Overcoming Adversities: A Reflection From First Generation Students

Hundreds of UTRGV seniors will culminate their academic journey on May 10 and 11 in the Spring 2024 commencement ceremonies. This is especially a celebration for the graduating class of first-generation students who will pioneer the “bachelor’s degree or higher” selection box for their families.

The UTRGV Office of Strategic Analysis and Institutional Reporting (SAIR) stated that 65.9% of all enrolled students identified as first-generation in the Fall 2023 report. 

As a higher education institution, UTRGV is committed to promoting student success through programs such as TRiO Student Support Services. Its goal is to serve 275 student participants every year, by enhancing their academic skills through tutoring services and other academic resources to empower underrepresented and socioeconomically disadvantaged students, according to their website.

Juana Jimenez, is a first-generation senior majoring in biomedical science who will walk the stage on May 10. Originally from Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Jimenez immigrated to Harlingen with her parents, natives of Veracruz, Mexico. 

She is the first in her family even to finish elementary school. Her mother’s highest grade of education was the fourth grade and her father’s was the ninth. She said graduating from Harlingen High School South was a big accomplishment for her family.

“I was the stepping stone for my family,” Jimenez said. “Being the one to guide the rest of us through the path of graduating high school and our first to thankfully graduate college is something I am really happy and proud of. I am the first Jimenez to get a college education.”

But Jimenez will not be the last of her family to pursue higher education. She said as the oldest sibling she has inspired her younger brother, who is about to graduate high school, to follow in her footsteps and double major in biology and music at UTRGV. 

Since the passing of her mother last April due to ovarian cancer, the Jimenez family has struggled to adapt to the new reality. As the oldest of three siblings, she is now the one in charge of the home and care of her younger sister with special needs, while still following her dreams of becoming a medical doctor. 

“As an immigrant student, I thought I was not going to be able to go to college due to my documentation status,” she said. “After high school, I was just going to work at a restaurant or something. But thankfully there are resources out there.”

Jimenez did not know what first-generation meant until she attended the “First-Gen Proud” celebration, hosted by the Office of Student Success every Fall. Since then, she proudly identifies as an immigrant first-gen student. 

She emphasized the scholarship and student service opportunities UTRGV has to offer for immigrant students, which have made the institution feel like home.

Today, Juana is an active student-leader on campus. She was recently re-elected to serve as student body vice-president with the Student Government Association and is Vice-President for the Pre-Medical/Bio-Medical Society, a student organization on campus.

“I want to lead and inspire students,” she said. “Knowing my situation, I am undocumented and first-generation. If I was able to do it as an undocumented person, I want other students to look up to me and say, “If she can do it, I can too.””

After graduation, Jimenez will start the UTRGV graduate program in health sciences with a concentration in healthcare administration. After walking the stage for a second time, she plans to attend the UTRGV School of Medicine to become an obstetrician-gynecologist.

“I want to help women here in the Valley,” she said. “I saw it first hand with my mother. There were mainly male OB-GYNs in our area and that developed a sort of mistrust with my mother with her not wanting to get attended there. So I just want to help women feel safe in the field. That’s my life goal, to advocate for women’s health care.”

She said she advises students to have faith in themselves and keep moving forward, to remember what inspired them, and to take advantage of the resources at UTRGV. 

Magaly Benitez is a first-generation senior majoring in environmental science who is awaiting graduation next Fall. Her parents immigrated from Mexico to work in the strawberry fields in California. Then they migrated to Houston where they started a family of eleven. 

She grew up hearing stories from the fields and being told the opportunities that her parents immigrated to the United States for. For her, this highlighted the importance of education and climbing up the ladder. 

“Growing up, school was always a priority,” Benitez said. “Elementary, making it out of middle school not pregnant was a priority, having a high school degree and walking the stage was a priority. And then getting into college was a big accomplishment. [My parents] were very proud when I got accepted into multiple schools and ultimately chose UTRGV.”

Benitez discovered her passion for environmental science by working in her home garden with her father. 

“I would be outside with [my dad] digging up plants and spending any minute that I could with him, learning everything I could about plants. I loved it,” she said. 

She eventually took advanced placement environmental science, a class and teacher that opened her eyes to careers she did not even know were out there. 

“I grew up thinking you can only be a teacher, lawyer, doctor or a writer and those were the only career options I knew at 18,” she said. “Environmental science opened my eyes. I was like, ‘Oh! You can work with animals and nature, that’s a job?’”

She said she chose UTRGV to get away from the chaos of living with eleven people under the same roof, but to still be close to her family and Hispanic community, as she valued UTRGV’s mission as a Hispanic Serving Institution. 

Benitez chose to pursue a bachelor’s in environmental science with an environment and society concentration, as she is passionate about the intersectionality of both. Her Vaquero journey started in Fall 2019.

“I am building the life that my parents have fought so hard for and have instilled in me that I know it needs to happen,” she said. 

Magaly has done an internship every summer since 2020 to build her plan post-graduation. She has traveled throughout the country by herself, learning more about the field and helping promote sustainability and wildlife protection. She also educates communities about the importance of protecting the environment.

She said she is always looking for an opportunity to learn, accomplish a new qualification and make her parents more proud. She advises her fellow first-generation students to do the same.

“Always have the outlook that there’s something out there for you,” Benitez said. “We need your face out there. We need your representation. Your voice matters.”