Valeria’s Student Story

Meet Valeria

Valeria is a Mexican-American undocumented first generation college graduate from the Southeast side of Chicago. She is the first in her family to graduate from high school and from college. She is currently taking a gap year and gaining patient care experience as a certified nursing assistant and hopes to apply to Physician Assistant school.

Navigating High School

In 8th grade, Valeria was intentional about exploring her high school options. She was curious about selective enrollment schools and with her counselors’ support she applied to the one closest to her neighborhood. Once admitted she decided to enroll. On the first day of her freshman year, she immediately felt this was going to be a tougher transition than she previously anticipated.

Valeria was completely unfamiliar with selective enrollment schools. At her elementary school, she remembers most eight graders enrolled at their neighborhood high school. She recalled, “I went there without really knowing what I was getting myself into.” Valeria was navigating the new transition independently, which she mentioned was very difficult. “I remember that the transition from middle school to high school was really challenging…I just felt like I was in a different starting off point. And so, I really, really had to figure out how even how to study because I didn’t have to study in middle school, so I had to relearn how to be a student.”

During her freshman year, Valeria felt overwhelmed but also simultaneously inspired to think about college — “I really started thinking about high school freshman year when I walked around the halls and they had the banners and the flags of every institution that the students would go to. And I was like, ‘oh, oh my God, I recognize these names in movies and stuff!’ So, I started thinking about how can get from point A to point B? How can I continue my education, especially because of my status, because I’m undocumented?”

“I really started thinking about high school freshman year when I walked around the halls and they had the banners and the flags of every institution that the students would go to. And I was like, ‘oh, oh my God, I recognize these names in movies and stuff!’ So, I started thinking about how can get from point A to point B? How can I continue my education, especially because of my status, because I’m undocumented?”

Her worry behind college access grew as she approached senior year. “I didn’t have DACA because I wasn’t eligible at the time, but it didn’t really affect me as much as it did senior year. That’s when I saw, ‘I don’t belong in spaces that other students do because of my status.’ A lot of my peers would attend the FAFSA workshop, but that didn’t really apply to me.”

As she talked about her experience, Valeria looked down and sighed from how exhausting and stressful this time of her life was. She recalled, “I just really felt ostracized and isolated and especially my senior year, and I just felt like I had pressure. I had an additional level of pressure and responsibilities and expectations that my peers didn’t have.”

“I just really felt ostracized and isolated and especially my senior year, and I just felt like I had pressure. I had an additional level of pressure and responsibilities and expectations that my peers didn’t have.”

Valeria had to find additional support. First, she went to her counselor which she found that at times was helpful and other times hurtful: “I remember reaching out to my counselor for guidance, and sometimes most of the time they were supportive, but there were some times where it could have been better. For example, I was shared scholarships, but a lot of those scholarships were for undocumented students in California. And I appreciated them trying to help, but it just hurt me more because it’s like, ‘Were you actually intentional about the research you were doing to actually support me?’”

The immense lack of support and mis-information, drove Valeria to feel incredibly discouraged during the college application process, especially since she was both an undocumented AND first generation college student. Although her parents were supportive, Valeria was still navigating nearly all the application process alone. She recounted, “My parents were very supportive, but they didn’t know there was a language barrier. They really didn’t know the way to support me, aside from just being emotionally there, which I’m really grateful for that. But I just felt really alone.”

“My parents were very supportive, but they didn’t know there was a language barrier. They really didn’t know the way to support me, aside from just being emotionally there, which I’m really grateful for that. But I just felt really alone.”

At this point, Valeria started to search for support outside her high school. “I found a community of other undocumented students through [a Coalition]. This group meets together monthly, and we would talk about the challenges of being undocumented, and it was like students from different schools across the city. So I felt really heard and safe in those spaces.”

The organization quickly became Valeria’s main college counseling support. In this space, CPS students from across the city would share scholarships and advice to support each other during the college application process. The organization also helped Valeria discover the power of community and inspired her to push for change to help other undocumented students. “That really started my journey of advocacy and activism and speaking up for others and speaking up for myself being a part of that group. And so I continued that being involved in that organization or being a part of that space because I felt reassured that I could continue my journey, my educational journey, because other students had similar barriers and identities, and yet they were continuing,” she shared.

“That really started my journey of advocacy and activism and speaking up for others and speaking up for myself being a part of that group. And so I continued that being involved in that organization or being a part of that space because I felt reassured that I could continue my journey, my educational journey, because other students had similar barriers and identities, and yet they were continuing,”

Although Valeria grew up with a strong academic drive her whole life, after facing closed doors and opportunities applying for college as an undocumented first-generation college student Valeria was exhausted from school. “Then college came around and a lot of what I saw for myself in high school was shaped by my status…When I was a senior and thinking about majors, I was thinking about, I just want to get in and get out…I don’t want to study anymore. I don’t want to keep facing all these barriers, all these challenges, especially with finding financial aid.”

