Melissa, we already know each other but for the
purposes of everyone who's watching this
I'm going to introduce myself my name is
Anita Casavantes Bradford and I am
an associate professor of history and
chicano latino studies and I am
a first time college student why don't
you introduce yourself as well.  I am Melissa Sigona I'm also
a first gen college student and I'm currently a senior at UCI.
And what's your major?
Sorry, history
with a minor in education. So I'm curious
about thinking back on your childhood
when was it that you knew that you were
going to college. I think I always wanted
to go to college just cause I come from a
very small town and like my parents had
me when they were teenagers in high school and so for me it was always like a
way out is like getting to college and
leaving my home town. And when did you
realize that how young were you? My aunt, my mom's older sister went
away to college I think her and my uncle
had always talked about it so I don't
think there was ever a time when it I
wasn't planning on going to college but
I know I want to go to a private
Christian college when I was really
little and even that was my first choice
college applying to college and I'm
really glad I did not go to a small
Christian college. So I know for me there
was a specific moment in third grade
when I one be great academic honors
medal right and I was raised mostly by a
single mom who herself only finished 10th
grade right and this moment in third
grade when I when I won this academic
honors medal was for me kind of this
wake-up call of wow I'm smart and and if
I go to school if I study hard that
could be sort of a path to a different
future right what was it that you
imagined when you thought about going to
college how was that going to shape your
path?  I honestly do not know what
to expect I'd seen TV and I've heard
stories from friends or sisters how they
expected college it wasn't what I
expected I remember coming here and
thinking like it was kind of easier than
I expected like I thought the
classes would be much harder but it was
really shocking to go into a
lecture hall with 300 people when my
graduating class was smaller than
that high school so that was shocking. So let's let's talk a little bit about high school
so you're in high school you know that you
want to go to college
how did you figure out what classes you
had to take how to apply all of that?
Because you didn't have you know parents to help you.  Honestly my biggest help through high
school was my boyfriend he was two years
older than me and when we met I didn't
know I was a freshman I didn't know
anything about AP classes, I knew you had to take
the SAT I didn't know the specifics
of how to be successful in high school
but he helped me and kind of guided me through like what classes to take what teachers
I would probably like what I wouldn't like
and then I also had a really awesome
counselor who was just like sat down with me and helped me do all my applications
and she helped me do FAFSA for the first time and like without her and my boyfriend I
don't think I would have been able to
get this far.  So fast foward your
accepted to UC Irvine were you accepted
anywhere else? I was accepted to Point
Loma Nazarene my first choice which was
a private Christian College San Jose
State and then UC Irvine I didn't apply
to very many colleges.  And why did you choose
UCI?  I'm UCI blue and gold which
means my parents are low income so I
pretty much a full-ride scholarship and I only have to pay for housing and the private
Christian college that I wanted to go to
originally it would've been like $20,000
a year after aid so it was just
unrealistic to go there. Ok so it was
purely a financial decision pretty much
and it was San Jose State and I did not want
to go to San Jose State that's where everyone went. It's right next to my home town.
That was my backup school I did not want to go there
So you chose UCI.  Think back to your first
week, week one of quarter one. I was lost.
Tell me about that, tell me how it felt.
It was very overwhelming I was very lost
I didn't get on campus housing
so like I didn't have friends in a dorm, I
had these two really shy girls that
didn't ever want to leave our apartment
or go do anything and what kind of
got me connected my freshman year is
there ended up being a girl that we had
all of our classes together and I kinda
sort or started hanging out with her hall
and then I took a freshman seminar and I
think if I had not taken a freshman
seminar like my trajectory in college would've been very different.
