More than six in 10 UC Merced undergraduates are the first in their families to attend a university. The national average for four-year universities is about two in 10.
Opening doors to opportunity for first-generation students is infused into UC Merced’s DNA. Young people who had little to no information at home on how to be a young scholar find solid support, a welcoming campus and kindred spirits.
The university is celebrating first-generation students with a whole week of activities, presentations and resources. It starts Monday, Nov. 3, with a First-Generation Week Resource Fair, scheduled for 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Scholars Lane, and an invitation to create vision boards from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Multicultural Center (KL 169)
This first-gen itinerary (don’t miss workshops by UC Merced schools on Wednesday and the presentation “Advocating for Yourself: Tools for Success” on Thursday) ties into the national First-Generation College Celebration Day. Held each Nov. 8, it marks the 1965 signing of a federal act designed to make higher education more accessible and affordable.
Paying for tuition was an early concern for Adriana Martinez Diaz. No one in her extended family had applied to college. The application process was mystifying. Then, during an orientation visit to UC Merced, she met a staff adviser who guided her and her mother down avenues to information and support.
“That experience gave me the confidence and community I needed to begin my college journey,” said Diaz, a fourth-year student majoring in biology and Spanish.
Narciso Martinez Solorio is a part of UC Merced’s support system, serving as a peer mentor in the Calvin E. Bright Success Center. He helps students, including fellow first-gen studens, build confidence, make connections and “truly feel at home.”
Solorio, who grew up in Merced, said he struggled early on, battling thoughts that he didn’t belong on a university campus.
“Over time, I learned to ask for help,” he said. “I learned that I’m stronger and more capable than I thought.”
His academics bear that out: The fourth-year student is on target to graduate a semester early with degrees in chemistry and human biology.
“Being a first-gen student isn’t easy, but it’s powerful,” Solorio said. “We figure things out, support each other and keep pushing forward.”
Miguel Lopez was a middle schooler in San Joaquin, a Fresno County farming town of 3,600, when he learned of the UC Scholars Early Academic Outreach Program. He signed up and leveraged it into an academic career at UC Merced, capped by a bachelor’s degree in political science in 2012.
At UC Merced, he became the first in his family to discover what higher education is about. “I learned I had the ability to be resilient, to determine ways to succeed, and to be willing to get the support I needed to overcome hurdles.”
Today, Lopez is a senior consultant for experience research at IBM.
Two UC Merced professors see themselves in alumni such as Lopez and students such as Solorio and Diaz. Rose Scott and Sarah Depaoli, faculty members in the Department of Psychological Sciences, were the first in their families to attend and graduate from a university.
I learned I had the ability to be resilient, to determine ways to succeed, and to be willing to get the support I needed to overcome hurdles.
Scott grew up in a poor, rural community in western New York. When she was 10, an older cousin talked to her about wanting to attend college but worrying she couldn’t afford to.
“I took from this conversation that if you go to college, you can do more things,” she said. “So I decided, in fourth grade, that I would become valedictorian so I could get all the scholarships and go to college.”
She earned the scholarships, and those plus financial aid got her into Boston University. Her family could not help pay her way.
“I was lucky from day one. There were lots of moments where people could see I had promise but didn’t know what I was doing,” Scott said. “They stepped in to give a little nudge or take me under their wing.”
At UC Merced, she recognizes students facing the same challenges she did. Scott talks to them about study habits, preparing for courses and career options. “I try to provide for them what people gave me when I was an undergrad,” she said.
For Depaoli, the get-things-done integrity of her working-class family carried over into her drive to succeed academically. Her father had progressed from sweeping floors at a car dealership as a high schooler to owning a Sacramento-area auto body shop.
Her parents never talked to her about attending college. “They joke that they forgot to tell me not to,” Depaoli said.
She enrolled at California State University, Sacramento. “My mom and dad were extremely supportive, but they couldn’t help with navigating an application or how to act in college or how to study.”
At UC Merced, Depaoli connects with first-generation students, telling them to, essentially, take a deep breath. “You don’t have to know your path. Just take a step and your path will unveil itself.”
She also attends every commencement ceremony so she can see the pride in family members’ faces.
“It’s unlike any other university,” she said. “They’re crying when the professors come in. They say, ‘Thank you,’ because they feel we have given their family something that seemed out of reach.”
Public Information Officer
