Birthplace: Autlan, Jalisco, Mexico
Education: Pittsburg High School
Hobbies: dancing and reading
Abstract: Noelia Garcia Hernandez is the third of the four children born to Jesus Garcia and Maria Hernandez de Garcia. Both her parents lacked a college education. As the first in her immediate family to attend a four-year college, family, school and community played a vital role in her success.
As a freshman in high school she was selected as a candidate for the PUENTE (Spanish for "bridge") program. The program’s goal is to help bridge the existing gap between high school and college among Latinos. With some hesitation, Noelia became part of the PUENTE program during her freshman year in high school. The program sponsored monthly meetings that informed her parents about the required preparation for college admittance. The positive naming from her PUENTE mentor, Mr. Esquivel, encouraged Noelia to apply to seven four-year schools. She was admitted to four Colleges and decided to make Saint Mary’s College her first choice.
Although Noelia found that her cultural beliefs conflicted with her beliefs as a first-generation college student her counterstory shows that the overlap of her Mexican and American identities is a dual asset because she is bilingual. Nevertheless, Noelia’s asset is turned into a deficit when she was told by her chemistry teacher that her struggle with the subject was the result of her learning English as a second language.
Although very little is said about first-generation students and faith, Noelia finds that she is able to cope best with her thoughts of insufficiency when she seeks spiritual support. She concludes that the meaning of her being a first-generation college student has yet to be defined because it is an ongoing process that she has yet to complete.
Keywords: family, parent involvement, counterstories, PUENTE, social support, first-generation, positive naming, insufficiency, faith
|