So in that first quarter we we know from
talking to first gen students here at UCI
as well as from research that that
scholars have done about first-gen
experiences that that transition can be
challenging right so when you think back
to that first quarter what were the
challenges that you face in that first
quarter and how did you overcome them? I
think I was so afraid of failing I was
so afraid of not being able to pass my
classes and stay here that I like kind
of overcompensated by late going to
office hours a lot I got to know my TA
really well cause I was in humanities core
which is in like an intensive reading
and writing course here so I got to know the TA really well, she became like one of my
best friends like I was always in her office and then I only took two classes because
that was a eight unit class and then I had a GE and the GE was kind of like shockingly weird
just cause it was like a midterm and final
and that was it and weekly homework and
it was so different than my small
humanities class I was, I ended up doing OK on the
midterm so I ended up doing fine in the  class but I was really afraid of failing. Why were
you so afraid of failing?  Because I'm an overachiever and I did not want to fail my first
quarter
my GPA my first quarter ended up being
better than my high school GPA.  Wow so
that's really unusual actually for
first-gen students, being an
overachiever is not that's that's pretty
typical for most first-gen students that
they are overachievers that they're kind
of doing things that no one in their
family has done before but often that
first-quarter can be tough
academically for first-gen students and
so you represent this this other this
other example of how the first quarter
could go if you were going to give
advice to first gen students who want to
replicate your success in that first
quarter tell me three things that worked
for you in that first quarter?  Talk to your professors, do your
reading and look at the syllabus and the
biggest mistake people don't look at the
syllabus and like write down everything
they have to do for that class and they
missed due dates or they have a question
are or they're afraid to talk to a professor
and learn how to send a proper email
that's a big deal. Ok so tell me about a
proper email what's a proper email look like?   I just remember I didn't know anything about the Mr.
and Mrs. and you're not supposed to address professors as Mrs. Smith, however you like
address most doctor or professor and I
remember like sitting there at
humanities orientation having this crazy professors
standing up in front of everyone yelling
at us like do not address your emails
as Mr. and Mrs. and I was like I
don't understand what's going on why is
that a big deal but I think her warning
kind of helped me get, get in the
mindset of thinking more professionally
in my emails. I'm laughing
because I do I get these quarters every
email that are addressed to in my case I have dual surname right Cosovantes
Bradford and so I get endless variations
on Mrs. Bradford sometimes I get Ms.
right which is bizarre because I'm 42
and married right so but yeah it's it's
always a bit jarring to a professor when
you get an email I think especially for
women professors to get an email that
says Ms. or Mrs. because right away
it's like I'm a professor I have a Ph.D. I
worked for that why are you not using
the proper title right and that's not
the right foot to start off on with a
professo. Definitely it's weird though because in high school like I didn't know that
the professors had  Ph.D.s when I came into college that's not like common knowledge
I feel like my everyone was Mr and
Mrs. so coming to college it was such
a drastic change that it was it was
shocking and I was like oh my gosh and I
remembered googling my professors and
being like they went to  Princeton they went
to Harvard, Stanford I was like these are
really smart people
and they're published and they've done
cool things.  I remember that too
because I started I was a transfer
student I went to community college
first before I went to university so
many of my community college instructors
have master's degrees right a couple of
them had Ph.D.'s but they had chosen a
teaching track so they were not widely
published when I first got to university
and was in a class where a professor
assigned their book I I just was so
surprised by that cause you don't make the
connection necessarily that these are
scholars as well that write books that
write articles right and I think that
actually kinda leads to something that I
want to talk about a bit UCI is a
research on r1 a research-intensive
university which means that professors
are often really busy with their
research which means that it can be
harder to get face time with professors
right they can feel like they're
