At UCLA, a dorm floor dedicated to first-generation students [latimes.com]

Alicia Doktor 10/3/1712:00 PM

Desiree Felix didn’t make her way to UCLA with the help of helicopter parents who hired tutors, hounded teachers or edited her application essays.

Her father is a handyman with a sixth-grade education. Her mother finished high school and helps manage apartments.

At Kennedy High School in Granada Hills, Felix had to figure out most of the nuts and bolts of preparing for and applying to colleges on her own. She didn’t know anything about Advanced Placement classes until her sophomore year, and she came close to missing UC’s application deadline.

In her freshman year, Felix has chosen to live on a newly created dorm floor just for students like her who are the first in their families to attend college.

[For more on this story by Teresa Watanabe, go to http://www.latimes.com/local/l...-20171002-story.html]

Photo: Desiree Felix, 18, unpacks her dorm room in Hedrick Hall at UCLA. Felix is the first in her family to attend college. (Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times)

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Christine Cissy WhiteIt's not trauma-informed unless it's informed by trauma survivors.

I love this story. We had a working-class support group at my college for those of us who were first generation to be away at college. It helped. Financial aid was new. Dorm life and being away was new. Balancing school work was new. And, the guilt that it was hard at all and how that couldn't be shared at home because we were "lucky" to be at school and how most peers couldn't relate.

It was fun and happy go lucky for many. But not for all of us. For some of us, the debt was big and many of us cut one or two semesters off, pushed ourselves hard to save money as we were paying ourselves, or parents were struggling or we'd have so much debt. It's important. Many didn't stay. It was really hard to relate to lots of students and easier to relate to staff.

I can't imagine how big this transition can be for others. I grew up poor, and with ACEs, but by high school most of the ACEs were past tense and we were mostly middle class. Still, it was a big transition to be first generation in college.

I'm glad there's more awareness of this issue and more support available to make it work better.

10/3/1712:52 PM

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