Upward Bound

Anna Li

Copyright © Photo by Matt Black

While gymnast Anna Li is a full-ride scholarship athlete and the daughter of two Olympians, her situation is surprisingly similar to other first- generation students on campus.

"Being the first in my family to attend elementary school, junior high, and high school in America wasn't an easy task," says the Chinese-American undergrad. "I remember a lot of my friends having their parents help them with homework, while my parents were learning English themselves," she recalls.

And now that she's at UCLA, it's not that different. "(My parents) don't know what college life is like, and I'm the first one in my family to experience this lifestyle."

Jessica Hatrak

Copyright © Photo by Matt Black

While her siblings mastered various trades, including electrical and cosmetology, freshman political science major and first-generation Bruin Jessica Hatrak has set her sights far beyond the small Inland Empire town where her family lives: "I will definitely go to graduate school, maybe law school, maybe something else, but I want to learn a lot of languages, travel and get involved in international relations."

Hatrak explains that "for a lot of reasons, college was not really an option when my siblings were going to high school, so I am the first to go," adding, "I feel like most of the people I meet, and that's people from all over the country and the world, have parents who went to college and have more of a clue than I do."

Published Apr 1, 2007 8:00 AM