Name: Amador Gallardo Aguilar Jr
College: Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
Major: Civil Engineering
Class of: 2023
Scholar's Story:
"My name is Amador Gallardo Aguilar Jr. I was born in Las Vegas, Nevada and raised in Bakersfield, California. Soy orgulloso de ser hijo de imigrantes del estado de Michoacán en México. Gracias a sus sacrificios, I am a first-generation Civil Engineering major at the California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. As of right now, my career plans include getting my Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees and eventually my Professional Engineer license to be able to make my own projects. My family has always been low-income which means that I can’t get financial support from them; however, I was BLESSED with local and university-specific scholarships that have allowed me to continue my higher education. College is really something unknown being a first-generation student because those who surround us typically haven’t gone to college. Yet, I made sure to make the best out of the resources offered to me because of my circumstances.
Even though I had stellar grades throughout high school, I truly did not feel prepared for my first quarter at Cal Poly. It seems that we are molded to learn only one way of learning all throughout our learning experience that we truly don’t have those problem-solving skills that come with nearly every class in college. If I could change anything, it would be to have high school teachers specifically trained by university professors in order for them to understand what is expected from students once they hit those college-level courses. I believe that it would help students perform better and excel in post-high school.
"College is very time-consuming and overwhelming that we even forget about ourselves y de que tenemos familia y amigos que nos apoyan y nos quieren."
The best advice I have ever received and want to share is to prioritize your mental health. Being in college is a totally new experience for all. College is very time-consuming and overwhelming that we even forget about ourselves y de que tenemos familia y amigos que nos apoyan y nos quieren. It is great to want to ace every class, but if we focus way too much on our academics over ourselves, we will tend to feel alone and become very unhappy. It is best to learn to balance both happiness and academics in order to not experience these overwhelming feelings of exhaustion. It won’t be easy, but we, as college students, have to learn to make our college experience a bit more pleasing! ☺"