By Lourdes Vazquez –

In a couple of months many students will take part in a ceremony where they will walk across a stage to receive a paper that will ultimately be proof of their education. For some it will only be the end of their educational career and they will begin their careers out in the “real world.” It is time for graduation whether from high school, college, or trade school.

Come May they will call Lourdes Griselda Sanchez Vazquez. I will be one of those students, making me the first person in my family to graduate from college. I will have a bachelor of arts in journalism with a news reporting and writing concentration.

The national Latino high school dropout rate is at 21 percent, more than twice the national average at 10 percent, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. I beat these odds and more. Now I will be part of another statistic – the Latinos that complete their bachelor’s degree. Still the numbers are small as only 7 percent of Latinos have a bachelor’s compared to 17 percent of white students, also according to Pew.

Latino undergraduates like me are more likely to be first-generation college students. And 49 percent of those students’ parents did not complete more than high school or an equivalent, according to the education organization Excelencia in Education.

My parents have always instilled in me the importance of education. My mother and father were born and raised in Monterrey, Mexico. My mother moved to Chicago as a girl and attended elementary school here. My father grew up in Mexico and attended college but didn’t graduate. He moved to Chicago to marry my mother. My father always wanted to continue his education, but due to his family responsibilities he was not able to finish.

My mother always expressed a desire to for a college education and took some classes to become an administrative assistant. But her true desire was to be a cosmetologist. Raising two children she didn’t find the time or the money to pursue this goal.

In my sophomore year of high school my mother decided that it would be a good time for her to attend cosmetology school. My brother and I were old enough so we could stay at home alone. So my mother went back to school.

I remember coming home from school. “Ma ya llegué,” I’d say.

“Estoy arriba,”she’d respond.

There I would find her with her book open, pens, highlighters, and paper scattered with notes. From time to time she would call for my brother or I and ask a chemistry question, “What does this mean?”

Sometimes my brother and I would explain if we knew what the word meant, but other times we weren’t able to. The times we didn’t know my mother would figure it out one way or another.

My mother wanted us to see this as an example that getting an education was vital for our development. Seeing her study gave me pride in what she was doing. My mom breaks the norm.

According to the American Council on Education, of the 17 million students served in 2005 by higher education institutions only 3.8 percent were 50 years or older, while 61 percent were under the age of 25.

My mom received her cosmetology license in April 2005 a month before my high school graduation.

Now things have changed. I am in my last semester at Columbia and my brother is in his last semester of high school.

We now realize that at this point we both are approaching a new chapter in our lives. I will begin my career as a journalist while my brother will begin his journey to figure out what he would like to study in college. It reminds me of how we got to this point and it brings me back to our childhood.

My father now plans to return to school for an associate’s degree because his current job will help with tuition reimbursement.

In June, my younger brother, Cesar will graduate from high school.  I hope that he too has learned from me and continues on to college.

Although neither of my parents has obtained their bachelors, their sacrifices have allowed me to be where I am. I’m a Columbia College Chicago senior soon to be college graduate.