In this clip, two first-generation college students commiserate about their experiences at university. They share how they feel bilingual in the sense that they can communicate with often lofty higher education academics and also their childhood communities who don’t have higher degrees. One student describes the pressures she faces when it comes to being first-gen because she doesn’t have the legacy or family members who can guide her through her college experience. This is unlike other white or affluent students she’s interacted with who have participated in college-prep programs their whole lives and have had access to resources that she didn’t.
I’m first-gen and I hit the ground running, and I have to run even faster than some of my classmates because I’m the first one out of the gate to do this. And for them it’s like, ‘I can jog’.
