English 10803, 018
Created by Teresa King  

Reflection:   

This campaign has forced me to be extremely honest with myself. 

My senior year in high school I actually wrote a poem on where I'm from and completely sugarcoated my upbringing, so I have seen a lot of personal growth through my writing. As a kid I knew my family would not be able to provide financial support, resources, advice etc. to help me get to college so I made efforts myself by being a good student and finding ways to get involved at my schools. 

 Now I've made it to college, but I still struggle to stay competitive with other students who can use their parents as resources, who grew up with private education and tutors, and I struggle to just acknowledge my efforts to even get here. The activity we did on identifying privilege was my turning point in this course, namely because it helped me recognize that my experience needs to be heard and is important. This is the moment I started speaking truth into my writing rather than trying to hide my struggles. This campaign has helped me to acknowledge the barriers that come with being a first gen student, and rather than be embarrassed, to celebrate my achievement and recognize the efforts it took to beat the odds. I also learned a lot through my research on how I share many of my struggles with thousands of other first gen students and how I am even fortunate to not bare the weight of other struggles such as expectations that come with strong family ties leading to feelings of isolation on campus. The only part of this project I struggled with WAS navigating the WIX website, but in the end, I am grateful because now I know how to use another platform and resource.  

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 Thank you, Mat, for giving me this opportunity to really reflect on who I am and how I can use my experience to make a difference. 

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