In an early commemoration of the 7th annual First-Generation College Celebration Day on Nov. 8, UC Irvine’s Student Success Initiatives (SSI) welcomed author Alejandra Campoverdi for a conversation about her national bestselling memoir, “First-Gen: A Memoir,” on Oct. 30 in Merage Auditorium.
Campoverdi answered questions from SSI Director Joanna Hernandez, discussing the emotional struggle faced by first-generation college students. In her memoir, Campoverdi refers to these experiences as the “trailblazer toll.”
More than 14,000 first-generation students attend UCI. According to Hernandez, the discussion aimed to give a name to the difficulties first-generation students face and to help them feel seen and empowered.
To Hernandez, the event was about “appreciating [Campoverdi’s] story and her experience and how it resonates with students.”
A first-generation Mexican American, Campoverdi is a documentary producer, the former White House Aide to former President Obama and a partner with the Basser Center for BRCA — a center studying breast cancer genes. She wrote her memoir to shed light on the difficulties that accompany the pursuit of the American Dream.
“I know the way that I navigated [the first-generation experience], and I think one of the biggest parts that’s important for us is to acknowledge that this is something that’s actually very common — that many of us face,” Campoverdi told New University. “I certainly don’t have all the answers, and I share in the book and in my talks how it is that I’ve dealt with it.”
In her memoir, Campoverdi discusses the emotional burden of navigating the pressure of being the first in her family to graduate college in the United States. She examines the guilt, anxiety and internal conflicts that characterized her first-generation struggle as she simultaneously balanced familial relationships and searching for identity, frequently finding clashes between the two.
Campoverdi opens her book with a scene in which she is about to give a speech to Harvard University’s Latinx graduates of 2016. She describes mounting the stage and suddenly feeling an overwhelming responsibility to go beyond a generic motivational speech and instead aim to validate the hardships these students have faced throughout their educational journeys.
By sharing her background as a first-generation student, Campoverdi hopes to reach others who may be going through similar struggles. She aims to foster conversation about emotional hardships in a way that is inclusive of a variety of experiences.
“I wrote this book to create space for us to talk about what it felt like for us and to realize that it is actually really common and widespread and normal to feel conflicting emotions at times,” Campoverdi said to attendees.
First-year political science student Maritza Lua recalled feeling “alive” and “relieved” after reading the memoir as a high school senior. It was the first time she had felt so connected to a book. She is the first in her immediate family to attend college.
“I’ve never realized that this is something that other people have experienced … I’ve never seen it put into words so clearly,” Lua told New University.
A moment during the talk that deeply resonated with Lua was when Campoverdi spoke about her tendency to turn her negative emotions into academic and extracurricular ambitions. Lua recalled how, growing up, she was sheltered by her immigrant mother, to whom American society was unfamiliar ground.
“That’s exactly what I did. I got myself involved to just forget about everything else that would happen. Always be so busy so I wouldn’t think of what was going on in my life,” Lua said. “I didn’t know that was a coping mechanism until I read the book.”
Pavana Upadhyaya, a second-year computer science and quantitative economics student, does not identify as first-generation. Like Lua, she related to Campoverdi’s correlation between feeling upset and academic achievement.
“I think it shows that some experiences are kind of universal, and some experiences are unique. And it’s interesting to see the contrast between the two,” Upadhyaya told New University.
The event was a joint effort between the Council for Opportunity in Education, Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education and UCI as part of a series of events celebrating First-Generation College Celebration Day.
Mariam Farag is a Features Intern for the fall 2024 quarter. She can be reached at msfarag@uci.edu.
Edited by Kaelyn Kwon and Jaheem Conley.