Born to Inspire

By Karent R.

Yareli Solís, a worker from the 10,000 degrees program to help students out with their college application journey was inspired by her struggles as a first generation student to help other first generation students to follow their academic dreams.

For most people it’s difficult to know where to begin with their college journey or just simply struggle to know what their future path would look like, for Solís it was hard as well. Especially, because she was the first one in her family to go to college.

Solís: “The path wasn’t easy for me because I had to- essentially, I was the first one in my family and I want to continue pushing that for my community.”

Just like most students, she was a first generation student whose parents were immigrants. She recalls that her path was even more rocky than expected thanks to the lack of guidance she received as a first generation student.

Solis: “My parents are Immigrants so growing up my parents worked a lot and I didn’t have a lot of guidance growing up because my parents were in survival mode.”

Even though she experienced a lot of struggles with her college  applications due to the lack of guidance and opportunities, she was able to make it to college with sweat, and pure hard work . 

Solís: “I like to move with the purpose of doing everything with love and an open heart.” 

Her journey throughout college turned out better than she imagined. She was able to learn a lot more things. College also led her to get out of her comfort zone, and opened more doors for her. She was able to push herself even harder into being a role model for future generations and was inspired to  help students out to see a brighter path for their future.

Solis: “My journey through college- it was a lot of self discovery and stepping out of my comfort zone. I learned a lot and unlearned a lot as well, so it was a journey full of experiences and discoveries.”

After years of being in college, she majored in justice studies and she hopes to pursue higher education to become a lawyer. In the meantime, Solís is currently working at Yerba Buena high school, and this is her first year working there. She, alongside with her peers, hopes that they will be able to help students out the most with their college applications, and let them know that they are not alone. 

Solis is a true example of if you want something you have to actually put yourself up there and try everything, even if the lights are out, and the path is dark, and at the end of the day you are the only one that will shine.