storytellingforsocialchange-blog

[storytellingforsocialchange-blog]

Students Struggle for Education: Storytelling for Social Change

Many times, we are all told that we must obtain a college education if we want to stand a chance in this “real” world. In the “real” world, where our country has an overly populated workforce and where the cost of living is at an increasing high. College students must make sacrifices in order to achieve such accomplishments, sacrifices such as sleep, financial means, quality of life, and well-nourished diets. The proceeding text will describe the stories of several college students and what their life is like on this journey of achieving an education.

Kimberly is a twenty-two-year-old, first-generation Salvadorian American from Southern California and an individual full of motivation and aspirations. She has completed two years of her college education at a local community college and is now currently studying Marketing at San Francisco State University. Prior to moving to San Francisco, Kimberly lived with her father in Los Angeles, California while communicating with her mother on a daily basis who resides in Utah.

Coming from a family of divorce, she was forced to reside with her father as she was able to achieve a better high school education in California as opposed to Utah. She explained that her relationship with her father is challenging at times and her decision to move to San Francisco was partially motivated by the need to create distance between them. She felt as though she had to get far away from him and escape his toxicity which was not only interfering with her education but with her personal life and morale. Her father has shown that his support for her education is limited and conditional therefore Kimberly relies on her mother for the support that is needed.

Kimberly’s everyday life as a college student consists of work, school, and very minor time for herself at all. The primary focus for her is to complete her education in two years in order to enter the workforce and be permanently out of her financial ties with her father. She explains she has to face the social pressure of obtaining a degree as well as the pressure of finally being able to be out of her father’s control once and for all.

Sam is a twenty-three-year-old who is currently a Junior at California State University, Northridge pushing to obtain a degree in Finance. Sam currently works a full-time job at Starbucks and is a full-time transfer student at CSUN. He has unfortunately lost his father in 2015 due to a losing battle with cancer and has been supporting his mother and sister at their home in Tarzana, California. Through this hardship, he has maintained his devotion to completing his degree no matter the obstacle.

Understandably, Sam believes he faces the struggle of uncertainty in this current stage of his life. With a difficult time finding direction, he believes the transition from a community college to a four-year university has not made it any easier for him. He explains that there is a lack of guidance on the campus as he is simply expected to pick up the pace of a university as well as pick up the increase of tuition costs (as opposed to a community college).  

My personal journey towards my advancement in education has been filled with various obstacles and struggles. I am a first-generation American and the first family member from my immediate family and immediate friends to pursue a higher education after high school. I come from a loving family filled with support for my interest to pursue something more for myself. Respectively, their understanding of what it is like to go through the grueling day-to-day basis of school and work is not there and that has been a struggle for me. I realized how much of a disadvantage it was to have people in my life that couldn’t give me the guidance when I decided to pursue a college degree. The lack of guidance coupled with having obligations to work and pay for my schooling the pressure continues to add up. Meeting with individuals from different backgrounds and struggles has relieved me knowing that we are all the same on different paths. The lack of support and resources are real problems that students face, and it does seem at certain moments that the universities don’t take that into account for their students.

With the pressure of universities pushing students to graduate quicker (motivated by maximum revenue intentions) combined with a continuous incline of tuition cost increases; students bear an overwhelming amount of stress far more than how students were 10 years ago. The words affordable and college are rarely ever in the same sentence anymore. Due to this, the bubble of inequality is implemented, as well as the consideration of positionality. Author Dirk Witteveen contests in his article, “Family Background and Earnings Inequality among College Students” that class-related gaps control the selection process, major, and academic performance in our school system.      Said explains the struggle as a college student with his primary difficulties with time management. Caring for his mother alongside with his two older brothers, Said helps support his family by working full-time hours at their family restaurant as well as taking on a full-time schedule at California State University, Northridge. In his words, “As a transfer student, I would like to say that I was relatively healthy with my dieting and exercise prior to transferring but with the added pressure from the university, I have gone days not eating even a single meal in order to complete assignments. My everyday life revolves around what seems like a never-ending rotation of juggling and my quality of life has significantly decreased.”

Similar to many other college students, it is common that the first aspect of one’s routine to be sacrificed is the maintenance of a proper and well-nourished diet. Whether that be consuming poor food groups such as a cup of noodles or fast food due to a lack of financial means or a lack of time to cook homemade meals. A study on eating attitudes and relative correlation with eating disorders done by Dr. Thomas Richardson explaining, “University students have high levels of eating disorder symptoms… a number of studies have shown a relationship between debt and financial difficulties and poor mental in students, however, there has been no research on financial difficulties and risk of eating disorders in this population.”

