{"id":1363,"date":"2019-05-03T15:30:47","date_gmt":"2019-05-03T15:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/solesadmissions\/?p=1363"},"modified":"2019-04-29T23:09:52","modified_gmt":"2019-04-29T23:09:52","slug":"representation-matters-as-a-first-generation-college-student","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/solesadmissions\/2019\/05\/03\/representation-matters-as-a-first-generation-college-student\/","title":{"rendered":"Representation Matters as a First-Generation College student"},"content":{"rendered":"

A blog post from SOLES MA in Higher Education Leadership<\/a> Ambassador Donna Soukantouy<\/em><\/p>\n

I am a first-generation, Laotian-American college student in the Master\u2019s program of Higher Education Leadership<\/a>. When I first started out the master\u2019s program in SOLES<\/a>, I pretty much did not know anyone. Being a year into the program, I now know a lot of amazing and wonderful people. When I started out, I did compare myself to others. Was I good enough? Do I belong here? Was I meant to be in this role? I soon learned that the impostor syndrome that is injected in me is floating around out there. I circled around the crippling belief that my successes are the product of luck or fraud rather than skill. Do you want to know why? That\u2019s because I do not see anyone like me in this program nor do I see anyone like myself in the roles I want to pursue in the field of higher education leadership.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The internal battle of beating myself changed when a few cohort mates introduced me to the Assistant Dean of student affairs in Revelle College at UCSD and did her Ph.D. at the University of San Diego<\/a> in the field of Leadership Studies<\/a>. Her research is on Asian Pacific Islanders, specifically Filipinx leaders in higher education and career decision-making. Although I do not identify as Filipino, I felt a strong urge to meet her, especially since everyone talks about how wonderful a person she is! I connected with her once to talk about my action research project and I fell in love with her. She was easy to talk to, connect with, and just open up to compare to my supervisors and advisers here on campus.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t like they weren\u2019t doing their job and they do help me among many other things. I appreciate and love all my mentors but I began to finally see a higher education professional, adjunct faculty\/instructor, coach, and consultant who looked like me! This is so rare because I never have seen anyone like her in my first year of college at a public four-year university, in all my three years at community college, and the last two years at Cal State Channel Islands for my undergrad.<\/p>\n

Representation matters. Make friends. Connect. Network. You’ll find the people that will remind you why you are in your program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A blog post from SOLES MA in Higher Education Leadership Ambassador Donna Soukantouy I am a first-generation, Laotian-American college student in the Master\u2019s program of Higher Education Leadership. 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