Karla’s Story: Class of ‘?’ Graduating in four (or more) years

Meet Karla

Karla is a Honduran-American first-generation college student from Humboldt Park on the west side of Chicago. Her time in CPS was marked by a lot of change and transferring of schools. She faced the challenges of both the 2013 school closures and a difficult high school selection process. She attended a liberal arts college in rural Indiana through a cohort model scholarship program where she got her bachelor’s degree studying Sociology and Spanish with a minor in Latin and Caribbean. Karla felt heavily pressured and graduated in 4 years because of the strict full-tuition 4 year scholarship she received. She currently works at a college preparatory nonprofit.

Karla’s Path to College

One of the most vivid experiences Karla had in CPS was when her school, Lafayette Elementary School was closed as a part of the 2013 school closures. In 7th grade, Karla protested the closure with her orchestra group and performed at city hall. This intense moment sparked Karla to question and reflect on her relationship with education and social justice. “It was my first form of understanding my positionality of my school and my community in Chicago, but also like what is activism? What is it to like stand up for what you believe?”

This experience shaped her perspective and approach to her educational career. Starting 8th grade at a new school, Karla immediately noticed the different treatment between her and her new classmates. “They just assumed that because we came from our school, we weren’t as intelligent. We were browner so they had different expectations for us.” Looking back, Karla describes it as “an insane time” where her “academia was not stable.”

“They just assumed that because we came from our school, we weren’t as intelligent. We were browner so they had different expectations for us.”

The instability pushed Karla to center her own vision for her academic journey, starting with high school. Karla enrolled at a neighborhood school in Lincoln Park and joined their IB Program. The long commute often made Karla show up to school cold, drenched from the rain, or late. As the school year progressed, Karla noticed the stark differences in students’ experiences. “I came to understand that some kids had very big advantages.” Karla learned that some of her classmates had tutors, a privilege she couldn’t afford to access. “It slowly started clicking that I’m not gonna get the resources I need to be successful in this space. My heart told me, ‘Karla, you gotta get out of there’”.

Although Karla had her family’s support to transfer to a closer neighborhood school, the counselors at her current school strongly discouraged them. “The counselors were like ‘what do you mean you’re transferring out? She’s gonna fail. How can you take your child out of a better school and send them to a worse school?’” Karla’s family, however, validated her choice. She remembers her cousins and siblings defending her. “Karla’s smart. She’ll be smart anywhere. She’ll do well anywhere.’” Karla attended her local neighborhood school and enrolled in the IB program. “It was just a beautiful time, like to just be in the program. I’m so close to all my friends. I really got to explore what I wanted to do and I did get the resources I needed.”

“It was just a beautiful time, like to just be in the program. I’m so close to all my friends. I really got to explore what I wanted to do and I did get the resources I needed.”

Karla started thinking about college around her junior year because of a Federal Trio Program that took her on college visits. “My older sibling didn’t go to college. The idea [of] what is possible for me was just not there.” During her first college visits, Karla was in awe. “I thought ‘this exists?! I could be here!’ That’s when I first started even understanding the idea of college. I’m not saying it wasn’t brought up, but like for someone that’s never seen college or never known someone that has an academic profession, it’s hard to envision like what that even looks like for you or like what you can even do with that.”

“I thought ‘this exists?! I could be here!’ That’s when I first started even understanding the idea of college. I’m not saying it wasn’t brought up, but like for someone that’s never seen college or never known someone that has an academic profession, it’s hard to envision like what that even looks like for you or like what you can even do with that.”

The visits sparked Karla to explore resources to help her access college. Her cousin had recently received a cohort based tuition scholarship, which inspired her to apply. Around this time, Karla was a part of a nonprofit mentorship program. She was paired with a mentor who celebrated and helped guide Karla through the cohort based tuition scholarship interview and school selection stages. “I told her I got into the second round; her eyeballs exploded! I remember she said ‘this is such a big opportunity.’ I did not understand how big of a thing it was yet.” The mentor brainstormed with Karla for hours on qualities Karla was looking for in a school. “She was like an older sister. She framed what it was to even think about a school.” The mentor encouraged Karla to consider the resources she needed to succeed in college, especially social support. “[The mentor] is technically a white woman and she took the time to step back and think about who I was as a 17 year old Latina from the west side and was like, ‘you need to find these things to be able to find support in these spaces.’”

After these conversations, Karla was better equipped to identify the colleges that fit her needs. Like many first-generation college and low-income students, she was financially responsible for finding the money to pay for her education. “I knew that I needed to find a way to get college to be paid for…I had to find the most secure way possible to do that.” So, Karla worked hard to prepare for the next rounds of interviews.

