Luis Flores is a 23-year-old who was the first in the family to graduate from Cal State LA. He found it difficult to study business but with the help of some of the teachers there he was able to achieve it.

He had some good times there, like being on the basketball team for a while. But not everything was easy. He had some moments where  it was difficult like adapting into college, the differences between high school and college, distractions. But he knew that he had to overcome them and he did and became the first one to graduate in our family.

Transcript:

Kimberly Flores: My name is Kimberly and I’m with my older brother Luis who was the first in the family to graduate and I’m going to be interviewing him about his experience in college. What college did you go to and why did you choose it?

Luis Flores: I went to Cal State LA and I chose that school because it is near home and it was a good financial decision for me to make.

KF: What was your favorite thing about Cal State LA?

LF: My favorite thing about Cal State LA was that the classes were small so you had the chance to really get to know your teacher on a one and one interaction.

KF: Okay, how does it feel like to be the first in the family to graduate?

LF: It feels good to be the first to graduate from the family, I feel like I’m breaking a generational curse and I’m proud to be the first and hopefully keep it going.  

 KF: What did you study and why?

LF: I studied business administration with a focus of economics and statistics.

KF: Why did you decide to study that?

LF: Because I like numbers and business so I felt like statistics was a right way to go.

KF: What were some difficulties about choosing business?

LF: Some difficulties I had with business was taking my accounting classes I’ve always been good with math and numbers but accounting was a whole different difficulty I was not ready for but lucky I went to office hours and with the help of my professors I was able to manage and pass the classes.

KF: Were the teachers offering to help you?

LF: There were some teachers that were welcoming and were offering to help and other teachers were not that much welcoming and I had ask for help but overall they all did help. 

KF: What were some easy things about college?

LF: Something easy about college was making friends, you had a lot of different people from parts of the world but at the end of the day everybody wanted to obtain the bachelor degree or master degree so we all had that in common, so I’ll would say it was easy to make friends just for all the similarities we had as young adults.

KF: What were some of your favorite experiences?

LF: Some of mine favorite experiences was definitely meeting new people making new friends, and going to college basketball games it was a different environment and it was very exciting. Another good experience would be taking hard classes and actually understanding the subject and just getting the relief of passing them.

KF: Did you join any sports?

LF: I joined the school basketball team but unfortunately I got injured so I was not able to continue my professional career.  

KF: What were some differences about high school and college?

LF: There was a lot of differences between high school and college but some of the big one’s I definitely noticed was that academic challenges in high school. I would easily, um, breeze though the classes with a 4.0 gpa, but when I first entered college I found myself struggling due to the amount of work and the amount of time we had to complete it in, so that was one of the main differences and another difference would obviously be, um, the schedule in college we had more of a flexible schedule as in high school everything was the same schedule for the whole year.

KF: How did you adapt into college?

LF: Adapting into college wasn’t easy. What I did was I made a calendar. It was mostly, um, having a work life balance, school balance, so I was thinking how much time do I need for school and how much time do I need for outside of school stuff and I found out making a calendar  and actually putting your schedule make it easier  to see what I had to do and how much time I had to do it. 

KF: Were there any distractions in college?

LF:  Of course. Like I mentioned before since we had um a lot of flexibility and no one really checking up on us it was hard being, it was hard hard to stay focused 24/7. Obviously there’s college parties and college lifestyle you had to also worry about, but at the end of the day you had to keep your eyes on the go and I was able to do that.

KF: What were some goals that you accomplished during college?

LF: Some goals I accomplished while attending college was obtaining a, making the college dean list every semester and graduating within four years.

KF: What advice would you give to other students struggling during college?

LF: So everyone has different college struggles, so what I would do is within myself I would ask myself what is the actual problem, what are you struggling with in college with? And after that I would reflect and try to talk to a school counselor to see what kind of understanding you guys could come with together.

KF: Thank you for taking time to let me interview you about your college experience.