Hi, my name is Breeze Rivers and
my major is Communications in Media Studies.
My name is Justin Landingham

I'm a Junior at Cal State San Bernardino.
And my major is Criminal Justice.
What's up you guys!
My name is Alec Zavala
I'm a fourth year here at Cal State San Bernardino
and my major is Communication, Media Studies.
Hi, my name is Selina Cerda
and my major is Mass Communications.
and I'm a fifth year graduating in June.
Hello! My name is Andy Guzman.
I'm getting a degree in American Studies.
Hello! I'm Alec Zavala.
And we're gonna be conducting interviews
for first generation Cal State San Bernardino Students
Just wanting to know why
and what influenced them to come to Cal State San Bernardino.
And to attend college.
What are their motives and their reasons.
So, I'm here with Carlos Delatorre
and he is a first generation student.
And the first question that I would like to ask him is
Who influenced you or what influenced you
to start college even though
even though your parents didn't start
or didn't attend college.
What influenced me to go to college was
I guess you could start from my grandparents.
They were from Mexico
and they migrated to California.
And you know, they gave the
start to our family.
Hearing their story
and their arrival here
was pretty hard.
And then even with my parents
You know, they had a struggle growing up
in a low income family.
You know, things were a lot tougher back then for them
And I felt like it was my duty
to step it up and go to college
and really represent my family.
Make a big difference and be the first
Delatorre in the family
to get a college education
I feel like that was very important
for our family. I think it would've been
a good thing and you know
and a good stepping stool
for my children in the future.
I want to be able to say that I have a bachelors degree.
I wanted to become educated.
I want to be able to promote
within the career of my choosing in the future.
You know, so I feel like it was very necessary
and I just wanted you know to provide the best that I can
and make my parents proud
make my grandparents proud
make my whole entire family proud
and Cal State San Bernardino looked like
the type of campus to come to and accomplish that.
So Carlos, how was your application process like?
Did you have any help? Any mentoring?
Any friends? Older Friends? Older Siblings? Cousins?
Anybody to help you along the way?

Of starting your application to Cal State San Bernardino?
So, like I said, I didn't really have anybody to guide me through
It was kind of difficult but um
My friend Alec Zavala right here with me haha
Me and him went to high school together
and we were able to talk about the process together
We used to ask each other like
"Hey! Are you hearing anything back from the colleges?"
"Is there any paperwork or documents we need to make sure to check off before we do something?"
So me and him pretty much you know
helped each other out. We would always make sure
to check to see if we were missing anything
or if there was any stuff we were missing out on
we always helped each other out.
We also made sure to cover FASFA to.
FASFA was a big thing for us
Luckily I've been able to go to school for
not I guess you wouldn't say free
I've been have the ability to come to school
With Financial Aid and
It's really helped me out with Cal Grants and stuff like that.
So, without that, it would've made college a whole lot harder for me
It's comfortable to feel that I can come to school
and not have the burden of working two jobs
even though I do...hahaha
but you know that I mean, there's that
coverage to make me feel like you know
that I'm know going to be in debt or anything like that.
The school that I went to too,
Eleanor Roosevelt High School, they had a
really good program I guess you could say
not program but I guess they really taught
the students what to do to prepare for school.
They kind of walked you through like
"Hey! When your going to college, make sure to look out for these things..."
I hear a lot of other high schools
they kind of just let their students do what they need to do but
Eleanor Roosevelt really stuck with you and made sure that
all their students knew what to do to get ready for school
and then actually being a fourth year student now
and same as with Alec, we're almost done with college.
And now I'm being the mentor
for my cousins that are gonna be the
first generation students too coming to college.
Their asking me questions like
"Hey! Carlos! Where are you learning from your first year of college?"
and "What to stay away from or what to do?"
"What are some benefits you'd consider for us taking?"
and this and that...so
You know, it's great being a mentor for my cousins
because they look up to me you know...
the older cousin thats already done with, well almost done with college
So, I guess it feels good to be able to help.
Even others too! So I guess that how I got started in the process with college.
So, attending Cal State San Bernardino,
and looking back on your college career,
(I mean you still are attending but...)
looking back, (a couple years back),
what are the biggest obstacles you have faced
in attending Cal State San Bernardino?
So, I would say, the first year of college
I think was by far the hardest.
Just because, one, I'm thrown into a whole different world
that I've never, you know, experienced before.
COLLEGE! You know...It's HUGE!
You have to get the work done yourself.
No one's going to be there by you to help you.
The reason that made
college so hard for me on my first year was
the unfortunate passing of my grandfather.
My grandfather was always there to support me.
He got me my first car and
You know, to this day I still hold that car very precious to me.
I feel like it's him making me being able to travel
to wherever I need to go to whether it's an interview
in a different city or any certain situation.
He was there for me a lot.
He mentored me a lot with life and
what to prepare for.
Unfortunately to, my parents divorced freshman year.
So, that took a big toll on my emotional side too.
Those two things were a big loss for me.
And it was hard to get through that
and plus with the new world of college
I guess another thing that really was a big obstacle for me
was I guess just your everyday distractions
being a commuter student living so far away
sometimes I'd get the feeling of
"Oh, I could just skip a class today."
or "It's too far to drive I'll just stay home."
and that really end up taking a big problem out of
I guess your way to graduating.
cause you'll miss out on an assignment that you forgot or
or you didn't hear vital information
or a pop quiz you weren't there for
and then just being here at school too sometimes
talking to your friends, they'll say
"Hey! Let's go out to a party this weekend?"
When you got a midterm to study for or
they'll say "Hey! Let's go eat some lunch!"
and then you never come back to school.
So, those are just things you really need to like
be I guess buckled down on
be disciplined on yourself to not get distracted.
Because of that, I actually had to take summer school
and take more classes in one quarter
just to make up of what I've lost
So, if I have known that better I wouldn't have done that.

