Marco Magallanes Research Paper

To begin, my immediate family is well-educated, meaning that both of my parents received a primary education, but also went on to study and graduate from universities. I believe this factor allowed me to succeed in coming to ISU, because my parents were able to recognize the significance of their higher education and how it correlated with their careers and current lifestyle. These factors contributed to my parents instilling in me the need to receive a college education in order to have more access to future opportunities.

There are scholarships and financial aid that you can apply for that can help you throughout college, so there is no excuse behind saying that if you come from a poor background that you can’t get a college education. Another interesting point that Leonhardt makes is that the “American Dream” is lost and the chances for economic mobility have diminished over the past the few decades, which I agree. I truly believe that the “American Dream” is still there; it’s just a lot tougher than it used to be to achieve your goals. My generation is very competitive when it comes to school and getting into college. It’s not as it once was back in the day when my parents were growing up. Those bound for school in those years planned on going to school nearby home and believed that a school in the radius of 300 miles away from home is too far for them. They believed that applying to one or two schools was enough, and also the acceptance rate was mostly very high. It used to be simple, but not anymore. Now we have students that are coming from all around the world to get an education in the United States with competitive grades and impressive high school transcripts. With the increase of applicants to

Growing up in a lower class family my mother was barely able to pay the bills. My father left my mother when I was fourteen. So she was forced to provide for my siblings and me on her school bus driver salary. My mother had the best health benefits a job provides, her children never went without healthcare. I will say the majority of lower class family’s do not have this luxury, it depends on the job. My siblings and I have also had a quality education because my mother researched the school districts in our area before deciding where to enroll her kids. The lower class can get a quality education we just have to be determined to work hard. In order to get a college education as a lower class citizen I have to work a full time job while going to school full time. I have a wonderful role model my mother got her bachelor’s degree while working to full time jobs one graveyard and one during the day while going to school full time. If she can do that then I can’t disappoint her all she’s ever wanted for her children was a better life. The government provides financial aid, but it isn’t enough to live on while going to school. I have to utilize every free moment I have to complete my assignments, because of that I don’t have any free time. College is my only shot at moving up the class ladder of America.

My parents always wanted to give their children the life they never had. I am Mexican-American, both of my parents immigrated from Mexico to the U.S. before I was born. I have numerous relatives, including my older sister, who do not have the same opportunities I have to achieve success because they are undocumented. For them, college was only a dream that could never be attained. Being the first U.S. citizen out of my entire family affected the way I thought about life. It was expected that I would attend college because I was the only one who had access to all the resources granted to American citizens. Although, I agreed with my family, the pressure to succeed and be a role model to my younger siblings was overwhelming.

Magallanes was raised in the Azusa Barrio of Los Angeles. His artwork is influenced by the cultural and social elements of his upbringing. At the age of fifteen, he was expelled from high school, but was accepted into the Ryman Arts program at the Otis-Parsons College campus which encouraged him to become a professional artist. The experience of participating in two distinct worlds continues to inform the work.

Ever since you were little, your parents have been talking about this wonderful thing called college. They told you that you have to go there to get an education before you can get a good job. Many kids have dreamed of going to college, and being able to get the job of their dreams. By putting in hard work and dedication to good grades in high school, you had high hopes that you would be able to get into an Ivy League school. The American dream of being able to go to college to get a degree is sliding away from many people due to rising costs. With increasing tuition prices and job loss, the college dream is slowly and surely slipping away from many students and their families.

My Dad didn't go to college. He worked long hard hours at southwire and traveling. As I was growing up he told me to keep working harder, and not to give up in life and just work for things. He wants me to go to college or the Air Force that way. I have a better job and I don't want to start my life off struggling. Instead of struggling he wants me doing good. College is not worth the cost, because some people can not afford it. With college being expensive a lot of college kids having to work and study and go to class some kids just can't handle it.

My family is big on education. My grandparents never thought about sending their kids to college, not because they did not want them to go but because they did not know how or where to send them. The forms, the money, all the questions, they did not know how to deal with it. Besides, they had just arrived to America from the Dominican Republic. So they worked, their 7 kids went to high school, some graduated and most didn’t. With the little education that they had, my uncles resorted to working in the streets. My family had become a street family and had been known. Years in the business and they begin to settle down and have kids. It’s true when people say having kids changes people’s mentality. My uncles wanted nothing to do with the streets once they met their little babies. My family has built big dreams for the children of the family. They wanted us to have everything that they did

I am fortunate enough to say that both my parents have American and foreign college education diplomas. My father has his Ph.D. in political economics and my mother had her master's in Accounting prior to our migration to the United States. Although the foreign diplomas ensured their education. American Institutions didn't validate it. The transition they've endured to working minimum wage jobs in poverty in order to ensure I didn't lack my education motivated me. My mother's work ethic and her pursuit

Being born of 2 immigrant parents, who work menial jobs and have no education has always had its weight on me. Neither one of my parents are high school graduates and no one in my family has obtained a collegiate education. I have been able to experience first hand how difficult a life with no education is. I recall other students sharing how their parents provided aid with their homework and read to them, knowing I did not get to experience that made me gloomy. I had no other choice but to learn everything on my own and then attempt to teach my parents. This peculiar lifestyle has pushed me harder in academics and has given me a genuine appreciation for the value of an education.

Students from all over the United States are told all through their life that they need to attend college if they ever want to be successful, however, this is far from the truth. Often schools are culprits for driving students to attend money driven colleges, in other cases it is family. While schools all too often make the push on students to continue their schooling, parents can cause the same situation, as they may not have a degree and be working a low-paying factory job. Now kids already don’t want to be like their parents when they get older, so seeing them suffer in poverty or barely above the poverty line can cause some dissatisfaction, further seeking a degree to live a life that they never got. What many

Despite the disadvantages I may have due to my financial background, I do have the advantage of having people support me. Throughout my life, my family rarely had extra money for expenses. However, they did find a way for me to achieve a good high school education through an internet home school program. Through this opportunity, I accomplish my goal of graduating high school in 3 years and with the grades and standardized test score that allow me to become the first in my family to go to a university. I

Ultimately, school isn’t cheap. My parents and I have been working extremely hard to fulfill my dreams. As previously mentioned, I come from a family of immigrants who never fulfilled their college dreams due to financial reasons; and nor can they speak proper English which disqualifies them from attaining a good profession in the U.S. They work to support my education, so they can give me what they didn’t

Another problem with American society is how hard it is for poor individuals to find success because “the rich are richer and the poor are poorer,” (Goode 88). The top 1% in America hold most of the money, leaving very little for those who are considered poor. This then becomes a never-ending cycle because middle and upper class kids attend very good schools and receive educations that will allow them to find success in life, and those kids who are in working and lower classes, go to over-crowded schools with very little resources. This makes it very difficult for these kids to take their educations further and go to college. I personally struggled with the transition from high school to college due to the education I received. I went to a Denver Public School which has a reputation of being “trashy” or “ghetto”. Luckily, as a whole Colorado has a good education system, but I know I wasn’t challenged enough in high

No one in my family in the past generations completed high school. Everyone was told to work to provide for the family because back in Guatemala education was not free. What really motivated me to attend college was wanting to become someone important. I do not want to simply work all my life and leave not one mark on this earth. I want to be able to live comfortably and be able to travel; to be able to say I explored the world. I lived the American Dream. I want to be part of history, where people look back at past events and can find my name mentioned somewhere in the books.