Despite the exhaustion, Valeria worked hard to secure the money she needed to enroll in college. She enrolled at a private university in Chicago because they gave her the most financial aid and she could be close to home. When she first visited her school, she remembers feeling welcomed on campus: “They had a banner and it said ‘immigrants are welcome.’ I had never seen that. I have never seen anyone or seen any display be so vocal about welcoming immigrants.” She felt she belonged.

“They had a banner and it said ‘immigrants are welcome.’ I had never seen that. I have never seen anyone or seen any display be so vocal about welcoming immigrants.”

Valeria’s College Journey

After a tumultuous college application process, Valeria started off her first year in college strong with a leadership, service, and research program. This highly selective four year program focused on mentoring young women to create social justice change. Looking back Valeria appreciates the great opportunities and support she was afforded through the program,“I’m really grateful because I got to learn from other powerful women, and through that I got to learn about myself too.”

Still, even with the support Valeria remembers how similar in high school Valeria had to advocate for herself and seek the resources she needed. “I found myself doing the same thing when I transitioned from high school to college when it’s even more challenging. So it’s all been a learning process, but throughout every stage I’ve really built, I really have worked on myself and realized the value of advocacy, self-advocacy specifically, and researching or seeking out resources and finding those mentors that you can go to and role models.”

“I found myself doing the same thing when I transitioned from high school to college when it’s even more challenging. So it’s all been a learning process, but throughout every stage I’ve really built, I really have worked on myself and realized the value of advocacy, self-advocacy specifically, and researching or seeking out resources and finding those mentors that you can go to and role models.”

Even with a supportive community behind her, Valeria noted how her institution still had huge support gaps for her as a woman of color in engineering. She describes the beginning of college, “It was definitely really challenging. And even though I had community and mentors, there were several points where I dealt with imposter syndrome, and I found myself questioning whether I belonged in those spaces, especially as a [Predominately White Institution] PWI was not represented in my engineering courses.” There was even less support for her as an undocumented student. “I just recall one specific presentation that the director had about DACA, and she didn’t even know what it stood for. So she was having a whole presentation, and this was someone high up, and I was like, ‘you’re trying to support, but you’re not really educated on how to support.’ So I just felt, again, that feeling of isolation, and it was really hard to put myself out there.”

Valeria’s resiliency inspired her to go to some programming tailored for undocumented students starting soon called “UndocuWeek.” “Undocumented students at the university came together and talked about their experience, it was basically a community of undocumented students in college. So I’m really grateful that I had that. But then as I was really getting involved, that’s when it was that week when it was like UndocuWeek, COVID hit, and we got sent home. And so just as I was opening myself up, that’s when we got sent home. So yeah, just my first semester was really difficult.”

After going through so much, the pandemic took another toll on Valeria’s mental health. “It was one of the lowest points of my life. It was just so new. And I just felt like that I couldn’t have these conversations with my parents because this was their dream and it was my dream. It was my dream, but I just felt like I was failing at their dream. Even though I was trying my best… It was really challenging. The academic workload. I just felt so unfulfilled by my classes. I was just getting by.”

“It was one of the lowest points of my life. It was just so new. And I just felt like that I couldn’t have these conversations with my parents because this was their dream and it was my dream. It was my dream, but I just felt like I was failing at their dream. Even though I was trying my best… It was really challenging. The academic workload. I just felt so unfulfilled by my classes. I was just getting by.”

The pandemic made it especially hard to keep up with rigorous engineering course load as a first generation student. “Coming from a pretty much straight A student in high school and in middle school, and then college comes around and I got my first C and I know it’s like looking back, it’s not that big of a deal, but it was for me. It was in a class that I didn’t even take in high school. It was physics and I didn’t take that. So now here I was taking physics for engineers, and then I just felt like I was thrown into the deep end. I was trying to try to water really barely hanging on. And that’s when I realized engineering was not for me.”

Looking back, Valeria recognizes how she was handling too many big transitions as a freshman in college. “There was just so many changes happening that freshman year, coming into college, trying to adapt COVID, trying to change my major, trying to figure out just a lot about myself. And it was really overwhelming, but thankfully, I think eventually I found my way.”

“There was just so many changes happening that freshman year, coming into college, trying to adapt COVID, trying to change my major, trying to figure out just a lot about myself. And it was really overwhelming, but thankfully, I think eventually I found my way.”

She changed her major to Biology. Although she was confident with the major, she had questions on what careers it would lead to. “I declared my major, but I wasn’t exactly sure what I wanted to do with it… So that’s when I started working at a clinic. During the time of Covid, I just was working at a front desk aid, trying to figure out what I wanted from my major or how to use my major to do something in medicine.”

