First Generation College Students: The Optimist

_{First generation student Soma Leio. (Photo courtesy First Generation)}

This is the second of three interviews in RealClearEducation’s coverage of first generation college students. Read the first student interview here and the first piece of our series here.

Keresoma, or “Soma” Leio comes from a tightly knit Samoan family. Through high school, he lived in a small three-bedroom home in south Los Angeles with nine other members of his extended family. The living room couch was his bed.

As a student at Paramount High School, Leio was very involved in extracurriculars: he was a two-sport athlete, president of the school’s Pacific Islanders Club, played drums for his church band and was an avid Haka warrior dancer.

Applying to college was a tough process for Leio. His mother didn’t understand the need for college and didn’t want him leaving home. But he had his sights set on Harvard – until he realized his grades and test scores were too low for admission.

Still, that didn’t stop Leio from being the first in his family to attend college. With the help of counselors on applications, Leio enrolled in California State University, Long Beach after graduating from Paramount High in 2009. He dropped out after the first semester.

“I felt like I wasn’t ready to be there,” Leio said. “When I got to Cal State Long Beach, I really liked the classes, but for some reason my grades weren’t going the same way as I felt about the classes. Even math as my best subject, I wasn’t doing well in that class.”

He then enrolled in Long Beach City College the following semester, and has been there studying music since spring 2010. He took last semester off to work to pay off bills and take care of his family. He’s returning to Long Beach this fall with the hopes of transferring to the University of Hawaii next year.

RealClearEducation recently caught up with Leio to hear about how education has affected him since high school as he reflects on his experience as a first generation college student.

Why was college, and an education, so important to you?

For me it was very important because I needed to set an example for my nieces and little sister. At first she didn’t want to go to college but now, seeing that I’m trying to better my life and better educate myself and help my family, my little sister is now in college with me. My little brother has been trying to go back to school, too. All four nieces want to go to college now. I wanted to be an example to my family and just to be more educated to learn and help other people.

It did change things for me, it helped me a lot. I learned things I didn’t know about in politics and just things going on in school. My nieces are all proud of me. They want to be a difference in the world now, I’m proud of that.

What was your biggest lesson or takeaway during the college application process?

It was definitely hard. Because I didn’t know anything about the process of applying, for me it was just getting help and information from the counselors and the people in school. They’ll help you out, they’ll help you choose your college, your major, so ask for help.

How did your college experience -- whether complete or incomplete -- shape your current outlook on life, society and economy?

I just wanted to be someone one day. College helped me think of music in a different way, music isn’t just about playing. Music can really help me, help others. It helped me realize that the words you put down on paper can help others feel and relate to you.

Looking back on the entire college application and college-going process, if you could do something over again, what would it be and why?

I would’ve stayed at Cal State Long Beach and gotten the help because I was definitely scared that I didn’t belong there. I was intimidated by the classes, the process. In high school, everything was pretty simple. I didn’t have to study too much – I still studied, but not as much as in college. When I got to Cal State Long Beach, I learned that you need to study, you need to take time out of your day to study, you can’t just fool around and play video games all day or hang around with friends. That was the one thing I learned.

The other thing was that I didn’t know the first thing about financial aid. I was struggling to figure out how to pay for college. My mom didn’t have that much money, we never saved up and stuff. That was the one big thing.

My advice is to talk to your counselor, because that’s one thing I didn’t do. Even talk to the teachers first. Taking advice and getting the help of counselors and teachers is important because sometimes they can really help out. And then do your research, go online and check it all out.

Are you where you want to be in life right now? Did the college application and college-going process get you here? What do you think you need to do to get where you want to be in five, 10 years?

For me personally I’m not where I want to be, because I feel like I could’ve been transferred to university or graduated from college by now. I have friends who have already graduated, and I think back and look at my past, and I just didn’t take the opportunity to push myself hard or ask for help when I needed it.

Family is one of the reasons -- I can’t talk to anyone in my family about certain situations because no one has gone to college. My mom sometimes still asks me if I’m at City College, mostly she just doesn’t understand where I’m at right now. I don’t blame her, for me it’s hard but I try to do it on my own and not seek the help, and that’s the one thing I need to stop doing -- stop doing things on my own and actually seek help from the counselors.

I want to be the first one to graduate in my family and do it all by myself. It’s a pride thing. But I just need to get over and get past the pride and get the help that I need to be where I want to be.

I see myself in 5 years living in Hawaii, in the music industry, worshipping at church, and hopefully one day I’ll have a family in 10 years. In college, I can get a better education and a degree that can help me get where I want to be in the music industry – I think for me it’s about being a music teacher, and I like teaching music and I love music.

I’m not going to force them, but I’m going to make sure my kids can go to college. When they go to college I’m not going to tell them what to do, but I’ll let them know that I’ve been through that, I tried doing it on my own and it didn’t work out the way I wanted it to be but I stuck it out and graduated and here I am.

It’s definitely all been worth it -- the struggle I’ve been going through, it’ll pay off at the end. As I look back, the one thing I didn’t do was give up. I hate giving up. I’d be out of school, probably married already, maybe have kids. But I’m still striving still pushing myself to move forward to one day graduate from college, be the first in my family. That’s one big step I want to achieve and show my family that we can all do it, not just me.