Johni Rose Zamorano '22
English

Johni Rose Zamorano is a first-gen student majoring in English with an emphasis on creative writing and a minor in psychology. A senior and a transfer student, she is documenting the experience of having her first year on campus, which is also her last. For her, and about 1,500 other senior transfer students whose first year was remote, graduation is rushing towards them like a double-decker Unitrans bus.

Finding a Way to UC Davis

I’m still amazed that I made it here. 

Tuan Tat ‘23
Statistical Data Science

Tuan Tat’s journey to the University of California, Davis began 68 miles away. It might as well have been another world.

Growing up in Oakland, California, a city he experienced as “a destitute land of hustlers,” Tat was influenced by the local culture to focus on making money rather than pursuing higher education.

We are excited to share an internship opportunity for first-gen sophomores interested in engineering and data science! 

Online collaboration and project management tool Asana is excited to announce new software engineering internship program specifically for first generation college students. 

This article originally appeared in the Graduate School of Management Blog. Original Article

Victor Moreno, MBA '21

When I was seven years old, my brother Max and I got our hands on a fun set of candies. Engraved on the flat surface of the circle-shaped lollipops was a short message, sort of like a fortune cookie. I forget what my brother’s “fortune” was, but mine was pretty cool. It said: “Viajaras pronto,” Spanish for: “You will soon travel.”

Read from our first generation Aggie honorees from our Stole Contest who are graduating this spring. They shared their first generation experience in the form of works of art, poems, and stories.

On Tuesday, October 30, 2018, first-generation faculty gathered to share ideas about connecting with first-get students, as well as updates on the initiative. Carolyn Thomas, Vice Provost & Dean for Undergraduate Education, hosted the event at the UC Davis Student Community Center. The session was video recorded.

Kayton Carter, Executive Director of Academic Advising Enrichment, shares his first gen story.

Kayton Carter, MA recently became Executive Director for Academic Advising Enrichment at UC Davis. He was previously Executive Director of UC Davis’ three retention centers and four retention initiatives, which support African diaspora, Asian Pacific Islander, Chicanx and Latinx, and Native American students, and was founding director the Center for African Diaspora Student Success, UC Davis’ first Black student retention center. 

Gabriella (Gabi) Gonzalez '20 - B.S., Neurobiology, Physiology, & Behavior, and B.A., Psychology

You have to be better than us: These are words that I heard often when I was growing up. My family made incredible sacrifices that have afforded me the education I have today. Most of my ancestors worked in physically-grueling jobs for menial wages, and my great-grandfather worked so hard that he passed away from exhaustion. My parents had to drop out of community college to support their own parents.

Trevor Waldien PhD Student, Geology           

I grew up in a rural logging town in coastal Oregon. I come from four generations of loggers and log truck drivers. In high school I was exposed to geology by a teacher on a field trip to the beach that left me with a set of questions: "Why are there sea shells in rocks on the top of the mountain? Why are those rocks tilted on their side?" 

Sometime during high school, I decided I was going to go to college to study geology.