Standing at the top of the escalator, I had the chance to take a good look at the entire Penn bookstore, with its branded school merchandise ranging from short-sleeved tees to baby overalls to shot glasses. I took a deep breath. “I am finally here,” I thought to myself.
It was my move-in day at the University of Pennsylvania. The second our car entered University City, I felt my stomach turn and my head fill with anxious thoughts. Few students from my public high school in New York City went to colleges like Penn. I knew I had to make the most of the opportunity to be the first in my immigrant family to attend an Ivy League institution.
On the day I found out I had been accepted to Penn — “Congratulations,” the letter began — my entire family gathered in the kitchen, like in those viral social media videos of students checking their admissions decisions.
Soon, my mom was screaming, and my grandma was asking questions about university in America. My dad called one of his closest friends in the U.S. to share the news. I overheard the friend, on speaker, say, “Buddy, you grew up in the narrow alleys of Salimuddin Market. Now, your kid is going to be studying somewhere like Penn.”
“It finally seems like us being in this country is paying off,” my dad announced to our family after he got off the phone. My dad had never made such a claim before. The move to the United States from Bangladesh, when I was 9 and my sister was 7, was generally referred to as the greatest sacrifice my parents ever made for our family.
It’s been four years now since we celebrated my acceptance to Penn.
I studied political science there, and, in May, I graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in Political Economy. As I reflect on this milestone, here’s what I learned as an immigrant student attending an Ivy League school, and what I want students from immigrant and other marginalized backgrounds to know.
Take advantage of the academic resources.
I struggled academically my freshman year. The rigor was on a different level than I was used to. At my high school, the Academy of American Studies in Queens, I was a top student — and the class salutatorian — who found it easy to get straight As, so long as I studied. But at Penn, where I was in classes with many students who had attended elite private high schools or affluent public schools, I felt like I was trailing behind, which is why I recommend speaking to your professors and TAs about the school’s free tutoring opportunities available to you. I took notes throughout my freshman year when instructors presented “Sources of Support” slides, and they ultimately came in handy. That’s how I discovered opportunities at Penn’s Weingarten Center, where I received tutoring.
Find and build community.
Having spaces where you belong will be crucial to your college experience. I came to Penn knowing no one from my high school or city, which was initially alienating. By sophomore year, I began stepping into organizations where I met people with whom I had things in common. The South Asia Center at Penn, where I once led a seminar on democracy in Bangladesh (a subject close to my heart), and Penn First Plus, an organization advocating for students who are the first in their family to attend a four-year college or come from households of limited means, were two places where I found friends and fostered community.
Network with those who understand your value.
I did not have the same professional connections as many of my wealthier classmates. When you are not part of the dominant narrative, you have to work harder to find professional career guidance. But over time, I connected with mentors and other helpful adults. Often, they were people of color and had been first-generation students themselves.
A class that I still think of fondly is Psychology of the African American, during which students participated in roundtable conversations about our own families, what privilege means, and how first-generation students of color can make their mark on campus. Every single student in this class was a person of color, and many were first-generation college students. I found these conversations so invigorating that they inspired me to pursue a career in policy and education. I looked to the professor, Howard Stevenson, a clinical psychologist in Penn’s Africana Studies department, and others like him as mentors.
Penn First Plus and scholarship networks also proved to be good networking resources. Even cold messaging on LinkedIn paid dividends. Some of the people I connected with on that professional networking site, including Penn alums, met me for coffee and offered advice on pursuing a career that makes quality education accessible for all students.
Remember that you belong in these spaces.
This school has many students of privilege, but I have also met exceptional individuals who came from less. I met those whose parents put their lives at risk by crossing the border, and those who grew up in one-bedroom homes with eight siblings and shared a single computer. We were at Penn not only to earn a college degree, but also to erase generational poverty. In our laser focus, we often forget to be proud of ourselves for navigating a place that was not created for us.
While at Penn, I learned to push back on those who didn’t see my presence as something to celebrate, like when I stood up to an upperclassman who told me that “affirmative action was ruining admissions at elite universities,” after I mentioned my status as the first in my family to attend an American university. If you don’t advocate for yourself, it’s possible no one will.
Take stock of, and pride in, your family’s journey.
I remember the summer after my freshman year, one of my closest friends from middle school and I met up in New York. As we lay in a hammock in the middle of Central Park, my friend turned to me and said, “At least we can take out our hammocks and just chill in Central Park on a summer day.”
We compared our journeys to those of our parents. As a teenager, my own mother had to stitch and sell clothes to her neighbors in Bangladesh to help her family make ends meet. I guess this guilt associated with enjoying life has been ingrained into the minds of many children of immigrants like us.
But the guilt and pride coexist. I am proud to be the first in my family to attend a university like Penn and to excel during my time there. I am proud of stepping out of my comfort zone and making friends I genuinely trust and connect with. Most of all, I am proud of persevering, prioritizing myself, and continuing to look toward the horizon of opportunity.
Jahin Rahman is a first-generation American college graduate from New York City and an alum of the University of Pennsylvania. Rahman’s studies focused on political economy, education, and public policy. With a background in community advocacy, research, and public service, Rahman is looking to pursue a career in education policy to advance equity and opportunity for historically underserved communities.