Simara Garcia-Guillen

Ms. Santiago

LEAD 1

6 November 2019

College Transition Interview Essay

The peer that I interviewed was Tera Lloyd, who is a Junior. She is from Hermosa Beach,

California and is majoring in Public Health Sciences and Biology. Although she is scheduled to

graduate in 2021, she expects to graduate, or finish classes, early. Similar to Tera, I am also

majoring in Public Health Sciences and am from California. Both of us are LEAD Scholars

which made me feel like I could relate to her easily.

Tera is involved in a lot of programs around campus. This is her first year working as a

Community Facilitator in the Campisi Residence Hall. Having a job as a CF is something that I

am currently interested in as well. She mentioned that it does take up a lot of her time, but I think

it would still be a great leadership experience. Tera also takes on many other leadership roles in

the other clubs that she is involved in. She is on the leadership team for the Global Medical

Brigades Program, where students can get a study abroad, medical experience. She is also on the

leadership team for the Pre-Health, Public Health, and Biology Club. She is also part of the

Biology Honors Society (tri beta). I found it very overwhelming of how involved Tera was and

felt like personally I couldn’t manage all of the things that she was involved with. Tera did admit

that she was in a lot of clubs, but one tip she told me was that it is important to find and be

involved in clubs that you are passionate about. Personally, I have been struggling to get

involved around campus but have now slowly begun to attend club meetings. One thing that I
worry about is whether I will have enough time to get involved in clubs, or get experience while

maintaining decent grades in all of my classes. Another tip that she gave me was to be using a

planner or Google Calendar. For her, Google Calendar seemed to work the best. She also

highlighted that although she is in many clubs, she said that students should “narrow down clubs

to the things that you really are in love with, such as taking two leadership roles, instead of being

involved in fourteen”. I have already begun using Google Calendar and I find it very helpful as

well.

Furthermore, I asked her questions about her transition to college and what it was like

academically and socially/mentally. Overall, she said that she had a good time in her first year,

but it was a very difficult transition for her because it was nothing that she expected. She found it

very challenging to face the new experiences of college on her own, since she is a first

generation student. What she emphasized was that having an expectation of what college would

be like was not the right mentality to have. One major component that made her transition to

college very difficult was the social aspect. As a first generation student, she felt the need to fit

in, and to do so, she didn’t feel like herself. Peer pressure was something that she definitely

experienced during her first year, but didn’t realize it until the end of the year. The way that she

coped with it in the following years was by surrounding herself with friends and people that

support her for who she is, rather than changing to be someone else. For me, I think that I am the

opposite and haven’t made as many friends, so there is no chance to fall into peer pressure, but I

do agree that it is patient to wait for the right friends to come along. But, since I’m too shy to go

find friends, I think that it is important to make sure I don’t stay too shy.
 On the contrary, she had a much more positive transition academically. Coming from a

rigorous high school, she felt prepared for the academic level at Santa Clara. She did mention

that classes do steadily get more difficult, but she still felt very prepared during her freshman

year. Similar to Tera, I also feel that I came from a more rigorous highschool and am not

struggling that much academically. One tip she gave if the time comes when I am having trouble

was to use office hours to the best of my advantage. There will never be anything negative from

it. I have already been utilizing office hours, which I did not expect, and I am seeing that it is

helping my grade.

Tera also discussed how her transition to college affected her relationship with her family

in a positive way. The main point was that she became closer to her family, and her relationship

got better, considering that it wasn’t that good before. The positive change helped her appreciate

her parents more, and as a result was able to turn to her parents when she encountered

difficulties, such as the social transition. I had a similar background with my parents and have

also noticed that I have grown closer to my parents. I also hope that I can grow even closer to my

family to develop a stronger relationship with my grandparents as well as just my parents. I do

fear that I will not gain that much support from my grandparents because they question my

purpose in a school that is so far from home.

As someone who is also interested in the medical field, she was unsure whether to keep

pursuing it because it was a big commitment. The only thing that helped her decide was through

the experience that she gained in an internship opportunity and through the medical brigades

program. This made me realize that since I am facing the same conflict, I need to make sure that
I expose myself to multiple fields frequently to ensure or find out what career path I am looking

into.

Overall, Tera was not disappointed in the experiences she had as a first year college

student. She says that she wouldn’t want to redo the things she had done because she had learned

from it and it had a positive impact long-term. Other advice that she gave was to stay focused

and participate in things you really like or are interested in, rather than just for the sake of the

name, because then you’ll have a better time. Also, due to her social experiences in her first year,

she reiterated that it is very important to “stay true to who you are and do everything that you

want to do, while experiencing it for yourself”. Another point she made that I found the most

helpful was that it is important to know and value things for yourself, while also keeping in mind

that as first-generation students, we are here for a reason and to keep reminding ourselves of our

goal. Finally she found it very helpful to prioritize her schedule by taking advantage of easier

classes, so that she could focus better on the more difficult ones.