{"id":960894,"date":"2026-07-26T18:29:39","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T18:29:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/960894\/"},"modified":"2026-07-26T18:29:39","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T18:29:39","slug":"being-the-first-in-your-family-to-go-to-college-can-be-tough-maybe-pop-culture-can-make-it-smoother-san-diego-union-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/960894\/","title":{"rendered":"Being the first in your family to go to college can be tough. Maybe pop culture can make it smoother. \u2013 San Diego Union-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leaving her home in Los Angeles to go to college in New York City, being the first in her family to go to college, and not knowing much about how to navigate it all was a lot for Ariela Canizal<\/a>. It\u2019s a lot to take in and figure out for plenty of first-generation college students \u2014 where do I fit in? Do I belong here? What do I do? One of the ways she was able find some of those answers were through the kinds of music, TV shows, and movies she had already naturally gravitated toward.<\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up watching TV shows like \u2018The Transformers,\u2019 \u2018G.I. Joe,\u2019 \u2018Care Bears,\u2019 \u2018Star Trek,\u2019 and movies like \u2018The NeverEnding Story,\u2019 \u2018Star Wars,\u2019 \u2018Battlestar Galactica,\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cSo, associating with and talking about different TV shows and different characters that I grew up with was an opportunity to engage in conversation with people that I had no idea who they were. I was trying to get to know them, especially in college, and it just kind of opened the floodgates \u2026 (and) I saw how meaningful that connection was for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since those earliest days of landing on a way to connect with her peers, Canizal has gone on to write, research, and make conference presentations about using pop culture as a way for first-generation students to find place and identity with each other, and in their engagement in higher education. At 10 a.m. on Sunday in the Shiley Special Events Suite at the Central Library in downtown San Diego, Canizal is part of a San Diego Comic-Con panel discussion, \u201cGeekEd: Is the Juice Worth the Squeeze? When Pop Culture Becomes Pedagogy for First-Gen Students,\u201d<\/a> inspired by the book \u201cFirst Gen & Juice: Exploring First Generation College Student Narratives in Pop Culture and Mass Media,\u201d in which she is also a contributing author. They\u2019ll talk about the ways that pop culture has helped them, their students, and its usefulness as a tool in education.<\/p>\n

Canizal, 46, lives in North Park and is director of community and leadership development at the University of San Diego where she oversees multiple initiatives at the university, including supporting students who commute to campus, leadership programming, and working with first-generation students. She took some time to talk about her own experience in college, her use of pop culture in her educational work, and how this kind of media continues to enrich her life today.<\/p>\n

Q:<\/strong> What did being a first-generation college student mean for you growing up?<\/p>\n

A:\u00a0<\/strong>I am originally from Boyle Heights, which is east of East L.A., in the heart of L.A. County. My parents are still there. Tt\u2019s a community that\u2019s very close to my heart, and it\u2019s a predominantly Latino and immigrant community. Being first-gen is something pretty common in the neighborhood; a lot of us are children of immigrants, or we are just navigating spaces that are very new to our families. I am the only daughter of two fabulous people who are Latino themselves. My dad is an immigrant, and essentially, since I was born, my parents made it their purpose to really try to teach me how to navigate systems that they didn\u2019t really understand, but they knew that I needed to understand. So, education was their way of trying to get me to understand how to navigate the world outside of our neighborhood, which meant that a lot of times I didn\u2019t know what I was asking because my parents didn\u2019t know what to ask. It was just this foreign journey that I didn\u2019t know. I knew there was something out there in the world, and what that was, was an opportunity to better myself, whether that was gaining knowledge to learn a skill, to figure out something that I wanted to do that I was passionate about. It just so happens that I found myself in higher education. I did leave Boyle Heights to go to school for undergrad, and I went to school in New York City. That opened a lot of doors for me where there were a lot of possibilities that I didn\u2019t know existed. It was really hard for my parents to let me go, but they knew that I needed to leave and they encouraged it, which is very new for parents, especially in a Latino family, to do that. My dad was like, \u2018I came here to this country and I wanted you to have that opportunity, so you\u2019ve got to do it. I just don\u2019t know how to help you, but we\u2019ll be here whenever you need it.\u2019 My philosophy in working with students right now, and even before I started working full time at USD, is that there\u2019s a lot of uncertainty out there and a lot of students are looking to people to kind of guide them and help them figure out how to navigate the world of higher education, and also hopefully beyond. I met really great people throughout my endeavors in higher education, and I just want to give back to my community. I am very proud being a first-gen.<\/p>\n

