Formerly Incarcerated Student Stories

I came from a nice middle-class family. In 1969 we moved into a predominantly white neighborhood. We were one of two LatinX families on our street. At 10 years old everything changed when my mother died. My only sibling (my sister) moved out 2 years later, and my...

I remember asking strangers for a quarter in front of a liquor store to quiet the psychological and physical pain of being sober. People that didn’t understand drug addiction and alcoholism usually judged me as a useless member of society. It was easy to limit...

As a first-generation Chicano on my father’s side and second on my mother’s side, I was raised between two cultures. My parents met in Mexico City and when they came over to the states, my father began his journey employed as a gardener while he and my mother lived...

I first began my foray into higher education in 2011. However, I was forced to discontinue when my father decided to leave our household, and I lost my job. At the time, I was only able to acquire a position working long days and nights at a warehouse, which...