While interviewing the Sophomore group we discovered a change from the freshmen year experiences to the sophomore experiences. The sophomores spoke more about support that they have or have not received on campus as opposed to high school support. They knew what worked in terms of advising, tutoring, and classes. They knew what didn't seem to work as much in terms of retention, financial aide, and campus support. They had different experiences to tell in terms of family, home, and community connections.

    First-generation college students and students of color face many challenges in their academic careers. In "Critical Race Theory, Marginality, and the Experience of Students of Color in Higher Education", Solórzano and Villalpando suggest that universities focus their attention to "dependence on other Students and Faculty of Color for support and mentorship" in order to remain connected to their own experience and community. César Mora reinforces that idea as he comments on his relation to faculty at CSUMB:

I have taken a lot of classes with Latino faculty it's just great, it kind of makes you, see yourself achieving that and that motivates you a little bit more. They are so good you learn so much about multiculturalism. (7)

    Finding validation by sharing experience and identity in the university setting can also be hard for students of color. In her Service Learning 200 class, Sandra Chavarin was able to "caucus" with other students of color.

We got to meet together and talk about the things that we didn't like that had happened to us about racism or how you felt in your classes or anything that really bugged you a lot that you never said to anybody. We got the chance to say it. (12)

     Clearly, having role models and a space to share your voice is making a big difference at CSUMB, when it happens. Still, first generation students name barriers to success. Maria Lupe Figueroa relates:

. . . sometimes in the classes when I do have to speak or give a presentation in front of the class, . . . it's hard for me to express my thoughts, to express my feelings, my ideas . Sometimes I'm thinking something in Spanish and I have to translate that in my mind and say it at the same time. So I get confused with that. (11)

    In "CSUMB Vision Statement: Vision to Reality", Annabelle Rodriguez states, "Nearly all interviewees referred to language as one of their biggest barriers to communication . . ." (28). Acquiring confidence and proficiency remains a struggle for many students in the college community and have a person to depend upon. They know they can go to that person for help in areas they don't understand or need advice. Maria Lupe has taken full advantage of this when she talks to the Migrant Program director or to some of her professors to find out which classes are best for her and what she wants to do (8). In fact Richardson and Skinner found that successful students formed relationships with their instructors, found mentors and advisors, and created support groups and connections with other students (37). "All students identified peer support as important ... these groups provided invaluable support in many ways" (37). Finding a peer group has greatly helped Maria Lupe.

....little by little I'm getting to know people from different backgrounds. But first I think that they have to establish a peer group where they can feel comfortable . . . I needed to establish like a base for me. Some kind of secure base for me and go on and explore more and get to know people from different backgrounds and different ethnicity and different ways of thinking. And all that (10).

 Finding a peer group that she felt comfortable with was one way that helped Maria Lupe move forward at school. During the interviews we found evidence that supported the need for a peer group. We also found a need for more involved advising from peers, but most especially from a faculty advisor. A faculty memeber who can explain the differences between majors or advise them whom to talk to in a different department. Otherwise they get lost and confused like Sandra Chavarin, "I want to be a teacher, but it's like I don't know what I want. I think I need more advising on that. I need to know more on the majors and more on the jobs and stuff"(21). First generation students need to have a person that they can turn to with any type of acedemic question. A person who even if they don't know an answer can find it out for the student. Not someone who will send the student away to try and find an answer by themselves.

    Along with faculty and peer advising for support students recognized the fact that on-campus jobs also assisted in their understanding of college life. Through their jobs students were able to find connections with faculty in many different departments. They made friendships with students from different majors and developed vital relationships with staff. Students who are also commuters from nearby areas spoke very highly of on-campus jobs. For them it was their connection with campus. Their jobs also allowed them to re-connect to their own cultures in several ways. For Sandra Chavarin it gave her a chance to go back to the very fields her parents worked in. Through her job as a student counselor with CSUMB's Outreach department she felt she was making a major difference in children's lives. These jobs also give her and many other students the extra motivation they need to finish college. They know that there are high school as well as elementary and middle school students watching them, thinking "that if they can do it so can I". Through their jobs these students have become role models and mentors for future college students.

   In addition to these connections our students spoke of a need for family support. Those who were receiving support emotionally from family seemed to be doing much better in school.  Part of the reason many of the students claimed their families were not supporting or encouraging them is because they do not understand what their child is going through. There is a great need to help parents of first generation college students with the transition as well. These parents are just as lost in the shuffle of administration as the students are. The student at least has people from class and campus to lean on. The parents are left at home to wonder and worry. They often come up with ideas that are very far off the mark of what their child is going through. Some students spoke of their parents forming telephone connections with other first generation parents and the help and support this gave them.

