Notes

Mr. Williams:
Oldest of 7, working class
Couldn't pay for living expenses
Went to SCU to live at home for first year and a half
Ms. Rodriguez:
From SSF, HHS alumni
Didn't think about going to college much
Nobody in her family went to college
Sonoma state transferred to CSM after two years then graduated from SF state
Dad was MIA her whole life, she didn't have a good relationship with her mom
Mom was a house cleaner and was always not there because she was working
Emulated a lot that her mom taught her, mom was her biggest inspiration
Mom shared how poor her family was in Guatemala and started working at age 9
In her mom's 20s, because of how poor they were her mom chased the American dream
Rodriguez was a bad student and school wasn't her thing
I tried leadership, I sucked at it
Grew up super diverse, culture shock at Hillsdale
Her previous school everyone hated school, at Hillsdale everyone loved school and wanted to go to college
Hillsdale Kyoto freshman they drew their roadmap to college
If she didn't go to college she didn't have much to fall back on
She started to recognize her mom wasn't gone for nothing and was actually providing
If she wanted out it was going to have to be on her own
She was desperate for something better, didn't have her shit together
Busted her ass to take classes at CSM senior year and tried to fix things
I wonder if my mom was that desperate like me in senior year
The reality of if you don't go to college you have nothing else, this is my way out
It lit a fire under my ass
One piece of advice: It's gonna be hard, it's sO muCh hARdeR wHeN yOu'RE fiRSt gEn
Getting into college is just the beginning of it
Ms. Poblete:
Grandparents, lawyer in the Phillipines
Parents were always expected to go to college in the Phillipines
She and her sister were always expected to go to college
When she was a senior, her parents were divorced and her sister moved across the country
Grew up in Florida, only applied to state colleges and didn't know about out of state schools
She was always worried about money
She went to University of Miami, it was too much money
Got a full scholarship at Florida Atlantic University
Got Masters and applied to pHD to study Asian American experience
Went to Northern Illinois, didn't want to write dissertation in the corn fields and the snow
lived and worked in Japan for two years
When she went to grad school, she wondered why she was there and if it was luck
She was super intimidated, her first semester of graduate school
Luckily she had mentors who saw something in her and she wanted to do something different
It took external validation, she realized she got there because she worked hard
One piece of advice: stop comparing, keep doing you
Ms. Maniego:
Parents were from Phillipines, went to uni in the Phillipines
Family was really poor, sometimes couldn't go to school
Mom majored in accounting, dad had a degree in mechanical engineering but was not confident
Didn't bother to get a job, busboy at steakhouse
Got a job at night shift at post office
Grew up in Daly City, went to SI, didn't get much help applying to uni
Berkeley and Santa Cruz, Dad lived through me
Went to Santa Cruz and did journalism
Went to USF for teaching credential
Her mom depended on her a lot to help out her brother
Brother was doing vandalism and smoking pot
She came home less frequently and was still there for her brother
Her parents had to up their parenting with an annoying seventh grader
Made them realize she was growing up and they got closer to her brother
Good for him to see her as a role model
One piece of advice: push through