CHICAGO -- Moments after a noontime storm briefly extinguished the power at Rolling Meadows High School, English teacher Junior Sanchez remained calm in his classroom, leading a passionate discussion with students about the inherent dangers of storytelling from a single perspective.
Sharing a personal anecdote from his life, Sanchez, 22, explained to students in his Literature and Composition class how relying on stereotypes promotes false narratives about ethnicity and culture, including misconceptions about the Latino community.
“Sometimes when I see people outside of school, and I’m wearing casual clothes, they think I do yard work, and I tell them, ‘no, I actually teach at a high school, and I graduated from college,’” he said.
A 2017 graduate of Rolling Meadows, Sanchez returned to his alma mater this fall as an English teacher.
Down the hallway, fellow Rolling Meadows class of 2017 grad Chris Recendez — Sanchez’s former roommate at Illinois State University — was also hired to teach English at the Township High School District 214 high school this fall, with both of the young educators representing the first in their families to earn a college degree.
“My mom had me when she was really young, when she was a student at Meadows, and a lot of the teachers helped her, and she was able to finish high school,” said Recendez, 23.
“She’s done really well, and now, she’s an insurance analyst ... She gave me a lot of encouragement, and I grew up with a really strong emphasis on the importance of education,” Recendez said.
Sanchez and Recendez — both children of Latino immigrants — provide a ray of hope for a demographic some say has disproportionately borne the brunt of interruptions on the path to a college degree during the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the Washington, D.C.-based Center for First-Generation Student Success, first-generation students make up a third of all college students, but only 27% will earn their degrees within four years, trailing far behind peers whose families have previously attained postsecondary, higher education degrees.
“We have certainly seen a dramatic impact on first-gen college students during the pandemic, especially at the start, when institutions closed so quickly,” said Sarah Whitley, vice president at the center, an initiative of the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators.
Some first-generation college students lost stable housing in residence halls, no longer could rely on wages from work-study jobs and in some cases, experienced food insecurity when campus dining facilities were temporarily shuttered, Whitley said.
While Sanchez said he remained in his apartment near the ISU campus when in-person instruction was halted during the start of the pandemic, some of his classmates went back home for the semester or unenrolled.
Sanchez credits his involvement in a coed fraternity whose members were fellow minority students with being “able to find shelter and comfort in each other’s struggle in order to help motivate ourselves.”
Recendez recalled arriving back at his apartment following a spring break trip “and it seemed like life was bare.”
“No people walking around campus. No noise. Just the sound of a few cars every now and then,” Recendez said.
“A lot of people I knew of went home to try and figure out what exactly COVID was with their families for the rest of that semester,” he said.
Many first-gen college students across the country who halted their studies “took on caretaker roles, and became culture brokers to support their families, which makes it really hard to come back to college,” Whitley said.
“Some of those students have not gone back to college, because earning a paycheck is hard to step away from, especially when they have family members who lost jobs, and in some cases, even lost their lives to COVID,” Whitley said.
According to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, college enrollment declines continued to worsen this spring, with postsecondary enrollment falling to 16.2 million students, representing a one-year decline of 4.1%.
Following a 3.5% drop the prior year, postsecondary institutions lost nearly 1.3 million students since spring 2020, with the undergraduate student body now 9.4% smaller than before the pandemic, according to NSC.
The NSC report found public institutions suffered the brunt of enrollment declines, losing 604,000 students this spring, with more than half of those community college students.
Despite offering more affordable tuition rates, local community colleges were hit especially hard by the pandemic because their enrollment is predominantly first-generation college students, many of whom are working and caring for families while they earn their degrees, Whitley said.
In all, community colleges have lost more than 827,000 students since the start of the pandemic, the NSC report found.
While first-generation college students from low-income families are eligible for financial aid, they typically also incur massive amounts of debt from student loans, Whitley said.
Recendez and Sanchez, who received academic scholarships to study at ISU, also were Pell Grant recipients, and took out student loans to pay for their housing, meals and other expenses.
The Biden administration’s new student loan forgiveness program, which allows millions of eligible federal student loan borrowers to be relieved of $10,000 in debt, and $20,000 in debt for Pell Grant recipients, “was super helpful,” Recendez said.
“I feel like a big burden has been lifted off of my shoulders,” he said.
Yet another impediment for first-generation college students is what Whitley describes as a “jargon-filled” FAFSA application, which parents are required to complete in order for their children to be eligible for financial aid, including student loans.
“We make it really hard for parents and students, and there is no reason why we can’t simplify the process,” she added.
During their time as students at Rolling Meadows High School, Sanchez and Recendez found support through the nonprofit AVID Center, which helped with everything from study skills and time management, to assisting their families with the college search and application process and navigating the FAFSA.
Sanchez, who was born in Michigan, recalled the culture shock he experienced as a child when his parents returned with their young family to Ayutla in Puebla, Mexico, then moved back to the U.S., putting down roots in Rolling Meadows.
“I remember feeling like American life was really fast-paced compared to the tiny town where we lived in Puebla,” Sanchez said.
Recendez, who was born in Zacatecas, Mexico, said he didn’t realize during his freshman and sophomore years of high school how important education was. “It got pretty rough,” he said. “
Lynn Kepp, a vice president at the AVID Center, said the San Diego-based nonprofit’s typical student is a first-generation college student, including many from immigrant families.
The group, which serves roughly 2 million students at around 8,500 schools across the U.S., aims to instill perseverance in students and break down barriers to education. At Rolling Meadows High School, AVID is an elective course, and students must apply to be accepted into the program.
“Are the schools preparing students who want to go to college with rigorous courses? And do the parents even know what’s out there?” Kepp said.
“For first-gen college students, they may be the first in their family, but they will not be the last,” Kepp said.
Sanchez said while his parents taught him morals and values, and the importance of doing well in school, “AVID helped me to be that student.”
“There is an AVID way of teaching students how to be organized, and you quickly start to see the benefits, so you buy into it,” added Recendez, who in addition to his teaching duties, serves as an AVID adviser and assists with student multimedia productions.
This year at Rolling Meadows, Sanchez is looking forward to introducing his students to one of his favorite novels, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby.” But he also hopes to bring Latinx literature into the classroom, including the works of novelist Junot Díaz.
“It’s important for my students to identify, find representation and see themselves through literature,” said Sanchez, who is also coaching the high school’s varsity boys soccer team.
Roughly 37% of the students at Rolling Meadows are Latino, and about one third of students at the high school are from low-income households, according to the 2021 Illinois Report Card.
Rolling Meadows Principal Eileen Hart said welcoming her former students Recendez and Sanchez back to the high school as teachers has not only been rewarding, but highly beneficial to the teens in their classrooms.
“The students know that Junior and Chris have a similar understanding of their lived experiences, and that now they’re giving back to our school community, which is very powerful,” Hart said.
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