SMU: The Learning Experience

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Southern Methodist University has proven to be one of the best choices I have made in my life.  I have learned so much in the past four years and I am proud to say I am a Latina mustang.When I was searching for a college I did not know much about the college process.  I am a first generation Latina who had already surpassed the standards of her family by graduating high school.  Of course, more was expected from me but making it this far was already an accomplishment.

As I looked into which college I wanted to attend I knew very little about this process.  Yet, I knew SMU was where I wanted to be.  It is silly to say how I knew but I’ll share this experience.  As a younger child my neighbor would bring us to the Highland Park area and it always seemed like such a change of scenery.  The grass was greener, the streets were cleaner, there were so many more restaurants and the people were dressed fancier.  I loved the atmosphere and I loved coming to the other side of Dallas as a resident of Pleasant Grove, one of Dallas’ undeserved communities.

As a young child and growing up I was always told higher education were in my cards and that I must pursue it.  However, very few of those people that told me these things told me how I should go about it.  So whenever I was taken to the other side of town I would see the large green sign on the overpass of 75 that read ‘Southern Methodist University.’  Naturally, this became an image in my mind that was connected to higher education, success and the answer to my future.  I began to think that SMU was the right place to go to since I knew of nowhere else.

Eventually I grew older and did more research on SMU and I realized that SMU was a great university.  What had become an image in my mind became a reality.  In the fall of 2009 I became a freshman and I started my journey at a university that was completely opposite of who I am.  Prior to attending SMU I specifically decided to attend SMU because it was going to be a total culture shock.  I wanted to place myself in a situation where I would constantly learn and grow.  SMU gave me nothing less than this.Four years later, I look back and I realize that I am ready to go out into the workforce because SMU prepared me for a world that I never knew existed.  I am stronger for knowing that I can be a part of an atmosphere that is totally different than I am but yet equally as great.

I am graduating as a first generation Latina from an institution that has pushed me along the way to be a better version of who I am and to not be a statistic.  I place an importance in my background because SMU isn’t an option for many in my community.  Not because they’re not good enough, but because they don’t know.  SMU showed me that I am good enough and that Latinas like myself can make it.

Alejandra Aguirre
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