Photos by Ralph Freso
She came to Grand Canyon University with her parents’ hopes and her own empty pockets.
“My dad immigrated here at age 18, and my mom was born here. Both parents are working class. They work two jobs just to get by in life,” said senior Adamaris Lopez Morales.
“They always instilled in me the importance of education. But my parents didn’t have money to set aside for college.”
They didn’t know about college. No one in the family had ever gone, and her father was educated through fourth grade. Finances became a big stress, as was leaving behind family.
“There is a lot to bear. Being the first you don’t want to let yourself down, you don’t want to let your parents down,” she said. “That’s why I recommend GCU Student Care.”
Morales was leading a tabling for First Gen Self-Care on the Promenade Monday afternoon, next to representatives from the Office of Student Care. It marked the launch of weeklong activities for Associated Students of GCU’s inaugural First Generation Week.
GCU nurtures a significant population of first-generation students, whose immediate family members have not earned degrees.
First-generation undergraduates nationally increased from 18 to 38% of students from 2012 to 2020, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. But data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center show they are twice as likely to leave college without completing a degree.
It’s why Morales wanted to focus some of the week’s activities on how to ease anxiety among first-generation students in her role as director of the ASGCU First Generation team. She is a big advocate of helping others like her find local scholarships to ease some of the financial strain but also find resources for their mental health.
“Due to what they are going through as first-generation students that could even hold them back from coming in – ‘oh people won’t understand,’” said Student Care campus therapist Lindsay Byron, who joined Morales in talking with students Monday. “A first-gen student might not be empowered to do it. It’s more rare.
“But we want to empower them, to guide them and help them on their journey. And just be there for them.”
Eleisha Croskey said having Student Care available allows first-generation students like herself to not feel alone when they are away from family.
The First Generation team coordinator said that a lot of her friends “have college funds for them since they were in middle school,” but she had to pay everything on her own and figure out how to find jobs, get loans and also focus on school.
Financial issues are on top of what campus therapists see a lot in their offices in the Student Life Building (Building 26) – self-worth and relationship issues, anxiety and depression. They have groups, such as meditation or art and poetry, along with individual counseling, Byron said.
Often, students don’t know that help is here, said Morales, who in her sophomore year was in crisis.
“I had a traumatic event happen and I was like, ‘OK, I need to seek help.’ I had never sought out mental health until I was in college.”
Why?
“Because it is free,” she said.
“I love promoting it because it has been such a great resource for me.”
I walk around campus and take a deep breath and tell myself, 'I wished and prayed for this so long. I deserve it.'
Adamaris Lopez Morales
She said, through her care, she learned how to set boundaries and communicate.
“A lot of times, because I am Mexican American, my culture, we move together and stay tighter, whereas Americans are more individualistic. So that was trouble for me, wanting to move away from my family so they understood the individual aspect of my own career, my own journey.
“It’s hard to break out. I love my family so much but it’s hard to say, ‘I’m going to pave my own way, I am going to do my own thing.’”
She is studying to become a teacher and is already working as an instructional assistant for Madrid Neighborhood School nearby and expects to graduate in May.
Morales also wants first-generation students to slow down, pause and enjoy the moment. Fun events, such as today’s Pump Up on the Quad and Thursday's Sweaters & S’mores on Prescott Field (both 5-7 p.m.), are also part of the activities.
“You often hear of imposter syndrome, thinking ‘you don’t belong here.’ Even now I have it,” Morales said. “But I walk around campus and take a deep breath and tell myself, ‘I wished and prayed for this so long, I deserve it.’
“I have done the work to get here and am really proud of the things I have done. I am valuable and worth it.”
Grand Canyon University senior writer Mike Kilen can be reached at [email protected]
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