College. Students hear the word over and over- more often as they get older- from teachers, mentors and parents, all helping them get to a place where they can go to the college of their dreams. But some students don’t have this help. First generation college students don’t have parents that can help them through the college process, since they never went themselves.

Many of these students are motivated by a desire to struggle less in life beyond college than they have observed their parents to struggle. One of these students is senior Karla Zelaya-Escobar.

“I’ve seen my parents struggle. And I wouldn’t want to end up where they are…[They are struggling with their] financial situation. They have to work really hard to get 300 dollars. So I want to get past that and have it easier,” Zelaya-Escobar said.

Senior Kelli Helyer is also motivated, in part, by her parents’, and more specifically her mom’s, struggles.

“Seeing the difference between my mom and my dad [led me to go to college.] My dad has a really good job, but he went to the army for it and he gets paid really well and can provide for my family very easily. And my mom didn’t take as good of a road and she doesn’t have a very stable job and all that,” Helyer said.

Senior Nuri Real-Mendez has also drawn inspiration from her parents.

“My parents were immigrants when they came here, so I know that they came here for their kids to have a better life so that’s what’s been motivating me to go to college,” Real-Mendez said.

All three of the seniors are in AVID and said that AVID has helped them to get on the right path to college.

“Ever since I came to the high school I got into AVID. And that’s helped me a lot since I’m first generation. I don’t have anybody to say ‘Oh, you have to [do] this and this and this and this and this is how a college application is.’ So AVID has helped me a lot. Like a lot a lot,” Zelaya-Escobar said.

“[If not for the AVID program I would] probably not [be in a place to go to college]. AVID is what motivated me to keep my grades up and continue to try harder. If it wasn’t for AVID I would probably be going to Blue Ridge right now instead of directly to JMU,” Real-Mendez said.

Another element of Heyler’s motivation to go to college is where she might go with her college degree.

“My friend died in July because he was murdered. It made me want to go to college more for criminal justice and stuff like that, so that I could help out people like his family that don’t have very much closure because the case isn’t closed,” Helyer said.

Helyer plans to go to Radford because of its programs that will help her reach this goal.

Zelaya-Escobar also has ideas for her post-college life.

“I do want to work with immigrants in the same situation I am in. Maybe their parents didn’t go to college or their parents don’t have documents or whatever. I want to help them out,” Zelaya Escobar said.

Zelaya Escobar plans to go to JMU, like Real-Mendez. Real-Mendez plans to go into nursing.

English and AVID teacher Hannah Bowman-Hrasky works with these students to prepare them for college and help them apply.

“I have noticed with the college application process [that it is not straightforward]. I worked in admissions when I was in college. You don’t quite realize how complicated the process is until you are working within it, I don’t think. Watching kids go through the process who didn’t have people to help them was difficult… Just even trying to conceptualize how to go through that process without anyone to help me was what made me want to help those students,” Bowman Hrasky said.

“Junior year in AVID we work on SAT prep and college research and making sure that kids know you need to look for more than just one or two schools, and letting kids know you need to look for schools that both you definitely can get into and that you’re kind of shooting to get into. [We did] that kind of thing junior year,” Bowman Hrasky said.  “And senior year we do their college applications and scholarship applications in class. So that’s down to all the little tiny questions that they have on college applications. Which is what you need to make sure you give the right answers too.”

All these first-generation college students have a few things in common: they are prepared to overcome the challenges that their parents have had and that they have been helped by the HHS AVID program.