FROM FOOD STAMPS, TO HARVARD 

I come from a family with no educational background--my mother never went to school and my father has only a 4th grade level of education. I grew up in a low-income government housing with food stamps as one of our main sources of income. I graduated from one of the lowest performing inner-city high school and I was considered an "at-risk" student. Since I was the first person in my family to go to college, my first day of college experience felt like I was in a different world where everything seemed foreign. I spent most of my early freshman days questioning if I was a college material, if I had what it took to make it, or if I even belonged there. I thought about dropping out on numerous occasions. But the thought of becoming another statistic kept me moving forward, one day at a time, one course at a time, and eventually, through grit and perseverance, I became the first in my family to earn my undergraduate degree and went on to also obtain my Master's degree from Harvard. Today, I'm on a mission to helping those whom I once resembled: the first-gen students.