Jorge Cueto
[The DGen Office] made me feel like, yes, I have a place in this campus. I belong here.
“I wasn’t familiar with the concept of office hours. And, actually, [in] my first couple of classes I struggled because I tried to figure things out just on my own.
It felt like everything that I was doing, every test that I was taking, every homework assignment, was all for the cause of supporting my family.
Not a lot of people from my community come to Stanford. So everyone’s looking at me like, ‘He’s the one that’s going to make it out; he’s the one that’s going to represent us.’
[The DGen Office] made me feel like, yes, I have a place in this campus. I belong here. The administration acknowledges my existence, my identity as being the first in my family to go to college, my identity as someone who comes from poverty and is now being thrust into this world that is primarily dominated by people from wealthier backgrounds.
I was able to connect with people who had similar academic interests, but they actually couldn’t really help me because they came from families that had gone to prestigious schools for generations and they didn’t have to worry about how to get money to buy textbooks. With FLAN [FLI Alumni Network], what we’re trying to do is make it really easy for alums to provide mentorship and also create this community in which we’re able to come together even after we leave Stanford.”
Jorge Cueto, ’16, MS ’18
STORY AND PHOTO COURTESY OF STANFORD MAGAZINE