What I love about North Park\u2026<\/p>\n

I love the fact that there is a blend of old history. I love the fact that I can go to little shops in the area that have been there for decades, and I also can just go into areas that are kind of new. I love the fact that I can walk around North Park. I feel like, sometimes, we\u2019re in such a hustle-and-bustle culture that I just want to take a moment and take a deep breath, and just walk around the neighborhood and listen to the sounds, take in the smells that are around.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0<\/strong>What was your experience like first navigating campus life?<\/p>\n

A:\u00a0<\/strong>Now, I have the jargon of how there\u2019s a hidden curriculum that exists when we think about higher education, and that hidden curriculum is just a lot of things that you would think that parents or friend would typically tell you. Like, \u2018Hey, when you get to class, on the first day of class, you need to talk to the professor. When you get your financial aid package, if you have a question, you should call this office.\u2019 For me, especially as someone who navigated those systems and didn\u2019t know who to call or who to ask, I just happened to meet certain people who knew that I had questions based on my nonverbal expressions. So, as a practitioner, educator, and administrator, I really try to just say that if you don\u2019t know something, come up and ask me. If you need to navigate a process that you\u2019re not familiar with, I may not know how to do it, but I can connect you to the right people, and so forth. I think that\u2019s one of the reasons why I really have enjoyed working at USD, specifically. We have some systems here that really help our students to not feel alone; that they have connections, not just inside the classroom, but outside of the classroom. That\u2019s something that I just want students to understand, is that higher education can be daunting-for students who may not know how to do it, but even for students who know what to do because they have the resources. It\u2019s still daunting to be a young adult when you\u2019re navigating so many things, including school, internal emotions, and the emotional intelligence that comes as you\u2019re being challenged to think critically, but also trying to have fun and being young adults. I think it\u2019s important as practitioners and educators to remind ourselves of how we were in those spaces at a different time, and nothing\u2019s really changed. Maybe there\u2019s more social media, maybe students are more vocal, but overall, students still struggle and still need to find success somewhere. They need that sense of belonging and they\u2019re going to look for it.<\/p>\n

I think higher education is very complex, especially when you\u2019re the first in the family to do it, and that\u2019s kind of daunting because your family looks at you as the expert. At the same time, you walk into a space and you\u2019re like, \u2018I\u2019m no longer the expert here because I don\u2019t know what I\u2019m supposed to be asking,\u2019 and that complicates things where you might feel like, \u2018Maybe I should go\u2019 or \u2018Maybe I shouldn\u2019t be here.\u2019 I guess you can call it impostor syndrome, but I like to say that sometimes imposter syndrome can be an asset, too. There\u2019s nothing wrong with asking a question because universities are made to where you can ask those questions.<\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0<\/strong>This panel discussion is inspired by the book, \u201cFirst Gen & Juice: Exploring First Generation College Student Narratives in Pop Culture and Mass Media,\u201d of which you are one of the contributing authors. What does your piece, \u201cThe \u2018Third Space\u2019 connection: Fandoms and First-Gen Student Success,\u201d say about the relationship between fan groups and achievement?<\/p>\n

