Readers Response In the August 22, 2015 edition of the New York Times by Jennine Capo Crucet wrote an article titled “Taking My Parents to College.” Crucet was born in America, while her parents were born Cuba. Crucet and her family all took a trip to Cornell University in Ithaca, New York from Miami Florida to attend Orientation. She talks about her own personal story about the time she took her parents to college. Throughout the article she talked about the things that let you know she was a first generation college student. Although Crucets parents did not know they were supposed to leave right after orientation Crucet, still did not want them to leave her. Crucet talks about everything that happened to her during orientation. Crucet …show more content…
That did not go nicely for Crucet at all because she did not understand a single thing. Crucet states, “I might as well have been my non-English-speaking grandmother trying to read and understand them. “The language was that that exotic to Crucet. She called her mother and told her, “I had to come home, that I had made a terrible mistake.” Crucets mother could not help her with her paper because she did not know anything herself. Crucets mother tells her, “You’re right, you’re screwed.” Crucets mother never went to college so she did not know what to tell her. Crucets mother did not know about the many things the campus had to offer to students that needed with papers. I am guessing Crucet did not have any friends at the time because if she did she could have asked them for help. Cornell University were the ones that recruited Cruet to come to college there. I feel like they should have done a better job with that. The university should have given her a better tour, and let her know all the many help support systems the school had to offer for her. I could not imagine being in her place because I call my mother every time I need help with something. I would not know what to do if she told me I was “screwed” or “I cannot help you with this.” Crucet finally got through the paper by herself. According to Crucet “She did o.k. on it, earning a
In an attempt to help a young student named Carol, a professor named John loses his house and his job. All of the blame rests on Carol's shoulders, for it was she that allowed her delusions of grandeur and success (being without the necessary skills to attain them) to ruin the life of man who has dedicated his life to helping students do just that. Carol's ignorance plays a big role in this tragedy. From the very beginning of this play, it is apparent that Carol does not understand the information given in class, but it is her unwillingness to even try that makes her at fault. "People who came here. To know something they didn't know…To be helped…So someone would help them (12)." Carol is begging John to understand that she is stupid. She doesn't want help in the sense that someone might want help writing a paper. She wants it hand fed to her, and education is a process that involves the teacher pointing the way, not carrying someone to the end. Carol's misconceptions of how college is supposed to work can only be result of not having been exposed to the realities of higher education, but I believe that she just doesn't have the skills she needs to succeed. "Nobody tells me anything. And I sit there…in the corner. In the back (14)." This is an example of the total lack of motivation that Carol has to learn. Her ignorance leads her to believe that a college education is supposed to hand fed. She just sits there, in the back, without an attempt to even try to learn on her own. We all need help form time to tim...
The documentary, First Generation, follows four first generation college students who try and balance the hardships of working, sports, being part of a lower socioeconomic status and handling the challenges of learning how to apply and cover the cost of hefty college tuitions. In this paper, I will discuss barriers that some students experienced, the benefits of attainting a college education as a first generation student and some of the challenges individuals faced once they were accepted into college.
First, no longitudinal study currently exists that follows children from kindergarten to college and beyond. Of course, costs for such a study would be exorbitant, but what social implications exist from the scarcity of available research? Second, the qualitative interviews concentrate on first-generation college students from one elite university. To the best of my knowledge, no study has qualitatively analyzed the differences between first-generation and continuing-generation college students. Additionally, one elite university cannot serve as the paragon for all elite institutions. Third, the qualitative study samples from a variety of cohorts to measure change across time, but a better method would be to re-interview each student in one year increments from the time they matriculate to several years after expected degree attainment. Finally, to fully understand the experience of first-generation college students, interviews with parents, educators, and gatekeepers can provide insights that the students themselves were unaware
I cannot help but believe that there are some very valid points to Professor X’s article, for example, when he states that some students are simply unfit for the academic level that college requires. The author states, “Everyone wants to triumph. But not everyone can-in fact, most can’t.” (X, par. 47) In other words, Professor X believes that some students desperately want to succeed, however, they are unable to do so regardless of the amount of help offered. Sometimes, no matter how many people are set up for success there is not anything else that can be done, but letting them down gracefully. Professor X writes about his student Ms. L, the professor expresses his frustration with this student and how he knew he would face difficulties with her. The wall had gone up, she was no longer interested in what was being said. X expresses that Ms. L is not smart nor is she a bad person, however, he does elaborate on how she was never a fit for college level academics. Professor X writes, “Ms. L had done everything that American culture asked of her. She had gone back to school to better herself, and she expected to be rewarded for it, not slapped down.” (X, par. 36) This may be exactly how Ms. L was feeling, furthermore, let’s elaborate on why Ms. L expected to be rewarded for work that did not meet the expectations of her assigned
The story is about her daughter-in-law’s (Beth) friend. A women with no college degree and how she is very ambitious for her son to complete a further education from high school degree. Miller gives us an inside look of how the women tries her best to make sure that her son do his work for school, even though she cannot provide any help with it for him. The disadvantage of a parent who only has a high school start to reveal. In Paragraph four Miller provide evident for her claim. A chart by Tom Mortenson which provide a correlation between children’s grade and their parents education. “60.6 percent of children whose parents have advanced degrees get mostly A’s, whereas only 27.8 percent of high-school dropout’s children do” (page674). With this correlation Miller back-up her argument that the women from the story earlier could not help her son because of her education level.