inaccessible so how have you built
relationships with professors?  I think
I've been really lucky with the
professors that I've gotten and I've
kind of I don't know cheated the system and only taken professors that I know that I
like. But how do you find that out?  I took
a freshman seminar with a professor
who I I like I want to do what you do is
basically what happened at her class and
I started emailing her about professors would I like this professor would this
this fit into what I would think and
she recommended taking your class my
sophomore year because I saw her
job talk she'll be good professor you
should take professor Casavantes so I
kind of cheated the system and used rate
my professor. Ok well cheated the system
I mean that has kind of a negative
connotation right but I would say that
you were proactive right you made one
connection with a professor that you
liked that you trusted and you asked
them for mentorship you ask them for
guidance right I think that's really
important in general and I know that
that's something that I had to learn to
do because I think sometimes when you're
first gen when you're from a low income
family when you're a kid that grew up
kind of quick and you learn to rely on
yourself and not necessarily rely
others it doesn't always occur to us to
ask for help
right learning to ask for help to email
the professor and say hey would this
other professor be a good fit for me
that's fantastic
where'd you get that idea? She told me if
I ever needed help to come to her and I
was really nervous cause I was doing research for human core and I was like I thought
someone in her in the library reading
the book that she wrote and I was like I should email this
professor and find out if I could talk
to her about doing research with her
like using her research to do my
research paper and it kind of all went
from there I had set up a meeting with
her at the time she wasn't even teaching
he was a dean so she wasn't even
teaching meeting with students and I
remember going into like the office and
they're being like she doesn't talk to
students and I was like I have a meeting with her at 11 so can you can you just go tell her
that I'm here and she has been
hugely influential and greatly helpful. So
for me there's two takeaways from that
right
don't be intimidated just because
someone has Dr behind anymore even Dean
behind their name right don't be
intimidated reach out right what's the
worst they can do? They could say no. They could say no right it's not the end of the
world and secondly if a professor says
email me or I'm interested in helping
you or come to office hours believe them
right I think that a lot of time
students are intimidated by their
professors but but maybe. I think I was
more shock and awe of my professors I
was intimidated but more like in awe of
them so it made me want to get to know
them like I tell my friends I like my
professors not like I'm like a suck up
student like I genuinely like them I
want to know what their researche is, I
want to get to know them because I think
it's cool I think they're cool people.  That's a great attitude. Now what about the sort of
more survival aspect of being here I
know that you've had to work all the way
through.
Yeah I started working my first year I
didn't work, my second year I started
working I had an internship with the
history project which was just a little
internship and I did like research with
them and went to
conferences that they put on my
 my third
year I worked almost full time and then
right now I had two jobs but now I only
have one but yeah I pretty much worked.
How's that been? I've been lucky with my
jobs that had they've been flexible and
like my third year I nannied all year and
so I would take my homework and my homework while I was working it has definitely
been a struggle but it is nice to have
extra income where I'm not super-strapped
for cash.
What about time management though? I have become OCD with my time management like
very type A personality like I have this
crazy planner where I color coordinate
things and write down everything I
possibly have to do and make schedules
and I learned that my freshman year
during finals week when I was like ok I
have to do cover all of this material
all these lectures all these readings
how in the world am I gonna do this in a
week and so I just said let's make it
feasible and say after this chapter this
day this chapter the next day these
lectures and it kind of has developed
from that and become more I guess
insanely busy.  Now do you have an actual like an agenda that you? Like I write an agenda
and then I have Google keep where I keep like bullet points of the most
important things.  In an average week how
much do you work related to I mean
school work right so between classes,
studying, prepping for assignments etc.
