In the midst of her freshman year, COVID-19, midterms and in-person classes increased anxiety for Mikayla Ojeda. The first-generation college student struggled to adjust without her family there to guide her. No one at home had the experience to reassure her she could complete a 10-page essay.
“I was really struggling with my mental health,” the advertising junior from Kyle said. “The adjustment to learning how to take all these college-level exams, college-level essays, learn how to study correctly and efficiently and learn how to efficiently manage my time was a big struggle. I faced a lot of anxiety due to that because I felt like what I was doing was insufficient at that point in time.”
In fall of 2021, UT reported enrolling the largest number of first-generation and historically underrepresented students ever, and the university responded by offering additional support services for these students. Mikayla is one of many first-gen students breaking generation barriers at UT.
Enrollment of first-gen students rose from 9,122 to 9,387 in 2021, making up 23% of all undergraduates. The four-year graduation rate for first-generation undergraduate students also rose from 58.7% to 64.2%, said Michelle Shanks, senior student program coordinator for first-gen equity and Longhorn Link program.
Some of the struggles Shanks has noticed first-gen students face include academic stress, navigating general finances, applying for scholarships and completing financial aid applications. Their overall mental health also takes a beating without their parents there to guide them. All of these are hurdles Mikayla faces.
“We’re kind of in the beginnings of massive expansion with first-gen,” Shanks said. “All of these programs, support (resources) and celebrations (only) got started in 2017. We’re seeing the impact that we’re having on (students) because the students keep coming back to us. The programs are growing, and our first-gen student population is growing.”
Mikayla said college always felt unattainable because of financial struggles she noticed her parents going through. She also said seeing her parents fail to pursue higher education was discouraging.
“I wasn’t very motivated to pursue a degree just because I knew that I would put a lot of financial stress on my parents,” Mikayla said. “They were very motivating and wanted me to go, but internally I just felt guilty for wanting to go to college because I knew how much of a stressor that would be for them.”
But her parents had always insisted she make it through college.
Mikayla said she received very little financial aid. She continues to apply for any scholarships she can but expressed concern about the large amount of loans she has taken out and expects to take out in the future.
A source of income for herself, Mikayla sometimes sells clothes and promotes brands as a social media influencer in between her part-time jobs. She said doing this helps alleviate some of the financial burden of her parents and eases her everyday stress.
“I think repurposing (clothes) is good for the environment, it’s sustainable, but also helps you make money on the side,” Mikayla said. “I’m so blessed to have the ability to do that and be able to help promote other brands and kind of pursue my career but also enjoy what I’m doing while being paid for doing that.”
Mikayla’s mom, Maria Ojeda, said she and Mikayla’s father went to Austin Community College but never received their degrees. Without knowledge from their own parents to navigate college, they struggled. Because of this, they wanted better for their children.
“We knew that when we had kids, we wanted them to go to college,” Maria said. “We didn’t want to force them to go. There were other things they could do. But we were leading them in that direction when we were raising them.”
Maria said her daughter did a lot of work on her own to get to college. Mikayla’s success, her mother said, is due to her own independence and self-discipline.
“She researched a lot, she applied for so many scholarships and she worked her butt off junior and senior year of high school,” Maria said. “She kept herself on top of everything. She’s the one who did all the hard work to get her grades, along with being in clubs and things like that.”
One of the most significant hurdles Mikayla said she faced her freshman year of college, and still continues to battle, is her mental health.
“At that time, I was in the process of finding a psychologist to help me officially diagnose my mental health and what I was struggling with,” Mikayla said.
After seeing a psychologist, Mikayla was diagnosed with ADHD, depression and anxiety. She said coming to terms with these diagnoses was difficult for her. Along with other stressors, she was still adapting to the college workload and living alone.
“Just doing everyday things was really hard,” Mikayla said. “Getting up out of bed, just taking proper care of myself and just having grace with myself was really hard for me. So I did give myself more stress than needed. But also finances were another issue.”
Mikayla said her interest in advertising started in high school. From watching YouTube influencers, Mikayla was intrigued by the process of content creation. This drove her to major in advertising.
“I’m not someone who would always like to be in front of the camera,” Mikayla said. “I really like helping people in that aspect and helping set them up for success. If I could help set brands and companies up for success in advertising, I was like, ‘Oh, this is perfect for me.’ ”
Being a part of the Moody College of Communication has allowed her to further grow her passion for advertising in a comforting, safe environment with the support of Moody faculty, she said.
“I’m really thankful for the faculty and staff at Moody, especially Mr. Damon O’Brien,” Mikayla said. “He is my academic adviser at Moody, and he has helped to reassure me, guide me and make the right choices with my time here at Moody, and I really appreciate it.”
While navigating through college as a first-generation student isn’t easy for her, Mikayla said in addition to her family, her boyfriend is her biggest supporter.
“I’ve seen how she really holds herself to a high standard, which is good, but sometimes I can tell that the pressure can get to her,” petroleum engineering junior Muturi Mwangi said. “One of the things that I love and admire about her, is the fact that she’s very goal oriented. She knows what she wants, and she knows what she needs to do to get it, but sometimes I can tell it can cause her to overthink.”
Mikayla’s one piece of advice to incoming first-gen students is for them to believe in themselves and know there are people around them who will help and support them in that transition.
“I always say no matter how hard it may seem, pursuing a degree and being first-gen in college, you are capable of doing it,” Mikayla said. “It feels like a lot of the odds are against you as a first-gen student, but in the end it will end up working out, and there are people there that you may not even know that support you and want you to win and succeed.”