Dear Incoming FGLI Students

Never stop focusing on the small victories.

As an FGLI student, you have been navigating a new world your families have never seen. Every day you pave the way for your children and their children to have access to higher education and professional networks. You've been climbing a mountain your entire life and you don't intend to stop.

But as you begin your undergraduate journey, I implore you once more to focus on the small victories.

It wasn't until I entered college that I realized how uneven the playing field can be for FGLI students. Suddenly, I was thrust into an environment built on generational wealth with students who had access to powerful networks through their families. As someone who believes everything can be accomplished if you work hard enough, I found myself struggling my freshman year. I blamed and pushed myself more and more to perform as well as my fellow classmates.

What I couldn't see as a freshman was that even though we were all students, we all have different goalposts.

For some, getting the A in the course or landing the internship is both reasonable and attainable. For others, it's turning in that homework assignment you never thought you'd get through. Both are incredible accomplishments.

It's incredibly easy in college to look at the accomplishments of others and set that as the bar for yourself. But that is productive for no one. If you keep pushing the goalposts, you never "accomplish" anything. At least, you'll never feel like you have.

That has been the problem dominating my first two years of college and one I wished we talked more about. I found myself unhappy, always "catching up", always discrediting my work for the "next thing". Focus on you - what motivates you, where you want to be, who you want to become. Trying to be someone else will never help you.

So celebrate that homework assignment, be glad you attended class or that you continued to try after you failed that test!

Define success for yourself in a way that never discredits your accomplishments.

You've had different experiences, struggles, and setbacks from your fellow classmates. All students are not equal. But you do deserve an equal feeling of success.

Never stop climbing your mountain. You will make it to the summit. And even though it might not be the tallest mountain in the world - you still climbed a mountain!

Sincerely,

An FGLI student