how many hours do you work? I'm also the
vice-president of my sororiety so that takes a
lot of time too. I'm probably busy like 10 to 12 hours a day just doing things. Ok so your
your work week is 50 to 60 hour week? Probably. Ok, and do you think that's what an undergrad
should be thinking of in terms of work
week when they come? Well I think they should
think it's not so I don't work 12 hours every
day on school stuff but maybe one day
work 14 hours in the next day 8 or
3 or I work for 16 hours on the  weekend like
it depends on the day and what I have to do that day honestly sometimes I need a break and I'll
I'm almost never do anything on Friday
nights not gonna lie after school I'm
done like I take that break and then
sometimes on Saturday too but you should
expect to do enough work
you should expect to do the reading like
that's something I really learned in
college normally my classes I do all the
reading until the mid term gauge the
midterm and then say based on all the
reading I did and then how I scored on the midterm
how much of the reading do I actually have to do to get to the final and so until the
mid-term I'm really busy with doing the
reading and trying to do all my work to
see if I have some wiggle room where maybe I don't have to do all of the reading. Ok, yeah I think that's
one of the big challenges for incoming
not just first-gen students but for
freshmen in general is that you know
there are these syllabi and they say do
this reading do this to this but
nobody's checking up on it. Yeah there's
no accountability at all and that's hard
like that's hard for me too because I
can push off a couple days but then it starts to build up and then you like I am like a
hundred pages behind on reading this is
ridiculous so it's really important to
stay on top of your reading and even like
make that paper be accountability like
if it says you have to do something pretend
it's like your mom like she's saying
you have to do that reading by that date
get it done. Ok mom or grandma. Whoever to took care of you, or is the
authoritarian in your life like make
sure that that paper that person.  That
you take it seriously
ok I like that what about social life
how's it been being first gen UCI? It was
hard for me my first two quarters
because I didn't live on campus, I had
really hard time making friends it was
different than high school cause you have
friends that you make in classes but then
that's all you have in common or you only
see them a couple of times a week so my
spring quarter I decided to go through recruitment and
join a sorority and that has given me
like the social aspect that I really
needed in college I have a home I have
friends at a deeper connections with
than just what we're studying and so
that has tremendously helped me feel
like connected to campus.  Becauseg I did feel very disconnected from campus there's a
lot of people here it's hard to make
friends it's hard to just go up to
random people start talking to people.
Did you ever wonder especially in that
first quarter when you were looking at
other students did you ever wonder how
many of them were the first in their
families to go to college how many of
them were from low-income backgrounds
did you assume that they were all you
know?  I still kind of assume that everyone is not like wealthy
and then I'll go shopping
or to eat with someone or I notice that they have a louis vuitton purse or something ridiculous
and I'm like ok so not everyone is a
poor struggling college student like they
pretend to be got it. It's not the
whole campus you can definitely tell that
like at first it didn't click but then
as I've gotten older and become more
observant of the people around me I'm
like yeah you guys aren't all struggling
there's no way. So you actually came
in assuming that everyone was a poor
college student.  Well yeah because you see it on TV everyone's like I'm a poor college student I don't
have money. So I'm like everyones poor
and struggling and then I'm shocked
with how many of my friends are
so dependent on their parents like their
parents give them money every month their
parents have access to all their bank
accounts. I'm like that's my parents don't
like my parents if I'm in trouble may
know if I need money but my parents
don't really know my financial situation
they kind of let me handle my finances
and I thought that was the norm but I've
learned that that's that's really not
the norm in college.  What about sort of
let's call it emotional well-being or
like mental health right college can be
stressful it can be even more stressful
when this is such a new experience when
you the first in their family how have
you dealt with stress? I have a really
good friends group and we have Denny's
night which is whenever we are feeling
stressed we go drink a lot of coffee and
then vent about all of our problems at Denny's
and I've definitely taken hard
classes and cried and had my friends
that have been like it's ok it's not the end
of the world but my friends have helped
me deal with like my emotional well
being and also reading I read for fun a
lot, so whenever I'm feeling
overwhelmed or stressed or I can't like
quiet my mind to fall asleep I'll
just read a book for fun which I know is
really nerdy answer but. Well I like to
do that too.  So tell me the thing you're
proudest of about being a first-gen
student.  I'm proudest that I was able to
take a graduate course and be successful
that is my number and present at a
conference that is my number one proudest moment in college.
So this year
UCI is going to be 60% first gen
students in its incoming freshman class
what are your final words for them?  Read
your syllabus and talk to your
professors and don't be afraid of them.
Cool, thank you.
