College... Is It Just a Dream?

Do you come from a family that hasn’t attended college? Do you live in a ghetto neighborhood where all you see are gangs and violence? Well I do,I was born here in Oakland , and my family comes from Mexico. Here in Oakland there is violence and gangs.You walk around the neighborhood and all you see is gangs hanging out or people using drugs. Here in Oakland it’s hard for many people to stay out of gangs and not use drugs but if you believe in yourself and take the right path nothing will happen and you’ll be successful.My parents didn’t attend college because they had no money for it and they had to work instead.

One word to best describe my family, community, and school is supportive. My family is always together and there for each other whenever we  need support or help for anything.I come from a caring and supportive elementary and middle school that just want the best for our future. They have always helped us in everything we need. Upa,middle school I attend, has always encouraged us to go to college,persevere, and do what we believe is right.They give us challenging work to prepare us for our future and we do a lot of working together for support and teamwork.Upa always has us thinking about our future and how important it is for us to attend it.

At Upa I had a great opportunity to travel to our nations capitol Washington, DC. The Close Up program helped us travel there. It was 11 of us that traveled there. It’s an unforgettable experience,that I will always remember . We learned so much new history about our country that we didn’t know before. During this trip we learned how to be more responsible,organised, and independent. I learned that anything is possible as long as you really want it and you persevere. You can achieve anything you want  if you work hard and have your mind into it. This trip made me want to go to travel the world more and explore new things. Another great opportunity that we have in UPA is the College For All Trip and other trip we have that involve visiting colleges. This is a great opportunity because we’re already thinking about college,why we should go,and why it’s important. This helps because we get to see how colleges are different and which one we  actually want to go to.

One of the major issues that we have here in Oakland that affects me is gangs,violence,and drugs. All around our community you see different gangs,drug dealers,vandalism, and sometimes serious violence. Having this in the community makes others feel unsafe to walk around or simply go somewhere where they need to be. Something that I’m doing to try and stop the community from how it is,is joining the Peer Education Team here at UPA. We teach the younger ones about how to make the right choices and how joining gangs and using drugs are bad and can affect your future. We tell the younger ones our personal experiences and how to make the right decisions at home,on the street, and at school.

As a result of peer education, I have changed.Now I feel more responsible and confident about myself. I’m not that afraid to speak up for what I believe is right and should be done. This changed my dreams in a way because now I’m more interested into attending high school and college more. I look forward to teaching others more about how to help the community and about right choices. I hope to be a leader and a role model for my sister, friends, and others around me. Now I have been more caring about the community and younger ones that live around me and go through what I go through.

    Do you know what college means to me? College for me means being responsible and getting the education that I’m suppost to get.Going to college means getting a better job in the future and being independent. Attending college also means making my family proud by being the first one in the family to go.