“I knew that I needed to find a way to get college to be paid for…I had to find the most secure way possible to do that.”

Karla’s Path to College

Through the cohort scholarship program, Karla was awarded a full tuition scholarship to a liberal arts college in Indiana. As a part of her cohort scholarship, she went through programming to prepare her for her transition to college. The change, however, was still emotionally tough for Karla. “Nothing could prepare you. I was really close to my family. I was practically helping raise my nephews. This was the first time I’m away from home. I didn’t have access to the things I’m used to…That drop off day, everyone was crying.”

“Nothing could prepare you. I was really close to my family. I was practically helping raise my nephews. This was the first time I’m away from home. I didn’t have access to the things I’m used to…That drop off day, everyone was crying.”

Luckily, Karla found her community on campus. She roomed with a friend from her high school and, through her scholarship program, had a secure group of classmates she could rely on. She and her friend also joined a mentorship program where they got paired with an older student. “I loved my mentor, five stars. We clicked with her really well. She was essential for me and my friend to transition to college.”

The academic transition, however, was rough. Karla was in honors classes and was taking STEM courses to major in environmental science. She felt prepared for her seminars and had strong critical thinking skills, but saw she still had to grow in her writing. “It was very intense. [The transition] asked a lot of me. I used to live in the library all the time because the level of writing and the level of expectation was completely different from what I went through in high school.”

After that semester, Karla reconsidered her STEM major. She took her first economics class and worked hard to understand her readings. “In the readings, there were all these words that were uncommon to my mind. So my readings would take me longer because I was out here researching what these readings meant…rereading everything.” Her professor had required office hours, and Karla was terrified to go.

“In the readings, there were all these words that were uncommon to my mind. So my readings would take me longer because I was out here researching what these readings meant…rereading everything.”

“I was scared because who prepares you for that?! To have one-on-one with professors your freshman year? It’s scary. I thought they were gonna judge my paper, say it’s horrible.” Her professor was shocked when Karla told her she hadn’t taken any economics classes in high school. The professor bluntly asked “how are you passing?”

Looking back, Karla is proud of how she succeeded in the class. However, it also forced her to realize how differently she navigated college compared to her peers. “I was the only one from the west side of Chicago. Only person of color in that class. So my way of communicating things or analyzing things was completely different from my peers…I didn’t write the way they wrote. I didn’t speak the way they spoke.”

“I was the only one from the west side of Chicago. Only person of color in that class. So my way of communicating things or analyzing things was completely different from my peers…I didn’t write the way they wrote. I didn’t speak the way they spoke.”

This was especially true because Karla grew up in a Spanish-speaking household. “I felt the difference of being raised in an English-speaking household versus a Latino-based household. All these little shocks one by one were like entering me like low bullet points. Thinking, ‘Wow, like I am so different from all these kids.’ But also then I was understanding the bar of expectations in academia. What is the level you gotta write? What is the type of terminology you gotta be using, the types of transitions. I was constantly battling that because I was not a product of that. I did not go to a private school. I did not get raised in an English-speaking household. I was trying to beat imposter syndrome in that space during my first semester.”

The next semester, Karla took a sociology course on social capital, which she felt validated her experience. “The class was a space where I could deconstruct what is going on in my life. It was so cool, gave me wording for it. It was the first class where I felt the reality of what space we were in was acknowledged.” After that class, Karla fell in love with sociology. Eventually, she declared a double major in sociology and Spanish with a minor in Latin and Caribbean studies.

“The class was a space where I could deconstruct what is going on in my life. It was so cool, gave me wording for it. It was the first class where I felt the reality of what space we were in was acknowledged.”

Karla was grateful for her beautiful opportunities to build community on campus with other students.“The older students were constantly doing programming throughout the week. We’ll have a cookout, if the [Social Justice Student Center] is doing some activism work, you’ll go do activism work and you’ll see your friends. We were also a school that everyone was on campus so you’re seeing your friends every single day.”

By her second year, Karla was thriving. “I finally understood how to handle my time and like my schedules. I was running back and forth–the meetings, going to class, doing homework. I was so proactive.” Then the pandemic hit, and Karla lost her rhythm with her schedule. “It’s so easy to get lost, lose your motivation, your will to just do stuff.” Karla was already struggling with the racial and political dynamics of being at a Predominantly White Institution (PWI) in Indiana.

“It’s so easy to get lost, lose your motivation, your will to just do stuff.”

