By Yesenia Coello
Campus News
Do you ever find yourself struggling in your college experience? I mean, undoubtedly many of us have, but there are times when our patience reaches a boiling point, making us wonder if we should just throw in the towel and call it quits. “Hey, maybe college isn’t for me,” that insidious voice chimes from the back of your consciousness. “Why am I wasting my money and time here?” Well, for those who are currently struggling, I offer a beacon of hope. I got to have a conversation with Telijah Patterson, a recent LaGuardia Community College graduate who earned a full-ride scholarship to Brown University. Not only is Telijah a remarkable student but she is also nearly fluent in Mandarin and was awarded the Shandong Confucius Scholarship from a local Chinese organization. I had the wonderful fortune of getting to know Telijah, talking about what makes her tick, how she made the best of her community college experience, and the advice she has for current students navigating their own trials and tribulations through college. Here’s our Q&A:
CN: First off, congratulations on being accepted to Brown University! First question, and the one that’s probably on our readers’ minds: How did you get into Mandarin? Was it through an educational setting or something completely different?
TP: My mom has always been really big on making sure I was exposed to stuff outside of my environment. I grew up in a low-income, inner-city neighborhood, but my mom actually had the opportunity to go to Israel in high school, so she knew how important it was to be exposed to other cultures. There were a couple of language classes at the local library, so when I was twelve she started enrolling me in Spanish classes, and then when I was fourteen we found these Chinese classes and she said, “You should learn Chinese!” And that’s pretty much where it started!
CN: Why Mandarin? Is there something that you find particularly interesting about the language and/or Chinese culture?
TP: I think I got into it for several reasons. One of them is because I like challenges, and I felt like Mandarin was a nice challenge. I like to be intellectually stimulated. I think the bigger reason is that where I come from a lot of Chinese people own small businesses and there seems to be some tension between the Chinese storeowners and the surrounding black neighborhoods. There just seems to be a lot of misunderstanding between the two groups. So I wanted to learn because I felt like by learning Chinese I could better understand where Chinese people are coming from and maybe one day serve as an intermediary to fill in that gap so that these groups of people understand each other more. I just want to understand the people around me better.
CN: What was your experience at LaGuardia Community College like? Did you ever anticipate you would amount to the level of accomplishments you currently have?
TP: Actually, no! I love LaGuardia, and I was very intentional in deciding to attend a community college. When I graduated high school, I graduated #7 out of 350 students. So I did really well in high school, and I wasn’t even trying. And I decided for a lot of different reasons to not go to college. So when I decided to go back, eight years after I graduated, I knew I needed to go to a place that would accommodate my needs as a non-traditional student, and I knew that a four-year school might not have all the tools I needed starting off. I was in a bad situation at the time, and I knew that a community college, if they did have the resources, would be more understanding of my situation. I found that at LaGuardia. There were so many programs to develop my leadership skills, like the honors program. There were classes that challenged me because one of the things I really appreciated was student engagement, and I felt like in honors classes students were more engaged. And there are a lot of different reasons for that. Some people have more time on their hands. I think LaGuardia was fabulous, and honestly, LaGuardia opened the way for me to see myself somewhere outside of the CUNY system, which I think is excellent because I’ve been wanting to get out of New York City for the longest time. Specifically, because I felt like it would help me focus more, and I felt like attending a school outside the city would just help me focus on my studies. I didn’t even realize that was a possibility until I got to LaGuardia and into the honors community. I saw students going off to Georgetown, Stanford, Brown; just really great schools outside of New York City. So I was like, “These are people I’ve taken classes with, maybe I could do it too.”
CN: According to my sources, you have dreams of opening up a bilingual school and improving race relations between people of color. What inspired you to pursue this goal? Do you have any sort of specific visions for the future?
TP: As I said, just where I came from, coming from a neighborhood were there was so much tension between these groups. There’s a lot of misunderstanding on both ends. But I also love language, and I think it’s super important that people in the community that I come from are able to learn other languages – especially Mandarin since it’s super important in the world today. I just feel like that’s something people where I come from should have the opportunity to learn. Or at least say they’ve studied.
CN: And finally, do you have any advice for our readers? Perhaps those who might be a person of color such as yourself or is currently struggling to make their dreams a reality?
TP: Definitely! I’d say just reach out. I think where I come from people are so used to do doing things on their own, and people are very hard working and industrious, but sometimes they don’t feel like they have the right to ask anything of other people. And as a student, I realized that you’re paying for your education. You have a right to use all of their services. So go to office hours, speak to your professors. If you have an issue with the material, shoot an email, make a call. Don’t do anything in silence. When I came to LaGuardia, I was very intentional in networking with people. I think at community colleges it’s just so easy to go to class and leave, and I say don’t do that. Go to class and stay to introduce yourself to your fellow students and professors. See your advisor, take advantage of the mental health or wellness services on campus because things can get rough sometimes. Especially for most community college students. Most of us work full-time jobs and we go to school, so that’s emotionally and mentally taxing. Find a community! Don’t isolate yourself.
Telijah Patterson will be attending Brown University this fall. She will be majoring in Cognitive Science.
Facebook Comments