Their Families To Go To College." First GenerationThe Documentary. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2013. .
While thinking about what problem at Harper to address which affects a large amount of the student body, a conversation with a writing tutor made me realise that a problem most of the population had experienced was registration, orientation and transitioning from high school to college. I thought of possible reasons why the transition was difficult for so many people, then I thought about my own experience and how bumpy it had been from registering online to dealing with paying for classes and financial aid.
I wasn’t a total bookworm, and I definitely could have studied more, but I wasn’t a slacker, as I still studied a decent amount.” I was wondering what the toughest part of college was for my mom, so I asked, and she responded, “The toughest part of college for me was the clinicals at Rush, because the professor I had for them was awful, and that's heavily sugar-coated.” There were some things she thought about this teacher that I have decided not to repeat, as they were not sugar-coated. College did change my mom, and definitely for the better, as I expected the answer to be when I asked how college changed her, and she responded with, “College makes you learn how to accept other people and other cultures that were different from what you had experienced your whole life within your family, where your culture is the only one that exists within your family, with a few exceptions here and there, as it also made you realize not everyone was like you, people don’t always do things the way you do, or react to things the same way you do, which is an extremely beneficial learning experience.” My mom had a role model in college, one that confused me when she said it, as it does not really pertain to college, as when asked she responded by saying, “My role model in college, as it is today, was Mother
The purpose of this study is to explore the unique challenges First-Generation-Latino-Male Students face when adjusting to community colleges in California. Literature has revealed limited information on the unique experiences First-Generation College Students face and their perception of the barriers they face in higher education. As tens-of-thousands of students become the first in their family to embark on the journey through higher education it becomes clear they have taken many different paths to get there and face many different obstacles that continuing-generation students don’t. With the influx of first-generation college student’s campuses are beginning to discover their institutions are underprepared to fully support the needs of
An example of this community dynamic is the activities available for children: summer camp, sports, and involvement of the arts. These activities allow kids the opportunity to have a place to be curious and direct their energy toward a specific subject of their interest; eventually, when time does come for a child to go to college he or she will appreciate the skills developed in community colleges. Not only does Pierce provide children with a place for kids to unleash who they truly are but it allows parents of these children to facilitate the process for them. Community colleges allows parents the opportunity to take classes - like child development- to understand what specific topics their kids are thinking while exploring several subject which will potentially lead to a career. These courses provide a strong connection so when children ask their parents for guidance. Their parents will actually know what to do and will be ready to answer any question and will facilitate the process toward the pursuit of a college career. In, “The case for (community) college” by Christina Pazzanese she explains, ”I come from poverty, and I knew my parents were never going to be able to help me out with college.” (1). This piece of the article serves as Pazzanese’s hook to captivate the audience and to explain the fact that sometimes parents are not able to help
Growing up in a minority family college has always been a priority. It was the main reason why my parents immigrated to America. They wanted their children to have more opportunities than they could have in Guyana. However, I never really knew anything about college. It would be my next step in life, but I had no idea what was required for college applications until I started the college process. I only knew about “big” time colleges like the Ivy leagues. Harvard and Yale were the dreams of every student, but growing up in Minnesota and being from the Midwest, Northwestern became my “big time” college dream.
Cathy Small known as her pen name under Rebekah Nathan is a professor and a graduate coordinator of anthropology at Northern Arizona University. During a leave of absence from teaching, during the fall of 2002 at the age of 52 she enrolled as a student at Northern Arizona University, signing up for a standard first year range of courses. During that time for Nathan as a student life, she saw, observed and felt the social life between US students and international students which became her main target and purpose. Nathan’s main point argues about how “international students saw “individualism” and “independence” as a characteristic not only of a roommate interactions but in relations with family and friends as well” (Nathan 73). Which can be said in easier terms that US college life is a life where you have to live alone, stay alone and work alone, means doing everything independently. One of her topic and focus is on the Social life and making friends on US university campuses. From my point of view, I agree with Nathan’s claims and observation because many young adults imagine vivid pictures of what college might be like for them. However, once these young adults mature into independent men and women, and enter into the school of their choice, they soon realize the reality of the college lifestyle. Students must learn to adapt to their new surroundings as quickly as possible to accomplish the sought after degrees. Students come to the realization that life is not as easy as they might hope for. They understand the fact that they have worked hard from middle school to high school to enter in into their dream college and fulfil their dream job. Where some US students decide to isolate themselves from being in a social life and inte...
Based on our similar research interests, I also believe qualitative data is very useful to research students’ experiences. Those using this paradigm have the “empathetic understanding” viewpoint, or “verstehen,” when conducting their research (Johnson & Christensen, 2017, p. 36). It is vital that the researcher put themselves in the students’ shoes to fully understand how their experience may be affected by being the first person in their family to attend college. They must be empathetic to the students’ precautions, fears, and culture. Particularly as first generation students, these scholars may have different anxieties that legacy students do not.
My parents went to school in Africa and graduated college too, but since they came to America, they had to relearn everything they learned from the motherland and start all over. They are very smart people, but the struggle of English was real. They got great grades and scholarships to colleges. Also, they did it with me which put a lot of loads on them. They lived on the family campus and had no car, so they biked or walked to school. They didn't have a lot of help from the school because of its college, so they persevered and helped each other. They had four more children in the end but
As I sat in the swing with my grandpa, our conversation approached the topic of college. “Erin, are you ready to attend college and learn about the world?”