Trade-offs as an exchange student

As an exchange student, I think my experience can be valuable both for my classmates who have not lived elsewhere, and for other students who are thinking about coming on exchange sometime.

So, today I want to talk about trade-offs. I remember the first class, when we talked about this, I had to google what it meant (in Chile we speak Spanish as a first language, so I am still learning English words every day). When I read it, it made a lot of sense to me.

When I was in Chile I never thought it would be so difficult to be in the United States. As a fact, we Latinos don't like to call the United States "America", since we feel we are Americans also because we belong to the continent. Maybe because movies, music and culture had sold me "the American dream", so I thought everything would be easy here - almost as if by magic, happiness would come packaged in my plane ticket that would bring me to a developed country.

When I arrived here, I immediately felt the cultural difference. I wanted to greet my roommate with a kiss on the cheek and she looked at me like I was crazy. The food the first few days felt great, but after eating at In-n-Out 3 days in a row I decided that my mom's food definitely tasted better. The same thing happened to me with independence. I gradually discovered that I prefer the closeness and concern of my parents to the loneliness that many students experience here.

                A plate of "pantrucas" a typical Chilean food that my mom cooks all the time in the winter. 

Leaving your whole life, family, friends, pets and everything you knew, including your language, is the biggest trade off I think I will have to face, no doubt. As I explained the other day in class, in Latin culture, family is very important. In Chile children leave home at about 30 years old, so, I still regularly feel like a child who does not know how to take care of herself. On the other hand, my classmates here are often already used to independent life, as some may live alone from the age of 18.

I find this class particularly interesting because I can see the cultural, social and even class differences with my classmates who have lived here all their lives. In Chile I don't think we could have a so-called "first gen" class because probably more than half of us at my university are first gen.

The middle class in Chile is more like what is known here as the "lower income class", even though it is said that we are the "richest" country in Latin America. Furthermore, it is very rare for Chilean students to have a car; here, most of them have a car even in high school. Even when I see how expensive universities are here, I realize that for the middle class in Chile it would be impossible to pay for a university in the United States, comparatively annual tuition in Chile costs around $5000.

Many times I feel strange, I have attended countless talks against racism and discrimination since I arrived here, but I really feel that racism is always present, unconsciously. Although not only here, also in Chile we are racist, many times with immigrants from neighboring countries. However, this time it is different because I had never had to live it myself.

Clearly not everything is bad, I have met wonderful people. Moreover, I have the opportunity to study the strong corporate law course here, which I want to dedicate myself to in Chile. Also, my professors and classmates are very understanding. I have made incredible friends and I have visited places I never thought I would visit. Therefore, I know that this is an opportunity that many of my friends and peers in Chile do not have, so I try to make the most of it.

However, I can't help but miss my home, my people, and my customs. When I feel that I miss them too much, I think about how lucky I am and that, if I took a plane to get here, I have to take advantage of the experience and learn from it. So every day I become more observant and try to make friends who will allow me to get to know new cultures (Latin culture will always have a special and reserved place in my heart). 

My family and I in a church in Peru. Religion is very important in our culture, especially Catholicism which is the most professed religion in Chile.

The veterinarian turned lawyer

This week’s discussion on access to higher education made me think about my journey navigating higher education institutions and the benefits, troubles, and success that my undergraduate education and law school have brought me thus far.

When I first decided to attend college, the last field I thought about pursuing was law. I was sure I was destined for something else—I wanted to be an equine veterinarian. For most of my early childhood, I grew up riding horses (western style, to be exact). My love for horses is what actually motivated me to go to college; I wanted to “save the animals.”

However, when I got to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), I quickly realized that being a biology major wasn’t going to cut it for long. (Spoiler alert, like most folks who pursue law, I wasn’t very great at math, let alone science). So, I stopped taking my biology major courses and started taking philosophy and political science classes. Ultimately, these courses sparked my interest, and I found myself fascinated by comparative politics, philosophy of law (which eventually became my minor), and the history of American politics. 

My professors at UNLV encouraged me to think critically about the issues often discussed in class. I soon began taking classes on immigration policy, women and the law, philosophy of the city, and the list goes on. See, although I grew up in an extremely progressive household, I never learned about things like intersectional feminism or systemic racism—I knew these phenomenons existed, but I certainly didn’t know that they had a place in academia. 

As time progressed, I started to find myself excelling in school—I loved engaging with the material and taking on tough conversations with those whose opinions differed from mine. I found myself becoming immersed in different grassroots initiatives and student organizations—I was involved in everything from our school's NAACP chapter to the Planned Parenthood student group “Students United For Reproductive Justice.”

I loved every minute of it. I never knew that I would find myself feeling so content about my place in higher education. This is because I wasn’t the perfect high school student by any means. I didn’t get the highest grades or participate in any extracurriculars, but I knew that in college, none of that mattered and that the only thing that would hold me back was myself (and the Financial Aid Office from time to time). From my sophomore year onward, I seized every opportunity that was presented to me—I traveled to Washington D.C. to speak with members of Congress about reproductive rights issues; I received awards for academic excellence, and for the first time, I felt as though I was actually doing something to create change in my community. 

My experiences eventually led me to pursue a career in law, and had it not been for all of those encounters in undergrad--the traveling, the academic rigor, the intellectually stimulating conversations—I would not be here sitting in this King Hall lecture room today (well maybe I would, but still the path would have differed).

I say all of this to say that whether or not we encourage first-generation students to pursue higher education can have long-standing implications for their futures. The truth is that, for many of us, college allows us to experience new things; to go beyond the bounds of our communities and everything that we thought we knew to bright new ideas and challenges. For many people, college is the first time they will come across people from different cultures, backgrounds, and socioeconomic statuses. 

And to be clear, while I think that it is important for us to be transparent with first-generation students about issues such as student loan debt and job security, we should not completely discourage them from pursuing higher education simply because it will be harder for them to access. It should also not be lost on us that, low-income students of color, can especially benefit from obtaining a college education. As Misty Starks states in Forward Times:

It’s no secret that students who graduate from college make more money over their lifetime – about 60 percent more – than students who do not earn a degree. And college graduates are more likely to find a job with a higher starting salary than their non-degreed counterparts.

With this in mind, we are doing students of color a disservice by taking higher education off the table for them. Rather than telling them not to go to college, we can simply make the process of getting into college more accessible. 

We do not put pressure on affluent kids to “pick a trade” right out of high school, so we should afford first-generation kids that very same opportunity—to go to college and to learn about the things that interest them in this world; to figure out their “why,” and to explore academia for the sake of doing so. And maybe then, we’ll have more equine veterinarians turned lawyers.