Jessica, HWA Marin, Pursuing a Master’s in Higher Education, Student Affairs, Iowa State University

“HWA made me feel like I could go to college,” says Jessica, an undocumented student working to pay her way through a Master’s program at Iowa State University. “Huckleberry was very intentional about working with the undocumented community,” she says.

“HWA really helped us and made a difference. They connected us to resources and guided us through financial aid and college applications  – I would not have applied to a four-year college without them.” Participating in HWA gave Jessica the desire to “pay it forward” and pursue a Master’s in Education with a concentration in Student Affairs, a program she describes as having a social justice focus in higher education. “We are having a lot of conversations about what it means to be a person of color in Iowa and how our experiences have shaped us through higher ed. These are conversations I didn’t feel like I needed to have in California due to the state climate.”  Jessica works 20 hours a week in the multicultural student affairs office with, “a student population I feel really comfortable to work with as I was in their shoes a couple years ago.” Her ultimate goal is to work with underrepresented college students in California at the university level. This summer, she will return to her Bay Area roots as an intern at UC Berkeley where she will be working with the Summer Bridge program as an Assistant Resident Director. Jessica also looks forward to one day working for an undocumented center within the California State University system.