My mom she said it was okay with her. Since I was small I told her I wanted to go to college. That I wanted to go to U.C. Santa Barbara. And then it came the time to apply. So I applied to so many universities and my first priority was Sonoma State and my last one was CSUMB, but at the time I had to pick where I wanted to go. My mom told me that she didn't want me to go far away. So I decided to stay here close to home and since we had family problems I just decided to stay here for a couple of years or the whole four years till graduation. (p.3, 19-25)

She continues on:

If it wasn't for my family's support I don't know what would be of me, I mean my mom is always standing there saying, "GO!" Sometimes I tell her "Mom, I'm tired, I think I'm just going to get out of school and go find a job" but she's all like you're not going to do that! You're already half way done, you can't do that to me! (P.9, 155-159)

    Carlos Armenta had some good support from his parents as well but it is interesting to point out how he, a male student, was supported by his parents. This experience is a lot different from Sandra's experience with family support:

[B]asically both of my parents, they're like do whatever, whatever's going to make you happy. I think that's my mom and that's always been my mom's mentality. It's do what you want to do- do what's going to make you happy. And we'll back you up on that. I think that's what made everything that easier. My folks just backed me up all the way (p.32, 664).

Carlos also had a lot of support from his church community:

Even my pastor knows the importance. He goes, "Yeah." He goes, "Definitely the school is what has to come first, before ministry," before the position that I have there. They're totally with me. Even the church is excited, you know, because I think I'm probably one of the first kind of like, people from the church to go to college, you know, growing up (p.19, 375).

    In some cases, after the children go away to school and come back to visit or stay for the breaks they experience a barrier between themselves and their community. In his famous article entitled, "The Achievement of Desire," Richard Rodriguez explains the culture difference that students re-face once away at school. He explains how he lives in two completely different cultures and has to change back and forth when he went home to his community Rodriguez believes that slowly the home culture is lost after much effort to try and balance the two worlds. Students may even find themselves starting to separate from their parents, as was Rodriguez's experience at home. Unfortunately this was the case for Cesar Mora and his home community. He tells us his experience:

I don't agree with a lot of things they say. Um, I don't know it's weird cause now if you argue with them, they say you think you're too good because you're a little bit more educated than us, they will say something, like it went to my head that I feel superior than they are. Because they never haven't gone to college, or they, a lot of my friends that I have, started working after high school, when I start talking aboutlet say I would start talking about school with somebody else, and he's there, like he will start saying "You're going to bring that stuff again." They say I over do it cause I share a story or something.

    Even though several of the students have shared a situation similar to Cesar's they also spoke of the understanding they gained from the situations. Many of the students felt that regardless of the way some people saw them they still have so much to return to their communities with. They also spoke of feeling more connected to these same communities.

Maria Lupe: "I do want to go back and help and serve and be like a resource for them. Like a, be that guide I didn't find at the beginning. So I want to make the connection between like community and my family with the education, with college life" (p.12-13, 240-262).
"When I came here, I decided that I wanted to change the way I was. To get closer to my family" (p.19, 353-354). "My culture, I think that I have learned more about it. That I have become more closer to it. Now with my work I get to go more to where my parents are from and to know more about it. Then also for one of my classes, HCom 240, American Cultural Heritage, we got to do an interview about a family member. To talk to family members and write a report about it. Like what were your great-grandparents when they were younger. Where they came from. It was really interesting, I got to learn a lot of stuff" (p.19, 358-363).

    Cesar Mora did mention the fact that he is able to appreciate his family more now that he is away from home. This may be because he knows how hard his parents have had to work to survive and keep his family supported financially. He is able to look back on that now and appreciate all they have done for him. He may realize now how important it is for him to continue with his education to achieve a better lifestyle:

I appreciate my family more, I think, my mom especially, cause she is the head of the family I think. My dad likes to think he is but you know we all know he is not. And she is always, she's a hard worker, she worked in the fields, and she is like always to do good, and you know, she has taken us to the fields, and she says to take it as a learning experience, not to forget why you are in school kind of thing, and it works, and she says "to do better than me," and your father, try to get ahead all the time. Great motivation, she's like the best". (p.11, 178-185)