My name is Edgar Fidel Lopez. My life story began when I was a young Mexican-American boy living in a tiny one-bedroom apartment with my large family in Los Angeles. The nation had a hostile political climate toward Hispanics, especially those undocumented. At the time, my parents held unstable employment and financially struggled to provide us with adequate clothing and school supplies. It impacted my K-12 schooling experience, as teachers and peers belittled me for not speaking proper English and living in poverty.

Eventually, we were evicted from our home and forced to find another apartment, which led us toward Inglewood. In both cities, I still encountered systemic racism and educational inequalities. I had imagined my life opportunities to be limited and stagnated.

My family is my primary source of strength. To this day, my parents still are two of the most influential people in my life. They only held a middle school education, thus pushing me to strive for higher education to provide them with a better life.

They fueled my aspirations without realizing they would have raised a first-generation Latino male college student, community mentor, and social justice advocator. I achieved the prestigious Gates Millennium Scholarship, my Bachelor’s degree from the University of California – Los Angeles (UCLA), and a Master’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin). (pic)

In my spare time, I mentor and support other rising students of color. At UCLA, I worked as an undergraduate college advisor for the Early Academic Outreach Program (EAOP) to advise students from underfunded high schools. At UT Austin, I worked as a site coordinator for Project MALES (Mentoring to Achieve Latino Educational Success) to mentor promising African American and Latino male middle school and high school students. Then, as the program coordinator for the College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP) at St. Edward’s University, I taught a year-long writing course and coordinated a mentoring program for undergraduate migrant students. These programs reaffirmed the importance of advocating and creating safe spaces for students of color in higher education institutions who may feel unheard, unsupported, and invalidated.

By no means was my journey to higher education easy. Now, as a Ph.D. student at the University of Southern California, I work on research projects and leadership roles in pursuit of a tenure-track faculty career. My research focuses on first-generation college students, faculty-student mentoring relationships, and Latina/o/x issues in higher education. I hope to advance my research to inform practice and challenge the racial inequality and cultural deprivation that students of color face at predominantly white institutions. More importantly, I aspire to be a strong role model for my younger siblings, niece and cousins, and others to help them envision a successful future.

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Advice to younger self:

• • Seek out at least two support faculty mentors. Push yourself to use campus services (your tuition fees already paid for them). Don’t be afraid to ask for feedback to improve your writing skills.