like, we just make sure that everything is equitable like if you're going to give computers, does everybody have wifi does everybody have a place to, you know, study. So it's pretty much the rundown. Well, thank you all so very much for just being present to one more. Thank you.