5 Ways Going to College Changed My Life and The Hispanic Scholarship Fund #HSFstories

A college degree opens doors to new levels of opportunity

My first job out of college was for $10 an hour; I had no work experience and I took what I could get. Within 3 months I was hired at the same place in a better position for $25 an hour. I was later promoted two more times to the point that I was earning over $30 an hour my first year out of college. I could not have dreamed that so much opportunity was waiting on the other side of that college degree! Sure, people told me having a degree was a great way to go but I did not believe it until I saw my earning potential and opportunities literally skyrocket past those my non-college-going cousins and friends.

My non-college-educated family members' earning potential was often capped at a lower rate than mine because their lack of education stopped them from moving forward in their jobs. This is glaringly apparent on my Dad's side, the Mexican side, of the family. Of my Dad's siblings, one brother became career military and the other two siblings have struggled at labor-based jobs for decades. They all now suffer from physical ailments but are unable to level up to office jobs in management due to their lack of a college education.

After struggling in jobs he disliked for years and realizing his current future ahead was not what he wanted in life, my dad started going back to school in his mid-thirties. He got an AS in Nursing. Both he and my mom went on to earn their BSN, Master's of Nursing, and Public Health Nurse degrees and certificates together. My dad says that he wished that he had gone to school earlier. But the culture is that you get out there and start earning money to help the family or to get a leg up. With working so hard, who has time for college? And while that seems to pay off in the short term and you can make money fast, you also reach the top of your earning potential fast. When you can't physically do the work any more, you have no other way to make money and support yourself. This was really evident when my grandfather physically could not operate carpet cleaning equipment anymore and had to close up his business. He struggled to make ends meet for the rest of his life.

With the education my dad got, he has new job satisfaction and has been able to earn enough money to properly retire this year while his older sibling is still working full-time. He has had many opportunities to get better jobs, make a difference in the lives of others with the work he does, and afford a better lifestyle than anyone else in our entire family on the Mexican side. And he has avoided the path that his father, my grandfather, was on, struggling at the end of his life because his job required physical labor.

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