Karla was dedicated to supporting her student community but also had to focus on academics. Even though she was taking online classes from home, her scholarship required her to maintain a 3.0 GPA at all times. “I had no other choice but to have good grades during these times. Also I was in this mindset, an expectation of ‘you need to graduate.’” So, during the pandemic, Karla was working hard. Since she was at home, her parents could see her workload first-hand. “My parents saw me on my computer and desk for six hours straight doing readings. They asked me ‘what are you doing? Why so much homework?’ It was the first hint of vision that they got of what college was.”

“My parents saw me on my computer and desk for six hours straight doing readings. They asked me ‘what are you doing? Why so much homework?’ It was the first hint of vision that they got of what college was.”

Despite the hardship, when the school asked for student leaders to come back to campus, she did. “When Covid happened and everything shut down, they were just gonna bring back first years and sophomores. But what happens when there’s no upperclassmen to set the standard of how spaces work? Because all these sophomores and freshmen don’t know anything about the fall and you just throw them on campus and they get to create their own world.” Karla came back to campus with several of her student leader friends.They adopted new programming to accommodate the latest safety precautions, like restructuring their entire student government. Essentially, she and her friends were helping build the campus culture and community while still being students “We created the world we wanted to see on campus.”

By her senior year, Karla was burnt out. She was leading organizations, including her sorority, writing two theses, and helping her family through legal processes at home. “I never fell behind, but I was helping my family. Who’s going to know more about reading, filling in paperwork and helping someone get ready a case more than someone that went to school? And I’m the only one that has gone to school.” It was hard to put in the extra effort for classes. “Everything was crashing and flowing. I was ready to be done. It was rough trying to keep my friends motivated to do their work. We’d try to sit down for two hours to work on our thesis and still run programming. It was crazy.”

“Everything was crashing and flowing. I was ready to be done. It was rough trying to keep my friends motivated to do their work. We’d try to sit down for two hours to work on our thesis and still run programming. It was crazy.”

Karla graduated with her bachelor’s in four years, in 2022. Reminiscing about her time in undergrad, Karla felt she wouldn’t have gotten through undergrad without her chosen family on campus. “My community is what grounded me for like my four years at [my school]…Even with Covid happening, I got more down with my community. More protective of it, and supportive of it.” Even with the support, finishing her degree took a massive toll on her. “Did I get As? Yes. But was I dying? Absolutely. I didn’t realize how much I had pushed myself throughout those four years.”

“Did I get As? Yes. But was I dying? Absolutely. I didn’t realize how much I had pushed myself throughout those four years.”

What Karla Found Helpful

• Tuition scholarship: Without Karla’s financial aid, she would not have been able to attend college. Her scholarship allowed her to pursue her bachelor’s and become a great student leader. The scholarship supported her, but simultaneously, the requirements to continue to get funding pressured her, especially during the pandemic. She worked hard to maintain a certain GPA and to finish her degree within the confines of her scholarship in 4 years.
• Her student community on campus: As a first-generation college and immigrant student, Karla struggled to be away from home for the first time. She immediately found support through her cohort scholarship and on campus. Thanks to the thoughtful programming of the upperclassmen on campus, she found many opportunities to connect and make friends. Her friends became her support system; together, they became leaders on campus and worked together to help each other graduate.
• Having a supportive university that embraced their student leaders: In all her leadership roles, Karla felt she made a profound impact thanks to the autonomy and support her campus provided her. She was able to engage and feel invested in life outside of classes. This sparked her to imagine endless possibilities of what campus culture and community could look like for students. “I think it was pretty cool that at my school if you were in a leadership role, you could do a lot.”

Karla’s Aspirations for the field

1. Chicago Public Schools need more programming around exploration, where students can dream about their futures and unpack what they are going through. Karla believes it’s essential for young people to have conversations where they can talk about their dreams and explore opportunities, especially around what college could look like. Thanks to the TRIO program in high school, Karla explored what college looked like and was inspired to attend. All young people need spaces where their questions, doubts, and curiosity about the future are embraced. “We’re in a world where there’s so high expectations of each other. Like, ‘You need to know what you’re doing, or you need to go do this.’ It infiltrates that exploration part. Young people need to understand that you’re not supposed to always know what you’re going to do and that’s part of the experience.”
2. Professors should get to know their students: Inspired by her experience in office hours, Karla thinks educators must connect with their students and be intentional with engaging students as learners and as people. That way, educators can better understand their students and appreciate the knowledge and ways of thinking students bring to the first day of class. “Give students that space to be human through their journey in academia. Because academia’s rough. Like it or not, it’s a privilege to be in an education system.”