A:\u00a0<\/strong>I\u2019m trying to get people to understand that third spaces can exist anywhere, especially in higher education. What I\u2019m trying to say is that the term \u201cthird space\u201d actually exists in the gaming world, where people came together in this virtual space to talk about something. What I\u2019m trying to do with my chapter is to get my colleagues, and even students if they read it, to think about this concept of third space within higher education. So, bring these fandoms-or a TV show, or something that\u2019s related to pop culture-with you because you belong to a community. It may not be scholarly, but it\u2019s fun, it\u2019s engaging, and it gets people to step out of their comfort zone a little bit. It also opens an opportunity for students to share their narratives with each other because using a fandom, using a character, allows them to really open up and try to figure out if this is a safe space, or is this a brave space? Is this a space that I can be myself? If it\u2019s not, it\u2019s OK, at least I tried and I can find something else. From my experience, the third space connection really does exist. I think it\u2019s actually more apparent now with our Gen Z students; they want the connection so bad, and with social media being such a big thing, sharing TikTok trends to being content creators, this is a great way to get people to understand that it\u2019s not just a cheesy thing or for entertainment. Talking about fandoms is actually something very personal. Maybe they relate to a topic regarding a particular fandom. When you ask people about why they\u2019re a fan of \u201cStar Wars,\u201d they can go into explaining that. I just love the fact that when you open that door, a student is able to really break that barrier and say, \u2018I can navigate college because they see me as someone that\u2019s just trying to just get through it, and it\u2019s not going to be an awkward thing for me to talk about.\u2019 They can be a future doctor, a future lawyer, a future business person, and can still like these TV shows, or still hold on to these different anime characters. It\u2019s all about just encouraging students to understand that there\u2019s no right or wrong way, and there\u2019s nothing to be embarrassed about in sharing this. At the same time, it\u2019s also an opportunity to show their intersectionality. Fandoms open up a lot of opportunities for students to really express who they are as a person, but also the intersection of being a daughter\/son\/sister while being someone who\u2019s obsessed with a fandom, and being proud of that. For my chapter, I wanted to integrate that because my research is related to leadership, so I wanted to get people to see characters within TV shows or books as leadership individuals. Maybe they\u2019re not real, but they\u2019re people that you find inspiration from and this is why.<\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0<\/strong>Can you talk about pop culture depictions of first-generation experiences that felt like they did it well, and the ones that didn\u2019t quite work? What the differences were and why they work\/didn\u2019t work?<\/p>\n

A:\u00a0<\/strong>The one that pops into my head right now is the \u201cBlue Beetle\u201d superhero. He\u2019s a first-gen student. They literally showed how he was trying to go to school and apply for college. I think the part that they got right, and I know a lot of my students have spoken about it, is that family tension. That he knows that education is a good opportunity for him, but he has these responsibilities to his family. The part where, \u201cMaybe I shouldn\u2019t go to college because I should be helping you all,\u201d and instead his family is like, \u201cNope. You\u2019re going to do it.\u201d Sometimes students have said, \u201cBut that doesn\u2019t always happen to us. We actually have the opposite. Our parents actually tell us that we need to go to college, but we have to stay local. Go to college, but the moment I call you, I need you to pick up the phone.\u201d But, I think that movie showed both a true depiction of what students, especially here at USD, are navigating in that balance of trying to figure out having as much of a full college experience as possible, but still having these other responsibilities to parents and siblings. I will say that it\u2019s predominantly my Filipino and Latino students that have related more to that.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve been very vocal about the show on (Amazon) Prime, \u201cOff Campus.\u201d It\u2019s pretty popular right now with a lot of our students that I\u2019ve spoken to because it talks about toxic relationships, student athletes, but also students working in federal work study, so they loved how true it is. Then, they also talk about how everyone\u2019s into the hookup culture, that there are a lot of beauty standards on the show that aren\u2019t realistic, and so forth.\u00a0\u00a0They\u2019re also asking why one of the main characters is a first-gen student, she has work study, which means that she is a first-gener and she doesn\u2019t say it. She\u2019s navigating emotional distress and people were just wanting her to kind of speak up a bit a little bit more, and I think that\u2019s just the generation that we\u2019re in right now. We just have a lot of Gen Z students that really want to talk about wellness. Wellness is important to them, and I think for them, they were looking at the show like, \u2018Why can\u2019t you just say it? There\u2019s nothing wrong with going to go see a therapist.\u2019 What I love is that the shows and the characters may not show something that\u2019s accurate, so it actually brings up good conversations with students. My students talk about \u201cSpider-Man\u201d and they always talk about the fact that \u201cSpider-Man\u201d is a first-gener and how he navigates the world as a superhero, but he doesn\u2019t really know what he\u2019s doing.<\/p>\n

