An Nguyen is a first-generation college student scheduled to arrive at SIUE as a freshman this fall. Read her inspirational story in the Rockford Register Star. Writer Corrina Curry posted the profile Friday, May 15.
“Everything Changes:” First-generation collegians lauded in Rockford
By Corina Curry
Rockford Register Star
Posted May 15, 2014 @ 9:12 am
ROCKFORD — An Nguyen will head to Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville this fall, fulfilling a dream that started when her mother moved to the United States 16 years ago.
Hoa Nguyen of Rockford got her high school diploma in Vietnam, then went immediately into the workforce. She had two daughters. She came to the U.S. when she was 34. She became a nail technician to support herself and her girls.
She passed her dreams of a higher education on to her daughters.
“I told them I didn’t get the chance to go to college,” Nguyen said. “But here … this is the land of opportunity. I just kept pushing them to go and get it.”
An’s older sister led the way. She went to Bradley University and will graduate in August from the physician assistant program at Midwestern University. An, a senior at Guilford High School, plans to study biology at SIU and, like her sister, study to become a physician assistant.
The Illinois Student Assistance Commission, which helps high school students find the money to pay for college, honored An and about a dozen other first-generation college students Wednesday at the Rockford Public Library.
“College changes everything,” Danae Harris of the ISAC said. “That’s our motto, and we truly believe that. … When you go to college, doors open up for you.”
Students and their families were treated to inspirational performances by the Beloit Memorial High School Knightingales step team and Will Fleming, with words of encouragement from Dorothy Turner, 17th District Democratic State Central Committeeman; Mark Bonne, chief of staff for Sen. Steve Stadelman, D-Rockford; Keith Dainty, president of the Rock Valley College Black Student Alliance; and the Rev. Jeffrey Ferrell of Chicago,
According to the National Center for Education Statistics’ 2012 report, “The Condition of Education,” more than one-third of 5- to 17-year-olds in the U.S. will be first-generation college students if they attend. First-generation students are defined as those whose parents did not attend an institution of higher learning.
The path from high school graduation to college graduation is difficult, the speakers advised, but well worth it. Obstacles will come, but it’s important to stay focused and take advantage of the opportunities to learn and grow.
“It’s not going to be easy,” Ferrell said. “If it was easy, everyone would be doing it.”
First-generation collegians often need someone — a parent, a teacher, a counselor, a coach — to see the potential in them, said Guilford High School Principal Janice Hawkins, another first-generation college student.
“They don’t know what they don’t know,” she said. “They may not have someone expecting them to go to college. That’s where the school — the teachers, the guidance counselors — need to step in and let these students know that they can do it, and they should do it.”
An Nguyen sees the challenges ahead. She sees the opportunities, too.
“It means a lot to me to be going to college,” she said. “A lot more doors are going to be opened up for me that wouldn’t be if I wasn’t going to college.”
Corina Curry: 815-987-1371; ccurry@rrstar.com; @corinacurry