By Bill DeBaun, Senior Director, Data and Strategic Initiatives
Reading time: Five minutes
Above: From left to right, Kerekes, Perez, Hernandez, and Velasquez
National College Attainment Network (NCAN) staff, members, and partners lend their efforts and voices every day to increasing equity and excellence in college access and attainment in the United States. Despite our collective energy, organizations also
recognize a fundamental truth: the voices of the students we serve, telling their stories in their own words, are powerful, valuable, and we as a field must elevate them.
On September 18, at the closing plenary of NCAN’s 2024 National Conference in Anaheim, CA, attendees heard from three extraordinary
students about their experiences in a plenary session titled “Navigating the Journey- Student Voices on Identity, Belonging, and Success.”
For the second consecutive year, Jarian Kerekes, member of the NCAN Board of Directors, Head of Social Impact at Equitable, and President of the Equitable Foundation, moderated the student
panel, which included:
Joshua Campos Velasquez, an alumnus of the USC McMorrow Neighborhood Academic Initiative (NAI) and senior at the University of Southern California (USC)
Stalia Cerezo Perez, an alumna of Operation Jump Start and the University of California, Davis
Yvette Hernandez, an alumna of AVID, Talent Search, and the University of California, Berkeley
A key theme highlighted by all of three of these speakers was how critical the support of college access organizations was to instilling confidence and providing guidance.
“I didn’t know college was possible until I joined AVID,” said Hernandez. “I was a first-generation student. I didn’t know this…My parents didn’t know this.” Hernandez first became engaged with AVID (an NCAN member) as an elective in middle school and
then carried it through to high school, which furthered her preparation for college. She also received support from Talent Search that included college visits, conversations with admissions counselors, and a broader understanding of what to do on-campus.
Perez credits Operation Jump Start (another NCAN member) for the guidance the program provided. “Being a first-generation college student, I was lost…I didn’t have that role model.” OJS reassured Perez; “I was telling them my worries [about college],”
she recalls, “And they were like, ‘No. We are going to get you there.’” She’s now dispensing similar counsel by working at OJS with students and helping them to connect with their postsecondary pathways.
Kerekes then asked the panelists about the engagement or resource they were provided that, “really made a college pathway clear” to them.
For Velasquez, who grow up in the El Sereno area of East Los Angeles (CA), it was exposure to college campus. He noted that being on-campus showed him that, “this could be me in the next four years if I work my butt off. Exposure to a college campus is
what allowed me to envision my future.”
Hernandez’s experience was slightly different and revolved around talking with a financial aid advisor. “That put it into perspective that the Pell Grant was available – institutional aid, grant aid – were available…The only thing my parents could tell
me was, ‘Do your best in school, work hard, get good grades.’ But when I looked at college costs, it was daunting.” The financial aid advisor emphasized the resources schools can offer to really help students.
Simone Pringle, Program Associate at NCAN, led the coordination of the panel. She notes, “I’ll say it until I’m blue in the face: student voice is so important to me. It keeps me grounded when the odds are stacked against us in the fight for what’s
best for students. This plenary is my favorite part of Conference, because it’s a clear renewing of my why. Every student deserves the full range of support and resources they need to make it to and through postsecondary education.”
Those supports were critical during the matriculation phase, too. Velasquez admits, “It definitely required some vulnerability on my part to ask about navigating from high school to college.” He noted that having that support system was, “really important
and valuable” to understand other students have gone through the same pathway.
Hernandez recalls that after receiving her acceptance letter from UC-Berkeley there were, “lots of people calling me from out of nowhere.” They were students from the UC-Berkeley Bridges program who wanted to congratulate Yvette on her acceptance and encourage her to commit to attending the institution. “It’s so important we have people representing us at these institutions,” emphasized Hernandez. “Bridges helped me to prepare, take classes”
and complete other key activities.
Perez had a slightly different experience and remembers essentially taking the initiative herself to reach out to the school and the clubs that had Latino/a and specifically Mexican backgrounds to hear about students’ experiences on-campus and confirm
(or affirm?) that she’d feel a sense of belonging upon arrival.
Asked what they wish had been more of their K-12 experience, the panelists advocated for expanding college access programs in high school so that more students receive support. Specifically, Velasquez noted that, “being able to expand and see the bigger
picture…thinking more of that long term of the investment in higher education” is a horizon more students need help accessing.
All three of the panelists have a commitment to future social impact. Velasquez, “aspires to enter the commercial real estate industry, where he hopes to develop affordable housing in underserved communities.” Perez notes that her career goal is, “to
help create systemic changes that reduce educational disparities and enhance opportunities for marginalized communities, ensuring that every individual can thrive regardless of their background.” Hernandez, “is deeply passionate about research and
advocacy aimed at advancing equity and reducing financial and accessibility barriers to higher education.” She has already been a strongadvocate in California for changing policy related to scholarship displacement.
NCAN is grateful to these three panelists for sharing their experiences and insights. More broadly, we are grateful to all of the students who lend their voices to the mission of expanding college access and attainment nationwide.
Have a student whose voice we should feature in a future NCAN blog, webinar, or conference? Please reach out to Simone Pringle at pringles@ncan.org.
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