Another one right now, they don\u2019t portray first-gen in the traditional sense, but it\u2019s the philosophy and it\u2019s \u201cAvatar: The Last Airbender.\u201d A lot of the students that I\u2019ve been working with love the fact that there are so many intersectional identities being shown in that series, and that these students are just trying to balance everything that they have going on in their lives. For instance, Aang was a 12-year-old kid, and in the movie that\u2019s coming out, he is going to be an adult. He made it, he saved the world, he figured out that he had these superpowers. He didn\u2019t do it perfectly, but now he\u2019s an adult and he is trying to figure out how to still be a superhero. For them, it\u2019s the adulting part and they\u2019ve said, \u201cNow I know what my parents are talking about.\u201d It\u2019s been a great conversation starter for them to engage with their parents about how adulting is just hard, and just because I\u2019m good at something, it may not be what I want to do. Maybe I know I\u2019m good in science, but I don\u2019t think I want to be a doctor. It\u2019s hard to be someone that has certain abilities and skill sets, but may not want to do that. I might want to do something else, and how do I do that?<\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0<\/strong>From your perspective and your work over the years, is this \u201cjuice worth the squeeze\u201d? Is the use of popular culture worthwhile as a method for teaching and engaging with first-generation college students?<\/p>\n

A:\u00a0<\/strong>Yes, I absolutely think it is. This method, this pedagogy is really something that our students are talking about every day, and it\u2019s not just young adults in college. I would say that, for all of us, there\u2019s something that we\u2019re excited about, that influenced us to go in a direction with our career or our education. I think, especially with students coming back from remote learning during COVID, our young adults coming into college are finding it really hard to engage in interpersonal interaction with peers. They really have a hard time talking to each other and just figuring out how to create community because it\u2019s so easy to do it behind a computer screen, on the phone, or just be alone in your room. I think this way of using pop culture as a tool is really an opportunity to get students to use it as an entryway, and then they can talk about mental health, about struggling in class, about not having community here and wanting to make friends.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re hoping that the panel will offer an opportunity to people to see this as a different way that we can all use it. It doesn\u2019t have to be perfect, but it is a way that you can use it, and our students remember it. I\u2019m not saying that they need to be like, \u201cThat made an impact on me,\u201d it\u2019s more just that they remember us talking about it and it\u2019s a great conversation starter. It\u2019s a great way to get them to open up a little bit more.<\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0<\/strong>What is the best advice you\u2019ve ever received?<\/p>\n

A:\u00a0<\/strong>The best advice I ever received was from my eighth-grade teacher telling me it is OK to make mistakes because you learn from them, and if you repeat them, now you know that you won\u2019t repeat them again. Basically, she was just trying to encourage me and I live by that because, in working with young adults, there\u2019s this sense of perfectionism. I really want to challenge students, and myself, that it\u2019s OK, we don\u2019t need to be perfect. We\u2019ll learn from it and it\u2019s OK.<\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0<\/strong>What is one thing people would be surprised to find out about you?<\/p>\n

A:\u00a0<\/strong>That I am an avid concert goer. I go to multiple concerts every month. I pretty much go to between two to five concerts a month. And, I go to a lot of concerts by myself. I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s for everybody, but I like going to concerts with myself.<\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0<\/strong>Please describe your ideal San Diego weekend.<\/p>\n

A:<\/strong> I make the drive from North Park to get Vietnamese coffee in Linda Vista, and I go to Rose Donuts because they make the best Vietnamese coffee. From there, I head over to Liberty Station and just kind of walk around and get some sun. I eventually make my way out to visit one of my favorite taco places in Chula Vista, but I\u2019m blanking out the place. If I don\u2019t go there, then I go to my next favorite, which is Royal Mandarin to get the salt and pepper chicken. Ultimately, I just like to visit local small businesses and support the many people that run these businesses and give back to the community as much as we can. Then, I somehow end up at a coffee shop, either in Convoy or in in North Park, and I just end up doing some grading, and then I end my day watching something related to pop culture. Right now I\u2019m rewatching \u201cAvatar: The Last Airbender,\u201d and I\u2019m watching a lot of K-Dramas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leaving her home in Los Angeles to go to college in New York City, being the first in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":960895,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,1073,1370,728,50,3546,3549,7264,1072,7289,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-960894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-america","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-columns","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-people","tag-san-diego","tag-sandiego","tag-things-to-do","tag-top-stories-sdut","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116987702145567158","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/960894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=960894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/960894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/960895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=960894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=960894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=960894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}