Sabrina Navarro Tapia is a third-year student pursuing a degree in sociology with a double minor in applied psychology and educational studies. She is from Montebello, CA and is the first in her family to go away for college. Sabrina currently sits on the United Sorority and Fraternity Council as Director of Academics, where she creates opportunities for academic success within multicultural organizations, including her own, Lambda Theta Nu. She plans to pursue a Masters Degree in Higher Education Administration and Student Affairs. She is currently employed as a Peer Mentor for the PROPEL Scholars Program and the Undergraduate Mentorship Program at UCSB. In her free time you can find her reading endless romance novels and baking excessively. Her research interests include first-generation college students and the impact of being the first to attend college in their families.
Project
As a first generation college student, my very own transition to college was not easy, with the thought of dropping out always existing in my head. Now, going into my final year of college, I want to define guilt in first generation college students which arises when these students are able to have opportunities their parents did not. In this proposal, I hope to create an opportunity to expand on this topic to establish a better understanding of what these students face because of this guilt that impacts them in both a negative and positive way. I also wish to justify the feelings of other students who are consumed by the thoughts of dropping out as soon as they arrive at college. I spent weeks and weeks drowning in the thoughts of “I could be home” or “I’m missing out on my siblings growing up.” I wrote this piece for my second year self who did not ever think that she would be creating a list of graduate schools or preparing to take her final set of courses before she graduates with a bachelor’s degree next spring.
Link to year-long project here.