At the clinic, Valeria met an older student and was inspired to learn about her education journey. “I just wanted to hear about what she was doing and why she was doing it. What were her reasons, why did she want to pursue PA versus MD?” The older student talked to Valeria about the different pro’s and con’s of each which inspired Valeria to have examples to build her four year plan. “I really worked on my four year plan. So that’s something that I would advise any students to create. I don’t know if all schools did this, but I know [at my university] in our freshman seminar type of thing, type of class, we created a four year plan. And as a visual learner, that really helped me see where I was and what classes I needed to take, how many credits to graduate. And especially it helped me visualize the classes that I needed to figure out what my next step was, what pre-reqs I needed to take”

After a rocky start Valeria rest of her college experience went well! “I did really well after my freshman year. I found my groove…Overall I did well academically, which I’m really proud of.” This plan gave her direction and purpose. It helped Valeria visualize her future, and work confidently in that direction.

“I did really well after my freshman year. I found my groove…Overall I did well academically, which I’m really proud of.”

Valeria is most proud of living into her strong passion of service and community by creating peer mentorship program at her college. Inspired by the great support that the coalition gave her, she wanted to help other students’ college transitions. She recounted, “I helped create that initiative where we partnered [with] a college student or a recent college grad with a senior, rising senior in high school. We supported them by helping them through the social, emotional and academic component of applying and transitioning from high school to college.”

Remembering her younger self, Valeria smiled, “I’m really proud of myself because in high school I was introverted and didn’t really put myself out there. And now here I was in college creating this initiative and administering it. I was one of the program coordinators. So it really came full circle and I’m really proud of that. So I think I thrived when I was advocating and giving back.” In this way, Valeria strives to be the person her younger self needed.

“I’m really proud of myself because in high school I was introverted and didn’t really put myself out there. And now here I was in college creating this initiative and administering it. I was one of the program coordinators. So it really came full circle and I’m really proud of that. So I think I thrived when I was advocating and giving back.”

Valeria graduated as a undocumented first-generation student debt-free. She is excited to continue the next steps to pursue her medical dreams. She shared, “Right now, I’m currently in my gap year gaining patient care experience as a certified nursing assistant in hopes of applying to PA school later this month and continuing my education through the physician assistant program.”

What worked for Valeria

• Being connected with a community of undocumented students: After initially navigating the barriers of the college application process as an undocumented student by herself, Valeria feels appreciative of the connections and support she found with the Coalition. The organization connected her with other students that affirmed her feelings, connected her to undocumented open scholarships, and became her main source for guidance for her on how to navigate the college process. She said it was “realizing how much of an impact [the Coalition] had on my life and my confidence.”
• Being a part of a leadership, service, and research program: Starting her freshman year, Valeria was a part of a program that aligned with her passion for social change. Throughout the four years she connected with mentors that support her leadership development journey. “I knew I was passionate about social justice, but that program really allowed me to learn about other forms of social justice. So I’m really grateful because I got to learn from other powerful women, and through that I got to learn about myself too.”
• Carving a path forward despite failures in the system: At so many points, Valeria felt isolated, alone, and overwhelmed. The systems around her continued to limit her access to higher education. Through this system-failure, Valeria forged her own path forward, often continually searching for the support, guidance, and community she needed to be successful. She created spaces where there were none. She found mentors in unexpected places and created programming that she wished she had had as a high schooler.

Valeria’s Aspirations For The Field

Although self-advocacy worked for Valeria, it was a tremendous amount of pressure and additional work as an undocumented first-generation college young adult.

1. For universities, step up and “let students be students.” “A lot of times when I was in these spaces advocating for undocumented students, I was advocating for myself as well. And it was just exhausting. I was doing the work, what others get paid for, but they’re not doing enough. I was holding higher ups accountable and it shouldn’t be my job. And it was so unfortunate. I’m glad I did, but also, I was just a student at the end of the day trying to balance my classes, my workload and other extracurricular and commitments. And here I was having meetings with higher ups monthly or two times a month to hold them accountable to see what they’ve done for students. But that was not my job. It’s so unfortunate.

“It’s not up to the students to continuously have to hold them accountable. They should hold themselves accountable for being analyzed, for being there for students, all types of students regardless of status.”

For students, remembering that you are more than just a student:

• Take classes that help you learn about yourself. During her senior year, Valeria was debating taking either a medical interpretation class or a creative writing class. “I kept going back and forth. This could help me in my career, but there’s this course that I wouldn’t take otherwise. When do you even have access to creative writing? And I decided to go, I chose the class that would help me personally and not focus on my career. So I think that’s something that I would advise. Take courses or engage in opportunities that can help you learn more about yourself, not necessarily how you can advance your career.… The classes that stood out to me the most were the classes that not really attached to my major, but they were just passion classes or passion developed from those classes.”

“If I just purely focused on these academic classes, that would only help me as a student and my major, I would’ve been even more lost within myself. So a hundred percent focus on classes or even experiences that will help build you, and you’re the identities that are not just surrounding being a student.”