So I could graduate as soon as possible.
I guess that's my big advice is to
stay away from big distractions like that
and just get it done your first time.
Cause your gonna have to pay double or
spend double your time just to get your bachelors
So, just get it done the first time.
So Carlos, what do you like about Cal State San Bernardino?
Well theres a lot of things
being a student here, I grew to love it even more.
There's more things you learn
every year that you stay here
at this campus and you know, try to get your degree or masters
whatever type of education you're trying to get
What really made it good for me was the location.
The location was real great for me
I just thought, I don't have to live on campus
I could drive to school and still be close to family.
It wasn't like going out of state
and I'm not a big person of change
so going out of state would've been a big thing to me to
try to work on but
It's very local and then I also heard that there was great programs here
like business, the business program is great here from what I hear
So just hearing that Cal State San Bernardino
is very good on their programs.
They strive to get their students to graduate.
I hear on other campuses, "You're just a number."
Well here, they make sure that every student is heard.
That their faculty make sure that the curriculum
is taught to the best of their ability to their students.
And that's what I really like about the campus.
Is that the professors here
take their time out of their own schedules
to meet up with their students and
really make sure that their passing and
their heard in other words.
So, yeah and then on top of it too
the campus is a very beautiful campus!
I don't think, theres other schools that have views too but
Cal State San Bernardino is one of the few campuses that have
very scenic views and
you can walk around and theres green everywhere!
Some campuses don't have that luxury.
it's just skyscrapers and city skylines and stuff like that.
But we have a lot of greenery and mountains to see so...yeah!
So, you've been here about four years now.
Is there anything you'd like to see Cal State San Bernardino improve on?
Or any changes you'd like to see in the near future?
I guess would say I'd like to see a little bit more
I guess classes that have to do with film
I believe there like a good four or five classes
that I've taken as like broadcasting.
It was Local Matters and then
I also took a film analysis where
you kind of are taught the in depth how film making is done and the art behind it.
The other one was, you actually got to make a short film.
You had to do a whole thing, it was with Lane Bishop
That was probably the best experience
I had as in like my enjoyment in film
cause it was legit you know we had
full on you know casting
going on...we actually had people audition.
We had positions that we had to stay at.
That actually showed me a lot but
I feel like Cal State San Bernardino could have just a little bit more.
Cause I feel like its kind of like
not focused on here so
I think if we had a little bit more options to choose from
or additional things to go off from
That would be nice cause
I really enjoy film and I work here as a
videographer at Strategic Communications.