Anneliese is a recent college graduate from Cal State, Monterey Bay currently waiting to get accepted to Medical School. Anneliese moved away for college during her years at Monterey Bay and explains the hard life lessons she had to learn during the process. She describes that even after Financial Aid’s assistance (with a qualified low-income household) she still had to pay about seventy percent of her tuition and room and board costs. The idea that Financial Aid could assist a student in every portion of living without the need to work a job is becoming more and more impossible and improbable.

Cynthia comes from a family where she is the first to attend any form or kind of higher education. She currently is working towards transferring at Moorpark City College and is expected to transfer in the coming semester. She explains that the primary challenge for her is the lack of classes provided at her current school being that she is now at the finishing end of her class. Cynthia has made multiple attempts to crash her impacted classes in order to transfer and was unsuccessful doing so—this has caused her to fall behind one semester. In her words, “it is amazing to me that the colleges push and push their students to transfer however they only offer a limited number of classes available to their students.

This is understandable when you look at funding from the state level and at the federal level being that the educational sector of funding is the first to be cut.” An article by Jennifer González on The Chronicle of Higher Education states, “California is a case in point. The community-college system there is one of the largest in the country, with 2.6 million students, or nearly 25 percent of enrollment in the sector nationwide. And it is facing severe budget cuts: The state has slashed its appropriations by 13 percent over the last three years. As a result, the California Community Colleges have had to offer fewer courses.”

Alan is a recent transfer student to California State University, Northridge and is currently on his way to obtaining a degree in Accountancy. His desire to pursue his advancement in education was motivated when his mother became ill and still continued to provide for him and his younger brother by working as a maid and housekeeper. When asked to reflect on how this motivation has impacted his mindset he explained, “you know, I definitely wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for my mom. She has taught me to push through whatever challenges that come and currently I am currently in the midst of all of those challenges. The greatest difficulty throughout this process is that while I struggle, I am also told that in order to find a job I need to consider internships as soon as possible. It is almost impossible for me to take on a full-time internship that is unpaid as it wouldn’t be realistic for me to leave my paid job that I have currently. With helping my mom pay for rent and paying for my own costs being a student, I am surely confident I am at a disposition.”

Unpaid internships, as resourceful and useful as they are, deem to be unrealistic to modern day times for the working student. The primary basis of people who are able to take on unpaid internships are students coming from more advantageous families leaving students coming from lower-income families to be positioned. A recent study was done in October 2017, “Paid versus Unpaid Internships: Perspectives of Students and Nonprofit Directors” explains the not only the benefits of internships (paid or unpaid) but moreover how less fortunate college students are still willing to take on the added stress and debt in order to achieve such experiences while tackling on their tuition costs.

To reflect, interviewing many of my fellow peers on the same journey as myself has expanded my mind on our similarities, differences, and mindsets towards our struggle to better our education. While we are all going through separate paths, there are direct links and correlation amongst us all with the struggles of this process. Common issues of what is expected of students from the universities seem to be the underlying fact that most students must work if they want to live during their college years. Each and every year our tuition costs continue to increase, and all students are told are to hurry up and finish from their universities. Moreover, the long-term effects of dealing with stress and poor dieting decisions due to college are overlooked by many and we will be the only ones paying for the consequences later on.

Works Cited

Abdul-Alim, Jamaal. “Juggling Act: Many Low-Income Community College Students Struggle with Balancing a Full Course load and Working to Take Care of Financial Responsibilities Outside of School.” Diverse Issues in Higher Education, vol. 33, no. 8, 2016, p. 10.

Capek, Megan; Klein, Jonathan; and Gassman, Julianne (2017) "Paid versus Unpaid Internships: Perspectives of Students and Nonprofit Directors," The International Undergraduate Journal For Service-Learning, Leadership, and Social Change: Vol. 7: Iss. 1, p. 11-20.

Gonzalez, Jennifer. “Education for All? 2-Year Colleges Struggle to Preserve Their Mission.” Chronicle of Higher Education, 2012, p. r.

Richardson, Thomas, et al. “Longitudinal Relationships between Financial Difficulties and Eating Attitudes in Undergraduate Students.” International Journal of Eating Disorders, vol. 48, no. 5, 2015, pp. 517–521.

Witteveen, Dirk, and Paul Attewell. “Family Background and Earnings Inequality among College Graduates.” Social Forces, vol. 95, no. 4, 2017, pp. 1–38.